Product: Day of the Woman (1978)
Rating: 4.0
A Humanatarian Incarnation of "Last House on the Left"
The film does what "Last House" tried to do and while "Last House" failed fairly miserably, "I Spit on Your Grave" takes on a very realist and humanitarian vantage point. It places you in a world of agony and suffering as it explores the inhumane condition of a young, fair figured woman brutally raped by a gang of vicous savages whom express no regard for human life. Its depressing atmosphere provokes the thoughts of its viewers. It is not gory but manages to be graphic in its nature all the same. The let down comes in its slow-pace and 45 minute rape/nude marathon through acres of woods scene. Cinematically, the spacious lanscape is briefly glimsed as the woman crawls from its womb, yearning to reach her cabin where her perpentrators already await with more eager sexual anticipation. One character in the gang can envoke sympathy from the viewers being that he is a misfit only scourging different branches of society in search of his place within it. The critical moment comes when he rapes this woman, who he had earlier befriended. The film takes a while to evolve from its genesis and the viewer feels strung out by its slow development. However, those who stick with it will find their patience does not come without its rewards as what they once mistook for an exploitave, sleaze film is actually more-or-less an indepth look into human ideology intertwined with an aspect of revenge and blood lust on the woman's part. NO character is left undefined, crucially, in death their guises of masculanity and overpowerment slip revieling the fear they carried deep within them all along.