This is one of the harder reviews I’ve had to write, simply because Steven Monroe’s remake of the brutally extreme 1978 rape-revenge film I Spit On Your Grave will be so incredibly divisive and polarizing. It’s quite difficult to maintain an aesthetic distance from this sort of film simply because you have to ask yourself – how do you judge the ‘quality’ of a film in which a solid third is dedicated to the systematic breaking down, physically and mentally, of a helpless woman? What makes this rape scene ‘better’ or ‘more effective’ than another, like the one in Gaspar Noe’s harrowing film Irreversible?
Monroe’s adaptation of the 1978 film is extremely similar in theme and structure to the original, with the rape sequences made far more realistic with much more tension added and the revenge kills are similarly ratcheted way up, and are much more realistic. One of the many issues I had with the original I Spit was that the lead, Jennifer Hills, lures her rapists in for the kill by seducing them and actually does sleep with one of them again in order to trap him. This is completely insane and adds an element of absurdity to the entire rape-revenge scenario. No woman on earth would ever willingly invite her rapist into her bed (or clearing in the woods, in this case) within hours of such a violent act but we see this multiple times in the original film. This is, thankfully, rectified in Monroe’s remake. There is a clear separation between the rape and the revenge, and I think that’s the best way to handle this particular story. At no point do you feel that Jennifer Hills is enjoying what’s happening to her (which unfortunately comes across in the 1978 film), and that is a serious improvement.
I mean, getting back to that objective distance thing – the original I Spit On Your Grave is really poorly-acted. It was only on a whim that I decided to go back and watch it – I probably saw it back in the mid-90’s for the first time and never again – and it is embarrassingly facile and completely lacking in nuance. It’s definitely a landmark film and all, but in terms of actual performances I think that the remake works far better than the original in all aspects. In the context of the film, the rape scenes in the remake are definitely disturbing and senseless enough that you can’t possibly be desensitized to what you’re watching (the original is so badly-acted that it’s almost funny, which is disturbing in and of itself), and that is key to digesting the second half of the film. If you’re not absolutely engaged, horrified, and disgusted by that rape scene the kills would seem either meaningless or too far over the top, so Monroe is to be commended for retaining that feel from the original work while adding a necessary element of seriousness. If anything, the fact that medics had to be called into our screening to attend to someone that fainted during these scenes is indicative to the effect it can have. Be warned, it is unsettling and highly vivid.
Sarah Butler is startling in the lead role and has many physical similarities to the star of the original, Camille Keaton (Buster Keaton’s granddaughter). Her performance during the rape scenes does a good job of conveying the brutality and humiliation she is subjected to, and it is definitely one of the bravest performances I’ve seen this year. However, when it comes time to turn the tables on her attackers, I found that there was something missing. Neither mindlessly detached as a result of the trauma she has endured nor blind with rage – with the exception of one scene in which this comes out, though in a benign way – Butler seems a little more casual than I would like to see. If she had decided to go one way or the other, those scenes would work even better than they do now. It can be argued that Monroe is going for a more realistic approach here, and it’s possible and even probable that one’s reaction to being raped would fall somewhere between anger and despondence, but I can’t speak to that with any authority.
The rapists, especially the Sheriff, are about as nuanced and realistic as they can be in a movie like this. The younger men, at first, seemingly have only one personality trait – these guys love rape. But as the film moves along they are presented as being uniformly ignorant and malicious, allowing for no hint of sympathy for any of them, and I can appreciate that that’s really the only way it can be played given what they do and what they have to endure in the film’s second half. If you feel, at any point, that these guys aren’t getting exactly what they deserve, no matter how horrific (and make no mistake, their deaths are stomach-turning, even by Hostel/Saw standards), then the film is an abject failure. Perhaps most startling is long-time soap opera heartthrob Jeff Branson in a terrifying turn as Johnny. I’m not a big soap fan, but when I mentioned his role to a Young And The Restless-loving coworker, she was shocked that he could pull off a role like this. Not having seen him on the soap, I can’t imagine the inverse – he’s so brutal and terrifying in the first half of the film that you can’t imagine the ladies fawning over Branson at all. This is definitely a testament to his ability to inhabit that role completely.
While it’s certainly flawed, there is absolutely something of value in I Spit On Your Grave. So much so, in fact, that the original – to say nothing of the awful sequels – is hardly worth watching in comparison, and honestly is rendered completely obsolete with Monroe’s adaptation. For those looking for Hostel-esque kills and gore, there’s certainly lots here, and for those looking for a kick-ass female going to town on the most ignorant bunch of jackasses to grace the screen at After Dark 2010 – well, you’re covered there too.
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We’ve checked out some of the previous incarnations of Flip Video camera when they hit Canadian store shelves and had seen a lot of potential in the product line early on. Recently, we got a nice surprise bit of news though: A new Flip Video camera is hitting shelves. It’s a new generation of the Flip MinioHD and it’s worth checking out. 
