I Spit on Your Grave (2010) – Review (Fantasia 2010)

In 2010, majority of horror aficionados have agreed that the gorier horror movies become, the more desensitized the viewers become.  For every pulled out intestine, decapitated head and slit throat shown onscreen, there are at least five bored and unaffected audience members muttering things like, ‘That blood is SOOOO CGI’ instead of being truly affected by the violence being depicted onscreen. However, in this year’s much talked about re-imagining of the most infamous revenge film of all-time, director Steven R. Monroe makes sure to shock and appall viewers in this updated remake to a degree most horror fans were truly not expecting. At the premiere screening at Fantasia film festival this week, paramedics had been rushed in and a Q&A was almost ruined when security had to be called down to stop an angered audience member from hijacking the stage. Does Monroe up the ante in regards to violence in this remake to Meir Zarchi’s grueling rape revenge film? Read on to find out.

Besides the use of cell phones, camera and laptops, I Spit on Your Grave’s premise mirrors its predecessor. After leaving the city to go to a secluded cabin to write for the summer, Jennifer (Sarah Butler) makes the nearly fatal decision to stop by the gas station in the country and becomes a target to a group of locals who are looking for a sick and twisted way to cure their boredom. After being followed and taunted, Jennifer is beaten up and sexually assaulted many times by the locals and disappears into the woods.  While the assailants assume Jennifer died in the forest, Jennifer plots her way to get back at her attackers and she makes sure the punishment fits the crime…..and then some.  Brutality, stomach-churning moments and a grisly castration ensue.

The original I Spit on Your Grave (initially titled Day of the Woman) was one of the first shocking films ever made.  It is a movie that made Mary Whitehouse almost have a stroke and at the time of release, it sent people in a frenzy due to its unrelenting brutality and degradation towards the female lead in the film. It took me years to work up the courage to sit through the movie and even when I finally watched it with the bright morning sun shining on the television screen, it didn’t disguise the horror I was witnessing and the feelings of disgust I was experiencing. The original was not a pleasant movie at all and although well done, it is not something I would like to show to my friends. It is a bleak and troubling film that is only meant to be watched once because the effect of it should be that lasting.

Like last year’s remake to Wes Craven’s chilling directorial debut The Last House on the Left, this year’s I Spit on Your Grave focuses far more of its energy on reversing the elements in the original film that made it so unbearable in the first place.  Instead of showing a grueling 45 minute rape sequence with only less than a half-hour to show the revenge, Monroe’s version makes sure that the revenge angle is front and center in this disturbing remake and he does so with an alarming force.  Torture porn has never been so satisfying.

Sarah Butler’s portrayal of Jennifer in this updated tale of horror is much different from Camille Keaton’s, but personally this reviewer enjoyed her character change. No longer does Jennifer feel the need to dress up and lure her assailants by seducing them by lakes and in bathtubs. She is raw, beat up and full of hatred and fury.  She has no time to test her gag reflex. All she can do is kill and she does so in very inventive ways…ways that even made every woman in the theater cheer. (Ironic, considering how statistically the original film was rented out nine times out of ten by young males.)

Despite the fact that this remake is entertaining, to some it is arguably more offensive than the original for the remake glamorizes rape in ways the original did not. I Spit on Your Grave is a soft-core version of the original, but it makes sense in this day and age that it would be. Regardless of what the media may have us believe, we are NOT as desensitized as we think we are. It was no surprise to me that this movie was going to be softer than the original. There was no extended sodomy on a rock and rape scenes featuring extended shots of nudity. Instead, the audience gets an Alexandre Aja-inspired shot rape scene and gruesome Saw-like deaths of the villains that had the audience hollering and hooting for more. (The deaths that is…not the rape.)

People nowadays would not be able to take the awkward and grainy documentary style film the original was.  People need to be entertained and for that to happen, the psychological horror aspect has to be trimmed down, however it does not mean the remake should be taken lightly as it’s a hard-hitting remake that goes places Platinum Dunes would never dare go near.

Although not as effective and as frightening as its predecessor, I Spit on Your Grave is a sleek yet good old’ fashioned revenge story that although may not send out the best message, is still a very well executed remake that will surely terrorize unsuspecting newcomers.

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