Karma Balint (Shera Bechard) is a beautiful, mute Russian woman whose beloved sister Anna (Patricia Stasiak) arrives in Canada, hoping to work as a housemaid and build a better life for them both, only to be sold into sex slavery by Russian mobsters. Months later the only clue to her fate is a newspaper article about a body dumped in the woods in Southern Ontario, the apparent victim of mob execution. Karma flies into Toronto where she follows her sister’s trail through the sleazy strip joints and call girl parlours, seducing then maiming and murdering sadistic criminals in a bloody quest for revenge.
The success of Kill Bill (2003) has sparked a mini-revival in the kind of violent female-revenge-action-thrillers not seen since the 42nd street heyday of Pam Grier or such heavy-hitters as Thriller: A Cruel Picture a.k.a. They Call Her One Eye (1975) and Abel Ferrara’s genre highpoint Ms. 45 (1980). However, although the Canadian-made Sweet Karma is being sold on the alluring image of ex-model Shera Bechard in silk-stocking lingerie with a smoking gun in her hand, debuting director Andrew Thomas Hunt forgoes the self-conscious kitsch trickery of Quentin Tarantino and views the murky world of sex trafficking with an unflinching grit and grimness that rings true. Scenes where Russian mobsters casually brutalize their captive sex workers are appropriately upsetting.
Which is not to say Hunt doesn’t give latter-day grindhouse fans their due with moments of gruesome violence and scandalizing sleaze, notably with Bechard’s screen-meltingly sexy pole dance and an horrific moment when Karma awakens to find herself being sodomised till she curtails the gangster’s fun with jab to the neck, then blasts his genitals. There is even a smidgeon of humour without spoiling the tone, as with an amusing scene where three mob guys consider quitting crime to start a donut franchise, unaware Karma is poised to spoil their plans. Hunt and co-screenwriter James Fler borrow extensively from Ms. 45, what with the mute heroine whose appearance grows more seductive with each kill, but while the satire is soft-pedalled by making Karma’s victims such utterly appalling people, Sweet Karma remains a far more thoughtful and intelligent low-budget action-thriller than commonly clogs up the video shelves.
Hunt and Fler crank up the suspense as the third act springs a couple of killer twists that turn the whole moral argument underpinning Karma’s actions upside down. The cast of relatively unknown Canadian actors supply solid performances that by and large avoid lapsing into East European caricatures, while the admirably committed and charismatic Bechard carries the film quite remarkably well. Both she and Andrew Thomas Hunt are talents to watch out for.
