Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering an exploitation film from 1978. That movie is "I Spit On Your Grave".
Now, if you're not familiar with this movie, it's considered by many people to be one of the most famous exploitation films to ever exist, for better or for worse. I say this, because this movie's plot is centered around something pretty damn heavy. So, I'm not gonna sugarcoat anything when I tell you that the plot to this thing is essentially about a woman, who gets horribly raped and tortured by a group of savage men, and she sets out for revenge against her rapists who left her for dead.
I'm gonna tell you, guys, the reason why I wanted to watch this was simply because of it's premise alone. I really have a soft spot for revenge films. Granted, I understand that my track record with revenge movies for this series hasn't exactly been stellar, however, I still have hopes of this thing being great. But the only way I'm gonna find out if this thing is any good at all, is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "I Spit On Your Grave".
14 minutes later
You know, guys, what I find rather eerie about this movie so far? It's the fact that there's no music playing in this movie. OK sure, we had one of the guys playing a little bit of the harmonica, but aside from that, there's nothing resembling a score for this movie at all, so far. And I find that it's going to make that particular moment of the movie all the more chilling once we get to it. I've got a feeling about that.
19 minutes later
Guys, I've heard from people who have seen this movie that it's a very hard watch to get through. And from what I'm seeing myself right now, yeah...they weren't kidding about that. This is very hard to watch. And yet, despite that, I *can't* take my eyes away from it. That's how powerful this movie is!
20 minutes later
You know, guys, I would feel relieved by the fact that Matthew spared her life the way he did. But to be perfectly honest with you, guys, any sympathy I may have had for him, prior to that, is completely gone by the moment that he took part in the rape. And I'm not gonna be satisfied until he's fucking dead.
7 minutes later
OK, I have a legitimate question here. So, now these guys are talking about how it's been 2 weeks since these guys raped and "killed" Jennifer. And I want to emphasize that point, because they're at some sort of restaurant talking about all this, while other people are around as well! Don't you think that if anyone of them overheard them talking about this, that they would report them to the police? I don't know, it's just something that I was sorta thinking about, you know?
16 minutes later
Well, that's certainly a way to take him out. Not totally sure brutally hanging him would be my first choice, but you know what? It's still totally effective, so I'll take what I can get.
13 minutes later
You know, guys, I was gonna question why Jennifer was taking the methodical route on killing this guy. But you know what? It was *totally* worth it in the end. That one was fucking satisfying!
The Review
Well, guys, that was "I Spit On Your Grave". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. Holy shit, what a movie...it's not often I ever get to say that, but it was definitely worth seeing after all this time.
Let me start off by saying that, going into this thing, I knew what to expect from it. Not just from what I've heard about it, but from seeing a trailer of this thing from way back when. For me, personally, this was the kind of movie that I was going to like. Because, like I said earlier, I have a soft spot for revenge movies, and I've never had a chance to see this one before until now. And I've heard a lot of things about it, both positive and negatively. Things such as how it's one of the most controversial films to be ever made for it's time, or how it supposedly "glorifies" rape. Which, if you read up on why the director of this movie, Meir Zarchi, wanted to make this movie, that's not the case at all. And quite frankly, if Zarchi had chickened out and made it differently than how he originally wanted to make it, then it would've completely destroyed this movie entirely. Now, I get that this is not going to be everyone's cup of tea, I can assure you on that. However, I am happy that Zarchi got to make the movie in his own vision, and I can safely say that the final product most definitely delivers. At least, to me it does.
Anyway, let's get into the writing here. Now admittedly, there really isn't a whole lot of writing here, other than what I've already touched upon to you guys. So instead, I actually want to touch upon the characters in this movie. And I want start off with our main character, Jennifer Hills. Now admittedly, she does start off kinda sorta bland at first, as she's just trying to write her first novel at a summer home she's staying at. But after she goes through the whole rape ordeal by her attackers, she gets emotionally destroyed, to which she later gets her revenge on her rapists. And the whole thing makes her feel almost...numb afterwards. Which is a scary thought, but it's rather understandable. Because she was raped at least 3 or 4 times throughout the whole movie. I couldn't even begin to imagine the kind of pain that she went through. And it makes you care about her, because you *want* to see her getting revenge on the ruthless savages that had their way with her.
Speaking of which, I want touch upon one of the rapists in this movie, which would be Matthew. See, Matthew in this movie is kinda the nerd of the group. He reveals later on to the other would-be rapists that he has never been laid before and how he made friends with Jennifer, who just moved into her summer home. And I believe it's from this motivation in which these guys start their little raping crusade on Jennifer, because they did it for him, and that they want to see him lose his virginity by raping our leading lady. Now the first time that they do this, Matthew actually develops something of a conscious and let's her go. Yes, he was partially responsible for holding her down on a couple of occasions while she was being raped, but I think he genuinely felt really bad about it and didn't want to go any further on it.
But it was at the moment that Jennifer made it back to her summer home in which her rapists were lying in wait for her that began to change Matthew. And mind you, at this point, Jennifer is completely drained both physically and mentally. Which is where they finally give Matthew the encouragement that he needed to go through with the horrible act. Which he does, however, in very slight defense of him, he doesn't goes entirely all the way, like how the other two rapists did earlier on. That said, I still hold that after that moment that he puts his body on top of her, any ounce of sympathy that I may have had for him completely disappeared after that. Because *he* took part in it, he went through it, and is ultimately no better than the rest of his psychopathic friends. Now granted, he doesn't actually kill her, like his friends told him to do so, but still, my point about him still stands.
