I Spit on Your Grave

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I Spit on Your Grave

July 26th 2010 04:07

One of the most vilified horror movies ever made, I Spit on Your Grave (1978), has garnered a cult following in the years since it was released on VHS, and since its release on DVD in more recent years, it’s enabled the director to offer a commentary, his first “defence” since a magazine interview he gave back in 1984. I saw the uncut version in the mid-80s, and hadn’t seen it in its entirety again until the other day (it had been banned in Australia from 1997 until 2004). With news of a remake playing festivals in America, I decided it was time to give my two cents on this notorious rape-revenge flick.

Camille Keaton as Jennifer

The plot is very basic (as is with any movie of this ilk); a NYC writer, Jennifer (Camille Keaton, Bustor’s granddaughter no less!) drives to a country retreat in Kent, Connecticut, where she is terrorised and repeatedly raped by three thugs and their simple-minded friend. She survives the ordeal, and sets about offing the four men in gruesome fashion.

Eron Tabor as Johnny

This was writer/director Meir Zarchi’s first feature. He made only one other in 1985 (Don’t Mess with My Sister!) which was a critical and commercial bomb. Seems the director has been resting on his laurels, I muse with my severed tongue is lodged firmly in my cheek. But enough of the comedy, I Spit on Your Grave is no laughing matter. Originally released as Day of the Woman (an appallingly pretentious title if ever there was), but forever known as I Spit on Your Grave. Its opening montage/credit sequence gives the impression one is watching a 70s porn flick; low-budget, washed out, hand-held, pedestrian. It doesn’t get any better ...*

Richard Pace as Matthew

In fact it gets worse, but I’m not referring specifically to the content. You know what you’re in for when you watch this movie, you’d be an idiot to be thinking otherwise. This is I Spit on Your Grave, the movie with the protracted twenty-minute gang-rape culminating in a vicious vaginal penetration using a wine bottle! This is not a pretty picture. For years I held the opinion that director Zarchi was reprehensible for depicting the violation of his female lead in such an exploitative way. At least Abel Ferrara didn’t spend twenty minutes, despite subjecting his female lead to a double-rape in Ms. 45 (1981). The trouble I had with Zarchi’s writing and directing was the inadequate retribution courtesy of Jennifer. It simply did not match the ferocity of her nightmare. The pay-off was pathetic, as was Jennifer’s brief visit to the church to ask for forgiveness.

Anthony Nichols as Stanley

Upon my second viewing new trouble emerges. I was less disturbed overall by the movie (having been desensitized by more horrific nightmares since then), apart from one sequence in particular: the bloodcurdling scream and look of abject terror on Jennifer’s face whilst she’s being sodomised by one of the thugs. This revolting moment is then made all the more appalling by the (unintentional, I hope) perversely comic writhing and grunting made by the thug as he thrashes behind her; enough for a week’s nightmares.

Gunter Kleeman as Andy

My point of contention now is less so that the movie is so exploitative of Jennifer’s sexual assault, and with that I’m talking about the combination of camera angles which take the subjective point of view of the rapists (unlike Irreversible which holds one objective long-shot). My argument is that the entire movie fails dramatically. The second half of the movie, the aftermath and the revenge is ineptly handled. The rhythm and pace is shoddy, and having witnessed in length the attack on Jennifer, the retaliation Jennifer exhibits has by no means the same potency. To use a bad pun, the revenge is flaccid and does very little to satiate the viewer’s demand that these thugs be fucking crucified!

The simpleton is hanged. Boring. The leader of the pack has his genitals cut off (a decent geyser of blood jets out of the soap-suds, but that’s it), okay, now we’re talking. The last two are axed (a brief glimpse of injury, but just red in the river) and disemboweled by boat propeller - “Suck it bitch!” Jennifer spits, mimicking the thug’s demand upon her – then more unconvincing red in the water. The just desserts weren’t sweet enough for my tastes.

Zarchi’s real crime is that he’s made a bad movie. It’s not that it’s a misunderstood movie, and it’s bullshit if anyone tries to defend it as unsung feminism. No rape-revenge movie is about feminism, it’s simply another nightmare movie, but with the focus on sexual violence (the significance of women being raped, rather than men, is another kettle of fish), but it holds a particular level of potency because of the “reality” factor; rape is a very frequent atrocity in society, more so than murder, it happens all the time (but mostly isn’t reported), and that is truly frightening.

