Originally was this intended to be sort of serious?

Versus just being a deliberate exploitation film?

It has a weirdly intense energy and a sort of seriousness that transcends some of its clumsy exploitation. It also gets very self righteous.

There’s also very limited nudity and sex, and even the rape scenes seem intended to be serious and not exploitative.

That being said, it does have a cheesiness about it, but it’s not completely clear if that it is just low budget and low ability or a specific tongue in cheek purpose.