I Spit On Your Grave: Unrated (Remake)

In 1978 director Meir Zarchi brought the world the original "I Spit On Your Grave a.k.a Day of the Woman", and the world banned it in five countries from even being released. This movie is an expression of the most diseased and perverted darker human natures", wrote Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun Times. "I walked out of the theater quickly, feeling unclean, ashamed and depressed." When I saw the first trailer for the remake my first thought was "I can't believe they are remaking this movie...and why?"

I Spit On Your Grave has a very straight forward plot, author Jennifer Hills rents a secluded cabin to write her new novel. Shortly after arriving a group of the surrounding towns degenerates inflict brutal torture and rape on her and leave her for dead. Fortunately for us she is not dead and returns to unleash revenge on the men one by one. At the time of its release it raised a great deal of outrage from churches, potential viewers, critics and feminist. I would say the times have changes significantly considering I saw this after a college professor suggested I do so to get inspiration for my senior thesis. It was hard to watch for a few reasons, the brutal nature of the plot of course but also because its an older low budget film so it is slow paced and as a twenty something of the bloody torture horror generation this almost doesnt compare to what we see now. Its the kind of movie you have to think about when you watch it, put yourself in the time period it was made in order to understand why this film is such a big deal.

Friends are still outraged and turned off when I talk about exploitation films because they only see the violence against women aspect but fail to see the female heroin side of the story as well. A huge point of most of these kinds of movies is the female empowerment that results from these horrifying acts. Tell me that at the end of Tarantino's "Death Proof" you did not feel some sort of "YEAH!" for these girls that just kicked the piss out of a guy who previously killed three defenseless women? I Spit On Your Grave and other films like this are doing the same thing but in a more hardcore sort of way. As far as the remake goes, it was a bit more unnerving than the original for me probably because its set in my time and there was a bit more realness that could be applied to it. The rape scenes are very hard to watch and at a certain point I started feeling like maybe this is going a little long, but I think thats what the director wanted, and to say her revenge was satisfying to watch is an understatement. It was pretty awesome, each one tying into what they had inflicted on her. I Spit On Your Grave is not for everyone, especially the faint of heart but worth seeing if you can appreciate exploitation films and want to see an updated but pretty true to the original versions of a classic.

I spit On Your Grave
Released 2010
Directed By Steven R. Monroe