Directed by:
Steven R. MonroeCinematography:
Neil LiskComposer:
Corey Allen JacksonCast:
Sarah Butler, Jeff Branson, Andrew Howard, Daniel Franzese, Chad Lindberg, Tracey Walter, Rodney Eastman, Saxon Sharbino, Mollie Milligan, Amber Dawn LandrumVOD (1)
Plots(1)
The original version was reviled, condemned, and banned around the world for its on-screen depictions of depravity and violence. Now experience the acclaimed remake that dares to go even further: Jennifer Hills (a fearless performance by Sarah Butler) is a big-city novelist who rents an isolated country cabin to write her new book. But when she is brutally raped by a group of sadistic rednecks, Jennifer has plans for more than mere revenge. One-by-one she will find them. She will inflict horrific acts of agonizing torment upon them. And no jury in America would ever convict her. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Reviews (5)
My belief is once again confirmed, that remakes are worthy only if the original film isn’t very good (judging by non-genre criteria, genre-wise, the original ISoYG does have something). I Spit on Your Grave is an atmospheric and fairly faithful adaptation that retains the overall feeling: the “rape” part is disturbing and the “revenge” part is almost too brutal, following the trend of modern exploitation horror. Compared to the recent remake of The Last House on the Left, it should be said that the creators of ISoYG took a different path, one closer to the original film. I don’t mean this in either a positive or negative way, after all, I’ve rated both films with four stars. Steven R. Monroe delivers a pleasant surprise, considering his work so far, he’s made an atmospheric film of almost unexpected high quality.
()
Very harsh, though not naturalistic or authentic. The bloody sequences are too smoothed out to be shocking, but for a low-budget horror flick with several hectoliters of blood, it works reasonably well. Sarah Butler is solid within the confines of her acting abilities, and the main male cast is comical as required. Lately, Hollywood has been inspired by some sadomasochistic practices, and this is the second film in the last two years where male genitalia is removed and then ends up in the mouth of the victim – this cannot possibly be a coincidence. However, the film certainly does not have the desired shock effect, neither for the viewer nor for the main protagonist. As a remake, on the other hand, it holds up in all aspects. A thrifty, aggressive, and fast-paced film.
()
Finally, proper carnage that makes its way into the viewer's deep subconscious through brutality and psychological coercion. Sure, it's a film full of clichés, and the execution, stilted dialogues and some of the performances put it in the ranks of many similar B-movies, but this time the emotional impact is so strong and deliciously paced (pronounced with a shotgun up its ass) that it overcomes any shortcomings. While the first half was a bit boring and the attention was kept solely by Sarah Butler in an ultra-short skirt, the second half, marked by a bloody vendetta, made up for everything and the director unleashed it on me in such a style that I just watched numbly. It’s a shame it didn't go deeper and work more on the individual characters, but that's too much to ask for.. :)
()
Quite good. I've successfully avoided the original up to now because I'm afraid of its woodenness, but after seeing the remake that's going to be a little harder to do. At times, in terms of the confrontation between victim and assailant, this film is sheer high school exploitation. I'm thinking in particular of the scene of the main lady being humiliated by a bunch of hixploitation sympathizers, in which one puts a gun in her mouth, another shoots her, and a third throws lit matches at her. Of course, tons of verbal romance in the process. The final showdown is longer than I expected, but that's at the expense of some pretty decent suspense and tension from the main characters. Oh, and the gore effects are pretty cool, even the ravens weren't lame. Even the ending didn't manage to fuck up in any American way, so four stars totally clean. I take a star off for not trusting Sarah Butler as a writer and the guy who played the retard won't be the new Forrest Gump either -)
()
I believe that within the genre, this film can be ranked overall among the better ones that have been made on similar themes. I'm not an expert on horror or exploitation films, but I do think that if you want to attract a larger audience with a film like this nowadays, you should be able to make it engaging enough, technically polished (shaky cam or documentary style is not in vogue these days, with a few exceptions), and try to come up with a few completely shocking atrocities, because (unfortunately) today's audience demands it. In short, the more brutal and shocking scenes your work contains, the more it will be talked about and the more attention you can draw to yourself. I'm not trying to generalize beyond the pale, rather I'm trying to figure out and point out what might appeal to the target audience about a film like this, or for what reason someone would recommend this brutality to you. In the end, to sum it all up, the technical execution is decent (I saw it in Blu-ray quality, so maybe that influenced me a bit too); some scenes were completely "new" to me (the line drawn over what is taboo doesn't really exist here), the casting is purely average, but to go back to the "newness" of certain scenes, the script is probably the strongest weapon this movie has at certain moments SPOILER ALERT (bath in lye, cut off balls, shotgun in anus) END SPOILER. I can't go below 4 stars in rating it though, because it's just the kind of carnage that doesn't get made every year.
()
Ads