I Spit on Your Grave, His Grave, and Everyone Else's

This poster claims that no jury would convict this woman for getting her revenge.  Clearly the people who wrote that tag line don't know that being a vigilante is a crime.  In any case in 1978 Meir Zarchi made one of the most over the top and uncomfortable films in history.  The movie I Spit on Your Grave, aka Day of the Woman is Grind House cinema at its best, or possibly worst depending on how you look at it.  Those of us who are horror fans and go seeking out this sort of thing out are way past having seen this movie, and now on the subject of Italians killing real animals in cannibal movies.  That doesn't detract from the fact that I Spit on Your Grave is hard to watch however.  This is why I am giving you fair warning that what I talk about from this point on will be, sad, terrible, upsetting, and NSFW.  Now that doesn't mean that I am going to show a bunch of naked people or anything, but if you are hanging out at work and someone is looking over your shoulder at a review of this film, you should probably close your browser thingy and come back later.  Now that we've got that out of the way...

This film is about rape.  A lot of it too.  Now the rape is just one incident, but it takes up what seems to be half of the movie upon your first viewing.  In actuality it is probably closer to a third.  The film stars Camille Keaton as Jennifer, who is a writer that decides to go into the woods and seclude herself in order to stay focused on a book she working on.  Shortly after this, a few guys see her, rape her, and leave her for dead.  The least intelligent of the group is left to kill her, but he can't do it.  So Jennifer is in fact alive.  She is rightfully very shocked, and once she starts to recover she takes matters into her own hands by chopping guy's dicks off in the bath.

                                              A woman's work is never done.

So basically the movie is just Jennifer seducing, and murdering the men who raped her from that point on.  There isn't a lot of substance as far as a deep story is concerned.  What this film lacks in story, it makes up for in tension building, and a great ability to make one uncomfortable.  The whole ride is not like your average day at the amusement park, unless your average day consists of getting raped and then killing a guy with a boat motor.  It is really a hard movie to watch.  The movie does make you sufficiently feel for Jennifer, but once the killing starts, the whole thing becomes brutal in an entirely different way.  I suppose that is a good thing as you do want to see this girl get her revenge, but did the world really need this movie?

This film does pretty much what the movie Hard Candy does, except successfully and more offensive.  If you couldn't sit through Hard Candy, then I Spit on Your Grave is nowhere near your ballpark.  I have seen both these movies and I Spit on Your Grave is much better at getting its point across and making you feel the way you are supposed to while Hard Candy is mostly just boring.

                                                             A ride of revenge.

This is not an easy sit.  There is no way to color coat this violent, crazy, terrible tale.  The movie is probably well made but I am too busy being upset to really know.  I know women in real life who have suffered from this type of violent crime and I can only imagine what they are going through.  This movie helped me to understand a little bit and then became an insane exploitation flick, which I wasn't expecting.  The whole experience is jarring.  I don't really like this movie, but I have met people who do like it.  The movie works for them and they can get through its message.  These people don't watch I Spit on Your Grave often.  I don't know how I feel.  I say that if it sounds like the kind of movie you'd like to see then go for it.  If it sounds like full length torture then you are probably right.