Thursday, October 04, 2012

I Spit On Your Grave

(1978) **
I actually was expecting to be more disturbed/annoyed by this movie than turned out to be the case. After enjoying Severance so much, I thought it would be a good time to dip into some Catfreek level depravity. Don't get me wrong, it's definitely disturbing, especially in that grainy 1970s low budget grindhouse quality, but there's just enough skill on display that I kept mildly interested throughout.

This is one of the early cult "classics" in that lovely sub genre: rape-revenge fantasies. Yeah, that exists.

The plot is pretty simple. An attractive young aspiring author rents a country house for the summer to work on her first novel. She gets gang raped by 4 guys who can only be described as Deliverance meets Jersey Shore. Then she kills them all. I know, it's pretty complicated, so here's a visual aid.


I see on wiki that this was controversial when released in the 70s--duh. But it's interesting that some feminists got behind the film as some sort of women's empowerment theme masquerading as an exploitation flick. I can kinda see that, based on some choices the director makes in terms of perspective and pacing. But really, it's all about the exploitation, maybe an exercise in "how far can we go?"

A few other fun things I found out on wiki:

- In the UK, the film was branded a "video nasty" and stayed on the list of prosecutable films until 2001. Seriously, Euros have some f-ked notions of free speech. Prosecutable films? - The movie is still banned in Ireland. - The director was married to the female star. "Hey, I've got this role you'd be perfect for, honey!"

9 comments:

Octopunk said...

If you want to explore this genre, you should check out the Japanese movie Freeze Me.

Your pie chart is awesome! I'm going to be a dick and quote my review of this:

"Jennifer Hill takes a break from NYC where she writes short stories for women's magazines and drives up to Four Guys That Rape You in upstate New York. "

Because the town is basically just those guys, right? It was a long time ago.

50PageMcGee said...

i can still remember that bathtub scene vividly. [shudder]

Catfreeek said...

I'm so impressed with your choices this year. I saw Camille Keaton last year at rock n shock, she looks great. Did you know they remade this in 2010?

Landshark said...

I came across the remake while looking for pics. I checked out the trailer, and it looked a bit less daring. Reviewers seem to prefer the original.

Johnny Sweatpants said...

Interesting unexpected selection Landshark. Rape revenge is probably my least favorite horror movie sub-genre. I couldn't stand the original Last House on the Left and I never really went further than that.

DKC said...

You are branching out this year, Landshark! I don't think this is a genre I will ever delve into.

Landshark said...

I know, JSP, I announced that I was going to do another Hitchcock/film noir theme, but then I was grabbing stuff at the library, and ended up putting back Notorious and a few other Hitch's. Left with Turistas, Wolf Creek, and Saw. So yeah, I'm going a different direction!

AC said...

love the review, love the chart, and very impressed with the new direction!

Crystal Math said...

I've been meaning to check this and other rape-revenge movies out... one of these days.

Malevolent

 2018  ***1/2 It's 1986 for some reason, and a team of paranormal investigators are making a big name for themselves all over Scotland. ...