Product: Day of the Woman (1978)
Rating: 5.0
Horrifying, Gruesome, Scary
"I Spit on Your Grave," originally released in 1978, came and went quickly but achieved cult status on video, where it outsold both "Grease" and "The Godfather, Part II."Jennifer Hills (Camille Keaton) leaves her Manhattan apartment and heads for a rural, riverside cabin in Connecticut where she hopes to write a novel. The peace of the countryside is shattered by a quartet of young men who, one after the other, rape her in a prolonged assault. Surviving the horrible ordeal, Jennifer becomes a merciless avenger who singlehandedly metes out deadly, and fitting, punishments to each of her attackers.This is a gruesome movie with plenty of disturbingly graphic images, but it is most unsettling because of its stark reality. Director Meir Zarchi, despite the lurid subject matter, neither sensationalizes nor shies away from portraying both the initial attack and Jennifer's subsequent payback. Though tough to watch, it provokes serious questions about justice, feminism, and vigilantism.Bonus extras on the Blu-ray edition include audio commentary by writer/director Zarchi and the featurette "The Values of Vengeance: Meir Zarchi Remembers," in which the director discusses the genesis and making of the film and the reaction when it was released theatrically.