Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

AutCuddly Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Red-Barracuda Every once in a while us cult Euro freaks stumbled upon something that could genuinely be classified as a hidden gem. The Frightened Woman certainly falls into this category. Unlike many similar sexploitation films from the time, this Italian effort is pretty obscure and relatively unknown. Its recent DVD release has went some way to address this of course, and it's a very good thing too as this is a superior genre effort. In fact, I would have to say that it's one of the very best examples of Eurotica full stop. What differentiates this one from most others is in its very stylish look and feel. The set design is terrific throughout, with great décor and excellent use of colour and lighting. The cinematography is extremely good throughout which only accentuates things even more. It really feels like one of those glorious Italian movies from the period that combined psychedelia with pop art and a slice of surrealism. It means that this picture is very much a product of the time. This of course, is naturally a huge plus point and can be taken as a recommendation in itself.The story involves an S&M relationship between a rich misogynist and a captured woman.The film stars Dagmar Lassandar who is one of the unsung greats of Italian genre cinema. She starred in a number of great films from the likes of Mario Bava, Lucio Fulci, Ricardo Freda and Luciano Ercoli. This is undoubtedly her best role though. Her sex appeal is utilised very well throughout, peaking with a tremendous scene that can best be described as 'Lassandar's dance', where she grooves on down to some Europop in a glorious extended scene. The music throughout by Stelvio Cipriani is superior, some of the best he ever did.The Frightened Woman is an unconditional recommendation to all fans of cult Euro cinema of the psychedelic/pop art type. It's bizarre, effortlessly cool and sexy.

Witchfinder General 666 Piero Schivazappa's "Femina Ridens" (aka. "The Frightened Woman"/"The Laughing Woman") of 1969 is a picturesque and rather bizarre Italian Sexploitation effort that combines sadomasochistic sleaze with a psychedelic art-house atmosphere. Both in terms of style and theme, the film strongly reminded me of another artsy European Exploitation highlight from the same year, Jess Franco's "Venus in Furs" (aka. "Paroxismus"). Although quite tame in explicitness, especially compared to the vast load of European Sleaze films from the early 70s, "Femina Ridens" is delightfully perverted and deranged, and a visually overwhelming piece of psychedelic atmosphere.The wonderful Dagmar Lassander plays Maria, a beautiful journalist with feminist views. One day, she gets kidnapped by the demented Dr. Sayer (Philippe Leroy), a rich and powerful man, who has a sort of paranoid misogyny which leads him to believe that the female species wants to exterminate the male, and who therefore delights in the degradation and fear of women. Sayer holds Maria hostage in his personal castle of demented tortures and humiliations, where he intends to make her his slave; while submitting her to all sorts of degradations, he also shows her pictures of women who had shared her fate, and whom he says he murdered during intercourse, at the point of orgasm. I spite of his cruelty and sadism, Maria grows a strange, Stockholm-Synrome-like fascination for her kidnapper... or does she? The film is highly surreal, sometimes like a fever-dream. Sayer's mansion alone holds a vast variety of bizarre items, and the entire film oozes a surreal atmosphere. Even though feminism may not be a usual trait of European cult-cinema, it was pretty obvious to me that Maria was going to turn the tables towards the end. The style is very peculiar, but supremely elegant, with a great cinematography, fantastic set-pieces and a wonderful musical score by Stelvio Cipriani that sometimes mixes the art-house atmosphere with archaic, Spaghetti-Western-like tunes. Dagmar Lassander is beautiful and fantastic as always, and Philippe Leroy seems to be predestined for the role of the narcissistic, misogynistic and perverted psychopath. Overall, "Femina Ridens" is definitely an unusual and innovative experience that is highly recommendable to fans of European cult-cinema. Definitely not for everyone, but not to be missed by fans of Italian Cult. My rating: 7.5/10

christopher-underwood It could not have come from a different country nor from a different time. This movie simply oozes psychedelia influenced late 60s Italian cinema. So, pseudo serious and sexually free. Sumptuous settings and dreamy music make this a visual and aural delight. Plus we get the lovely Dagmar Lassander, surely at her very best looking. The kinky goings on make for a wild ride and if the romps amidst the Mimosa towards the end seem overlong it is but another rather charming trait of the time. You were probably expected to split those few minutes between the screen and your girlfriend and it does of course herald a twist in the proceedings. It might have been better if Philippe Leroy didn't look quite so odd with his fraying red hair and twisted facial expression. He does well though and has many silent moments where Dagmar is cavorting and he has to show a mixture of love and hate. Not an ordinary narrative film by any means but for those who like that something different, this is certainly that.

Infofreak 'The Frightened Woman' is a wonderful slice of 60s sexploitation - stylish, erotic and camp to the nth degree! Fans of Jess Franco's non-horror movies like 'Succubus' and 'Sadisterotica', or Dallamano's underrated 'Venus In Furs' (aka 'The Devil In The Flesh') will eat this baby up! Philippe Leroy is well cast as Sayer, the rich, jaded sadist who likes to degrade women for kicks, and Dagmar Lassander (who some may remember from Fulci's so-so 'House By The Cemetery') is equally good as the inquisitive journalist who unexpectedly finds herself trapped in his vicious games. She surprises Sayer (and us) by subverting his tricks and tortures, and takes him on a journey that he could never have foreseen, and the ending may be slightly predictable, but is still worth waiting for. Like much of Franco's output from the same period, this movie is equals parts art and trash, with many psychedelic touches, some very effective, and others unintentionally hilarious. You either dig this era and these kinds of movies, or you don't. I do, and I loved it. An underrated movie that deserves a much larger audience.