Product: Day of the Woman (1978)
Rating: 4.0
Message Film That Will Shock
"I Spit On Your Grave" has a rather remarkable history for an exploitation film. I vividly remember a little video store close to where I lived ten years ago or so placed this film in their adult section, apparently concerned that the disturbing images within were so dangerous that only those interested in the latest Ron Jeremy release could appreciate them. Director Meir Zarchi, a definite one shot wonder if there ever was one, continues to squeeze every drop of coin out of his film as possible. How many different versions of this movie is this guy going to release? A "Millennium Edition"? Are you kidding me? I have spent some time viewing several of the more extreme entries in the exploitation genre, and I can confidently state that "I Spit On Your Grave" is one of the more milder contributions to that exalted field. If you want to watch something truly mind boggling, track down a copy of Ruggiero Deodato's "Cannibal Holocaust." The fact that Zarchi's film got a widespread DVD release while Deodato's little gem remains mired in virtual obscurity constitutes one of the great crimes in the B movie arena. Still, "I Spit On Your Grave" does have a message for those willing to sit down and watch it.In what must have shocked New York filmgoers who screened this exploitation piece in one of the grindhouse theaters in the 1970s, "I Spit On Your Grave" concerns the brutalizing of a young girl from the Big Apple named Jennifer Hill during a sojourn she makes into rural upstate New York in order to write a novel while slumming around in a riverfront cabin. Jenny, played by a very pretty Camille Keaton, almost immediately runs into four local losers when she stops at a gas station near her rented house. These four goons, after learning that one of their gang has never spent time with a woman, arrive at the brilliant idea of launching a full frontal assault on Jennifer. They don't immediately overwhelm her, of course, but rather build up to it by slowly terrorizing her. They cruise by her digs on a noisy motorboat, distracting her from her writing with their hoots and hollers. Our gang of rural cretins finally makes their move when they discover Jennifer out on the river in a little row boat. Using their big, bad powerboat, the gang hijacks the unfortunate lass's vessel and tows her to shore.What follows are several distressing scenes of rape and violence, sequences that drag on for what seems like hours as the gang has their fun, lets Jenny go, and then reappears for more nightmarish activities. After this lengthy degradation finally, mercifully comes to a close, the criminals force one of their crew to go dispatch Hill with a knife. Regrettably, for these tough guys who seek to erase the evidence of their monstrous endeavors, the man they pick to do the deed suffers from a mental disability and cannot muster enough nerve to go through with the ultimate crime. Big mistake. Jennifer recovers from her injuries and begins to plot her revenge against her tormentors. Making good use of that old adage about a "woman scorned," Jenny uses her feminine wiles to lure and ultimately murder the four men who committed such nauseating violations. What you would think would provide plenty of gory thrills turns out to be a rather tepid series of revenge killings. One of the men dies when Jenny hangs him from a tree, another in a bathtub when Hill applies a knife to a most cringe worthy area, and the final two in the river. The movie ends with Jenny roaring down the river in a motorboat, seemingly sated by her well laid plans.Several things do actually work in "I Spit On Your Grave." The willowy, pretty Camille Keaton lounging around her house at the beginning of the film in her bikini is nice (but definitely not later, when the horror begins), but doesn't inspire me to admire in any way the activities of the men in the film, one of whom eventually tells his victim that she was "asking for it" because she wore revealing clothing. I can appreciate what Zarchi tried to do with his nasty little shocker: present a picture of rape that is both as realistic as possible and as disturbing as possible. The director does achieve the desired effect, I think, by showing how such a despicable crime degrades everyone involved in it. What didn't work was the mediocre script, especially when Jennifer Hill goes on her vengeful rampage. The fact that these guys willingly went along with a woman they terrorized just two weeks previously seemed amazingly contrived. I am willing to believe these men are stupid, but not THAT stupid. If a woman who suffered such a horrific incident as Jenny did decided to strike back, I think it would probably resemble something like serial killer Eileen Wuornos's rampage rather than "I Spit On Your Grave." Women simply don't go on killing sprees against their attackers, and even nowadays often don't report rape to the police.The DVD I watched contained a trailer for the film and a widescreen transfer of the nicely restored picture. "I Spit On Your Grave" is definitely a film with a message and worth watching once, but I recommend renting instead of buying it. If you like viewing Zarchi's film on a regular basis, you probably have some problems that need addressing soon, preferably at a place where nice men in white jackets can introduce you to the wonderful world of Thorazine.