Alfre Woodard, born in 1952 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, delivers a compelling performance in Extremities (1986), where she plays a woman fighting back against an intruder. This role highlights her ability to navigate intense emotional landscapes, a hallmark of her career. With a background in both stage and screen, Woodard's work in Extremities resonates within the realm of exploitation cinema, showcasing the strength and resilience of her character in a harrowing situation.
Extremities
Marjorie turns the tables on the man who invades her home, trapping him before he can escape. When her roommates arrive, the struggle shifts from survival to a furious argument over punishment, evidence, and how far revenge can go before it becomes another kind of violence. Marjorie is a young woman who works in a museum and lives with two female roommates, Pat and Terry in Los Angeles. One night, while getting into her car, she is attacked at knifepoint by a masked assailant, who forces her to touch him sexually. Marjorie manages to escape, but not before the mugger makes off with her purse. She goes to the police but is told there is very little they can do. One week later, while Marjorie's roommates are at work, her nightmare comes true as the assailant (named Joe) casually enters her house, having used her personal information to find out where she lives. A terrifying sequence of events unfolds as Joe subjects Marjorie to a continuous barrage of mental and physical assaults. The tables finally turn, however, when Marjorie overpowers Joe by spraying his eyes and mouth with insect repellent as he's getting ready to rape her. Marjorie then ties Joe up and subjects him to the same kind of physical and mental assaults he used on her earlier, even reducing him to tears as he pleads for his life when he learns that he's ingested some of the insect repellent Marjorie sprayed at him. When Terry and Pat return home, they try to convince Marjorie, who is contemplating murdering Joe, to think about the consequences of her actions, because Joe didn't actually rape or attempt to kill her. Joe attempts to fabricate a story that he had a one-night stand with Marjorie at a party some time ago, which her roommates almost believe. Marjorie calls him a liar and attacks him, finding the sheath knife he used on her in the first attack, proving her story to Patty and Terry. Marjorie forces Joe to admit his guilt by torturing him with the blade, and at one point threatens to castrate him if he does not tell the truth. Defeated, a sobbing Joe confesses that he watched the house and stole letters to find out details of the women's lives, and that he intended to rape and kill Marjorie and her roommates that day. He also confesses to the rapes and presumed murders of three other women. Finally at peace, Marjorie allows Patty and Terry to get the police. A woman takes revenge on the man who invades her home and tries to rape her.
