Product: Day of the Woman (1978)
Rating: 4.0
Disturbing, lacking in many things, but still worth a view
I rented this way back in the day when renting videos was so new, there wasn't even any tax charged for them. I was an avid horror fan and I frequently rented films like "2000 Maniacs" "Dawn of the Dead" and "I Dis-member Mama." I remember watching one particuarly disturbing film (the name escapes me) and a guy had just cut out his dead girlfriend's heart and took a big ole bite out of it. My dad who had just happened to walk into the room said, "that's sick. And you have to be sick to watch it."But few films stay with me in such a disturbing way as "I Spit on Your Grave." Several years later I would go on to work with rape survivors so in that light, I find the film even more disturbing.Is it entertainment, is it art? That debate will rage on forever, but I would recommend this film for the gore-hounds, the horror fans. I wouldn't recommend it to general movie fans. I personally have a hard time putting my finger on its redeeming artisitc qualities. Rape is not sex. It is the act of using sex as a weapon of violence and it is the sheer violence that leaves an impression and not the acting, direction, camera work or other artistic metrics. Despite that though, it is not what I would call a "gore" movie. It relies on certain perceptions to create the "horror" in the viewer's mind, but nonetheless, little is left to the imagination. Although my mom is not a horror fan by any stretch of the imagination she watched it and really enjoyed it which surprised me as she's fairly conservative (socially, not politically). Outside of a handfull of films you'd have to go outside the U.S. to Japan to find worse or better, depending on your point of view.Personally I prefer a more supernatural film be it a gore fest or something more psychological like "The Haunting." Now, "The Exorcist"! That's a total package. But nonetheless, I give it four stars for the dvd though which is packed with lots of cool extras and insights and it is very edgy film making for better or worse. Hollywood is content to recycle old themes and cliches that are quickly forgotten and warrant no discussion. I Spit on Your Grave still pushes the envelope and is worth viewing even if it is just your morbid curiousity wanting to know what the fuss is about.