Something Wild
Mary Ann Robinson, a teenage girl attending college in New York City, is brutally raped while walking in a park near her home in the Bronx. Traumatized by the experience, Mary Ann washes away all the evidence and destroys her clothing. She hides the rape from her mother and stepfather, with whom she has an already distant relationship. Mary Ann tries to continue living her normal life, unsuccessfully. She takes the subway to school and faints during the crush of people. This results in the police escorting her home, which upsets her prim and unsympathetic mother.
The rape continues to haunt Mary Ann. She leaves school abruptly and walks downtown, through Harlem and Times Square, down to the Lower East Side. There, she rents a room from a sinister landlord (Martin Kosleck), who overcharges her. She takes a job at a five and dime store, where her coworkers dislike her because she is distant and unfriendly. Her crude, promiscuous neighbor at the rooming house (Jean Stapleton) is rebuffed when she offers to "introduce" Mary to her male friends.
At the end of her tether, Mary Ann walks across the Manhattan Bridge and almost jumps in the East River when she is stopped by a mechanic, Mike (Ralph Meeker). At first he seems to be a knight in shining armor, offering her shelter and food. She decides to stay with him. But when he comes home drunk and tries to attack her, Mary Ann kicks him in the eye. The following morning he has no recollection of that, but his eye is badly hurt and has to be removed.
Mike now says that he wants Mary Ann to stay there, saying "I like the way you look here." She wants to leave but he refuses to let her go. He holds her captive in the apartment for months, even though she refuses to have anything to do with him.
One night Mike proposes to Mary Ann and she rejects him, saying she just can't without giving him any reason. He again attempts to be physical with her. Mary Ann reveals to Mike that it was she who blinded him in one eye. Mike still insists he needs her. When Mary Ann discovers the door unlocked she leaves, walking through the city and sleeping in Central Park. Her mood greatly improves, and she sees how wonderful life is. She returns to Mike's apartment saying "I came for you". She writes her mother, who comes to the apartment and is shocked to see where and with whom Mary Ann lives. She has married Mike and announces that she is pregnant (we don't know if it's by Mike or the rape, since is "sick" at one point in the store where she works before she meets Mike). Her mother insists that she "come home" while Mary Ann tries to impress her mother that she is living with Mike in this place which she now considers her home, and convinces her mother that she is not returning with her.
cult, comedy, murder, violence