Now admittedly, this movie does have a couple of problems, the controversial rape scenes not counting. One of those problems I'll get into a little later on, but one of the problems that this movie kinda suffers from is it's pacing. I say "kinda", because the pacing is a little bit uneven at times. Because the first hour of the movie, it sets up our main character, our rapists, and the setting, along with the controversial rape scenes. All of that takes place within the first hour of the movie. The latter 40 minutes or so is essentially Jennifer slowly getting her revenge on her captors. And the reason why she does it slowly is because her method of killing them is more on the methodical side of things rather than going for the quick kill. Which, admittedly, could be seen as more of a potential lapse in logic. But you have to understand that it had only been 2 weeks since the horrible incident that took place, and she's still at her summer home. So I imagined that she had been taking her time on how deal her revenge against her rapists, while also trying recuperate on dealing with her emotional pain and suffering.
That said, I do like how this movie took it's time, rather than quickly rushing into things and getting her revenge over and done with. Though admittedly, the ending is a little anti-climatic, but other than that, the rest of the pacing is rather good, too. Other than that, guys, the writing here is great. It really sucks you in it's story from the moment it kicks off. Even during the very raw moments of the film, whether it's the rape scenes themselves or the revenge bit in the latter half of the movie, it still keeps your interest and doesn't let up on it. Now I understand that this kind of movie is not going to be for everyone, however, I'll get into all that later when I get to recommendations. But I will summarize my thoughts here by stating, again, that the writing here is great.
Acting here is kind of a mixed bag though. Our actors playing the rapists kinda ham it a little bit, with the guy playing Matthew, who definitely sounds rather goofy with his performance, being the most hammy of the bunch. It's not great, but at least it is decent enough for what they had to work with. The best actress, by far though, would have to go to Camille Keaton as our main star. She nails this performance down perfectly. Even during the horrible rape scenes, she still gives out a 110% here. She makes it sound very believable and it makes her performance stand out in an incredible way. She was perfect for this role, and I commend her the most for taking on such a role like this. The rest of the acting is kinda weak, but it's still serviceable enough to make the film work in their favor.
Special effects in this movie are actually pretty good. Now mind you, this film was made on a ridiculously low budget. It was only made for $80,000, but they still made that budget work for the most part. The makeup effects here are decent, the blood and gore effects are pretty good, as well. It's not great, and I've seen better practical effects done in other low budget films, but I'd still say that they were pretty good, overall.
Our camerawork here is really good for low budget standards. The lighting is pretty good here, too. The sound-mix, though, is admittedly one of the only other issues that this movie kinda suffers from. And I'm mainly talking about a few scenes here and there in which some of the acting sounds kinda muffled. It's hard to hear what they are saying at times, and it also kinda hurts some scenes that are shot outdoors, because the background noise will come into effect by drowning out some of the actor's dialogue. It probably would've helped some things if they had gotten a boom mic to help pick up what the actors were saying in those bits. Again, I understand this thing was made on a low budget, but I'm pretty sure, even by late 1970's standards, that boom mics probably didn't cost that much to get. Now admittedly, I don't have the figures for it, so you'll just have to take what I said about that with a grain of salt. Still though, my criticisms still stand on this issue.
Last thing I want to cover is the music. Well, more specifically, the lack of music. Because this movie is one of those rare instances where it does not have any kind of music, both in score and soundtrack. Now again, there is some bits of music here, such as where one of our rapists is playing a harmonica or there is someone playing an organ at a church, but there is no overall score here. Which actually helps this movie, because, as I've made mention before, the lack of music is what sometimes helps enhance a movie's atmosphere. And this movie is definitely no exception. Throughout the first half hour of the movie, I couldn't help but feel that there is something here that felt rather eerie about it. And my hunch was right, because it eventually led up to the rape scenes. And it makes the film's atmosphere that much more eerie and suspenseful, because if they had any kind of music playing during those rape scenes, I feel like it would've destroyed the movie's atmosphere. Which makes me dread on how exactly the remake from 2010 handled it. I'm probably never going to watch it simply because of the possibility that they'll never do this movie justice. So, setting aside that topic, the lack of music here is fantastic, in which they don't really utilize any score at all here.
Ultimately, guys, when everything is said and done, am I able to recommend "I Spit On Your Grave"? Yes, I definitely can. But, I obviously have to put in a warning here that you have to go into it knowing what to expect. This movie is definitely *not* for the faint of heart. So if you have a weakness to this sort of subject being played out, then you're obviously not gonna want to watch this thing. This movie is very raw with it's subject and is not gonna shy away from it at all. And if you're someone who is strong enough to handle this kind of subject, then you're most likely gonna enjoy this movie. As for myself, I really enjoyed this thing immensely. Yes, it's a very uncomfortable film, but like I said, it knows what it wants to be, and I knew what to expect going into it. As a revenge movie, it's probably one of the best ones I've ever seen. Granted, that may not be saying a whole lot, given the track record it has going for this series, but it's still a great movie, and I will probably watch it again at some point. For now though, I'm gonna go watch something else, maybe something a little bit more light-hearted after watching this thing. I don't know, maybe I'll watch something like "Kiki's Delivery Service". It's been a little while since I last saw it, so I'm gonna go do that next after I get done typing this review up.
And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
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