I Spit on Your Grave

Day of the woman indeed…

The H-Bomb: Young, attractive city girl author Jennifer Hills (Sarah Butler) heads out to a remote cabin with her laptop and a ton of booze to work on her book. Unfortunately for her, the quaint countryside is not as serene as it seems, as her arrival has attracted the attention of some local horny hooligans. They sit around and contemplate having their way with her, then one night they decide to do exactly that, bringing along their “pet retard” friend in tow, so he can lose his cherry.

Like a pack of slobbering, hungry animals, they beat, torture, and rape Jennifer over and over (and over) until she is little more than a naked, quivering, bloodied shell of a woman. They even have the audacity (or stupidity) to videotape the whole thing. Then they watch as she jumps off a bridge, plunging into the river below, presumably to her death. They burn all of her things, and eliminate any trace of her ever being at the cabin, but they don’t find her body. More than a month goes by, and the good ole’ boy gang rapists assume it’s all behind them. But then, they find themselves being stalked by someone… stalked in the same way they stalked Jennifer.

The original “I Spit on Your Grave” (aka “Day of the Woman”) was a quintessential trashy, sleazy exploitation flick from the 70’s. As part of a sub-genre dubbed “rape and revenge,” it featured copious amounts of nudity, sex (rape), violence and little else, aside from some half-assed and very skewed theme of female empowerment. It was considerably more explicit than other movies of its ilk, resulting in mucho controversy, angry condemnations from people like Roger Ebert, and ultimately, a cult following. Saying the film is infamous is something of an understatement.

When I first heard that a remake was coming, I figured that Hollywood, the unimaginative fuckheads that they can be, must be truly desperate for material. I mean, this seemed like they were truly scraping the bottom of the scum ridden barrel. Then I wondered if the filmmakers would actually have the big, hairy testes to make it as brutal and hardcore as the original, or if it would pussy out and go all PG-13 on our asses.

Well, as it turns out, these people, from the director to the actors, had the testes, big ones, and they went for it. For better or worse, they went for it, and shied away from nothing. As grueling as the original got, it was super low budget, with some shoddy gore effects, and some amateurish performances that always kind of softened the impact it would’ve had on me. This remake, on the other hand, has a larger budget, with a gritty look, and actors who are totally believable 100 % of the time, causing the violence on screen to have a much stronger effect.

Make no mistake, people, this is totally and completely a “watch at your own risk” affair, and many of you who do watch it will no doubt feel the urge to run straight into the shower as soon as it’s over. “I Spit on Your Grave” is pure, depraved torture porn at its absolute ugliest. The sexual violence contained within this nasty bit of work is so graphic, and so drawn out in places, that for most it will simply be unwatchable. The assault that this woman is forced to endure makes Monica Bellucci’s ten minute long rape scene from “Irreversible” look tame and tasteful by comparison. This sick little bitch pulls absolutely no punches, and I’m sure there are even horror fans out there, ones who dig the gory shit, who won’t be able to stomach this.

Because the content is so potent, many reactions to both the remake and the original have been of absolute disgust and downright anger, causing many to dismiss it as being vile, misogynistic garbage. But I don’t agree, at least not entirely. While I don’t certainly love this remake, and I think it does cross that line from being merely violent entertainment into something worse, I found the way the lead character takes her methodical revenge on her attackers to be oddly fascinating. I know I should feel troubled by what she does, but after seeing what those heinous fucks did to her, I think they deserve nothing less.

It helps that Butler, as Jennifer, is absolutely believable. She is a real discovery. Her character goes from being a normal young woman to being a frightened victim, to being a broken victim, to being her own avenging angel, and she is convincing in all aspects. Also, going through all the things the script put her through in such an uninhibited way really took guts on her part, and my hat’s off.

As far as the cretins go, they’re a bit more stock. We have the ring leader, Johnny (Jeff Branson), his two lackeys (Daniel Franzese and Rodney Eastman), as well as their simpleton tag-along, Matthew (Chad Lindberg). The first three are appropriately boorish and detestable, while Matthew is simply pitiful. There is a fifth member of this rape party who comes along later, but I don’t want to say too much about him.

Director Steven R. Monroe does a nice job of giving the film a grimy look when the story gets to the ugly stuff, and he manages to avoid the lagging pace issues that the original film had, despite working from more or less the exact same plot. I’ll also compliment him for not wimping out on anything, and making us feel the violence. It wasn’t necessarily enjoyable, but he accomplished what he set out to.

One aspect where I think Monroe dropped the ball was in the transition of Jennifer’s character. In the original, we see her recovering from her attack, then struggling internally on how, or if she even should, take revenge. In the remake, we don’t see any of this. The first time we see her after the rape, she’s already transformed into a female terminator looking to jam a shotgun up someone’s ass. Also, it didn’t fix a problem the original had, in that her revenge schemes are carried off perfectly, without a single hiccup. So much for adding suspense.

At the end of the day, I do think this is a better film than the original, but I don’t quite like it, and I can’t quite recommend it. This is a movie that pulls zero punches and leaves very little to the imagination. Is it provocative? Some will say it is, others will say it isn‘t. Is it entertainment? Most will answer that question with a resounding “Fuck no!” I’m sure some of you will now be curious to see it, and you’ll go and do just that, just please don’t send any hate mail my way afterwards.