I Spit on Your Grave Camille Keaton and Ebon Tabor

While not as poorly made as Wes Craven’s Last House on the Left (1972), I Spit on Your Grave is not much better in terms of production value or “appeal”. The Argentinean movie I’ll Never Die Alone (2008) is afar superior rape-revenge movie, on every level. The director knows how to create atmosphere and mood, he is skilled in pacing, and he utilizes cinematic technique to powerful effect. This is what horror movies are meant to be like. I Spit on Your Grave might try and allude to Bergman’s The Virgin Spring, and the juxtaposition of the beauty of nature and the wilderness with the savage animalistic predatory nature of the men, but the bigger picture reveals that he’s simply a failed dramatist with no real understanding of how to construct a horror movie.

Arguably the only interesting image in the whole movie

The best thing about I Spit on Your Grave is it’s brilliant sensationalist title (added by a distributor who re-packaged the movie with the infamous poster which depicts an darkly alluring image not found in the movie at all, and purports numerous acts of revenge Jennifer never actually commits). Curiously, the poster for the remake has re-staged that same image. Just how potent and nightmarish will the remake be? If one is to remake a movie, then one needs to up the ante on the original, otherwise what’s the point? Will Hollywood rise to the dubious challenge in this case? I strongly doubt it.

Suck it bitch!

NB: None of the four actors who played the rapists ever made another movie. Camille Keaton on the other hand made several more, the most curious and disturbing being Savage Vengeance (1993, AKA I Spit on Your Grave 2) where she returns in the role of Jennifer and once again is raped (along with a female friend) by several thugs, and, of course, sets about seeking revenge. From the look of this movie, it seems her work choices had deteriorated chronically. Hadn’t she learned her lesson?! Making reprehensible movies that is!

* The movie would have been a lot more fun had it been a straight-forward blue movie with Jennifer enticing the four men into her home to enjoy her city slicker talents ... But that would've been another movie entirely.

Here’s the original “re-release” trailer (after the title change):

The poster for the 2010 remake

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

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Comments

10 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by AnonRoyal

July 26th 2010 06:44

Funny I remembered seeing this movie 20 to 30 years ago but didnt remember what it was about probably says it all

Comment by Bryn

July 26th 2010 06:48

Horrorphile

AnonRoyal ... you're not missing much.

Comment by JohnDoe

July 26th 2010 21:05

Film & TV on DVD

Well done Bryn,

Quality review that makes your stance clear.

I was really affected by this film the first time I saw it as a teen and have only revisited it once as an adult. Still carries some weight for me but do agree that it lacks flair and a worthy revenge for the heinous crime.

Still it is a template that has been used repeatedly since and seldom with as much gritty commitment. Really want to see 'I'll Never Die Alone.

Comment by ShaunK

July 27th 2010 01:11

Screen Adventure

Hey Bryn,

Glad to see that my suspicions about this films lack of quality were correct. I have no desire to see it. where do you rank this compared to last house on the left which I myself wasn't particularly enamored with.

How annoying is the way the narrator in the trailer says that title over and over.

a decent geyser of blood jets out of the soap-suds, but that’s it

hahahahaha - lovely

Comment by Bryn

July 27th 2010 02:22

Horrorphile

JD ... yes, well there you have it. Two screenings, 25 or so years apart.

Shaun ... I can't stand Last House on the Left. It's inept and ugly for all the wrong reasons.

Comment by ShaunK

July 27th 2010 02:26

Screen Adventure

hear hear

Comment by Bryn

July 27th 2010 02:41

Horrorphile

The remake of Last House lifted its game on the production level and performance front, but lost the menacing edge. Still, much preferable over the original.
I'm curious as to how much "better" the Spit remake will be to the original ...?

Comment by Jason King

July 27th 2010 08:08

Sydney Table
Salty Popcorn
Total Randomness

I think I must have seen this around the same time as JD - there must have been an illegal Beta tape floating around the Northern Beaches - cool review. Can't remember much of it at all.