Lost and Found: Dirty Weekend

This is the story of Bella, who woke up one morning and realized she’d had enough.

Nearly twenty years after the zeitgeist-defining Death Wish (1974), director Michael Winner retuned to the exploitation revenge genre with the nasty little gem Dirty Weekend (1993). Adapted from Helen Zahavi’s controversial novel, Dirty Weekend manages the impressive feat of actually being even more nihilistic and disturbing than Death Wish. This lead to its being banned from video release for two years by the British Board of Film Classification. Apparently, a beautiful woman embarking on a vengeful rampage was just too much for sensitive British souls.

It’s one thing when strong, silent-type Charles Bronson is blowing away street scum, but it’s an entirely different proposition when it’s the slender, leggy blonde Lia Williams tempting men with her body before unleashing a little of the old ultra violence. Williams plays the shy and mousy Bella, a Brighton, England secretary who is being harassed by a demented sicko who lives in the building across from her—chillingly played by Rufus Sewell in one of his earliest roles. The neighbor calls frequently to tell Bella how he’s going to rape and kill her. Local police offer no help; the cop her friend brings over to assist tries to extort sex from Bella in return for his aid with the crank caller. Bella, at her wit’s end, visits an Iranian clairvoyant (played by a decidedly not-Iranian actor, Ian Richardson). He advises her to take matters into her own hands and it’s as if a switch flips in Bella—no longer is she the going play the victim role men expect her to play; instead she breaks into the creep’s apartment one night and bludgeons him to death with a claw hammer. Goodbye old, intimidated Bella. Hello new, homicidal Bella!

After undergoing this transformation into a deadly femme fatale, Bella’s bloodlust can only be satiated by luring unwitting scuzzballs into sexual trysts before creatively killing them. These dangerous encounters range from comical to harrowing. Bella toys with an overweight college professor she picks up in a hotel bar, then goads him into smacking her around back in his room, before finally exacting some lethal punishment. After Bella accepts a ride home from her seemingly normal dentist, the man reveals his twisted side. Bella’s hands are bound and she is forced to give him a blowjob in the car. It’s a particularly hard scene to watch. The dentist forces Bella’s head and up down, we hear her choking sounds, and then, once the man is done, she disgustedly spits his cum out of the passenger side door—and then makes the rapist pay for his crime.

Dirty Weekend sticks with you, thanks in part to Winner’s simple yet astute direction—closeups are used to imply threat, especially as predatory men leer at Bella. What makes Dirty Weekend memorable, though, largely comes down to the tour-de-force performance by Lia Williams. For such movie about dark and heavy subject matter, it’s also incredibly funny at times, and Williams delivers one sarcastic aside after another. Her inner monologue serves as the film’s narration, and again, She excels at sounding both playful and dangerous.

Williams, put in some decidedly vulnerable positions (literally and figuratively), unleashes a powerhouse performance, transforming from victim to avenging angel before our eyes. Appearing in almost every scene, she carries the film, and its darkly comic tone, with ease. You’re unlikely to find a more mesmerizing genre performance, and Williams’ greatness in the role elevates Dirty Weekend above much of the crowded field in the revengesploitation genre.

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Sadly, while most people know Death Wish, few have heard of, let alone seen, Dirty Weekend. While it doesn’t appear to be on any streaming services, it is currently on YouTube, and it’s worth a watch, especially for Lia Williams.