I Spit on Your Grave (1978)
What can I say about I Spit on Your Grave that hasn’t been said already? There were rape-revenge movies before this one and there were rape-revenge movies after this one but when discussing the sub-sub-genre, this is the movie everyone who’s familiar with it thinks of. It’s been called exploitation, it’s been called feminist, and I am not the person to decide if either one is right. All I can say is that it’s surprisingly high-minded with its approach to the subject of sexual violence. But it also has an excruciating 40-minute rape scene, and there’s an argument that that communicates the horror of the situation but it also can’t help but feel like a bit much, similarly it doesn’t matter how much dirt and grime they smear all over Camille Keaton’s butt, it certainly feels like the camera is spending a bit too much time looking at it. It seems to have a lot to say on gender politics and the nature of misogyny, rape, and a bunch of other thorny issues but it is way too enamored with lingering on our leading lady’s nude body even outside the context of the infamous scene.
That’s not to say the movie has no merit, its approach to how everything goes down is very organic and un-cinematic. The men who attack our protagonist aren’t sneering hillbilly stereotypes, they seem immature and sexist but it definitely feels like these characters could exist outside of a rape-revenge movie. Similarly the big scene just sort of happens, there’s not a lot of lead up to it and it even feels like the men aren’t intending to attack her at first, they’re just playing a mean prank on her but they get so drunk on their power over her that they take things too far. It’s laying out some hard truths about misogyny, about how passive misogyny is really just a soft barrier away from something far more sinister.
Similarly the revenge is tackled in a much more nuanced way than revenge movies of any stripe tend to be handled. After all that’s been done to her, Jennifer doesn’t turn into an action hero, she seems more inclined to keep her head down and let it pass. It’s only when her assailants find out that she’s still alive that she decides to take action and get payback, and her payback isn’t quite what one would expect. This movie was obviously written by a man with minimal contribution from female voices but the way the revenge aspect of the movie plays out is a lot less triumphantly violent than these movies tend to be, it’s violent and there is triumph but Ms. 45 this is not.
I Spit on Your Grave (2010)
The remake of I Spit on Your Grave is something else. On one hand it handles the actual assault much more tastefully than the original, or as tastefully as one can handle a rape scene. On the other hand there’s a lot of cringe here. Things go well enough for the first hour or so implicating not just a group of young men (all but one of whom are absolutely sneering hillbilly stereotypes this time) but the local Sheriff (Welsh actor Andrew Howard of The Devil’s Chair, typically a sort of direct-to-video Jason Statham, but here playing a sort of direct-to-video Michael Rooker) and a conspiracy to hide what they’ve done after Jennifer escapes her captors by jumping off a bridge into a river. Then in the second hour the revenge plot really hitches its wagon to the basically-dead-at-that-point torture porn trend and becomes a sort of backwoods Saw spinoff as Jennifer elaborately tortures and murders all five of her assailants.
Is it a good remake?
No! Absolutely not. The original movie felt real, beyond being well shot I Spit on Your Grave felt organic and real and it really had something to say. You’re mentally challenged and feel sorry about it? Too bad, you did what you did and you laughed while you were doing it. You’re a good dad who loves your wife and kids? Doesn’t matter, you deserve your punishment. It’s a movie that could certainly have used a woman touching up the screenplay and setting up the shots, but the idea and about 80% of the execution seems fairly solid.
It’s also a movie that doesn’t mince words, something you don’t truly appreciate until you watch the remake and see Jeff Branson calling Sarah Butler “Show Horse” and having her whinny and show her teeth at gunpoint. The remake insists on doing everything bigger, grittier, and in a more convoluted fashion. It’s a completely inorganic experience, a base revenge fantasy with really nothing to sa;, less a remake of I Spit on Your Grave and more of a Lady Death Wish. Yet is spawned two sequels that are even worse, but Meir Zarchi, not to be undone put out a sequel to the original this year that clocks in at an excruciating 218 minutes and is truly, truly horrendous to watch.
Does it stand on its own?
NO! Rape-revenge movies are hard to make not feel gross for all the wrong reasons, I don’t even think the original I Spit on Your Grave manages this, but the remake really fails on all cylinders. It manages to eliminate most of the gratuitous nudity and make the cinematography less male-gazey and still whiffs the tone it needs. The revenge aspect is as if not more exploitative than the rape, the torture scenes are really trying to get the gorehounds riled up and while I appreciate the vicarious thrill of watching a sexual predator get their just deserts, the spectacle aspect of this makes me feel somewhat uneasy.
Watch, Toss, or Buy?
Toss this.