Jennifer Hills is a woman who travels down Mockingbird Trail and rents a cabin for a few months to work on a novel. While the locals are certainly weird, they come off harmless...at first. One night, Jennifer is at home when several freaky hick townies break into the cabin, relentlessy threatening her, torturing her, and soon enough, horribly assaulting her. After she is gang-raped, she is left for dead while the locals clean up the mess. What they don't know is that Jennifer really isn't dead. She soon gathers her strength and returns with a vengeance. She is going to make these men pay, in the roughest, torturous, most brutal ways possible.
Meir Zarchi's 1978 exploitation flick "Day of the Woman"(more well-known as "I Spit On Your Grave") is one of the most notorious horror titles of the century. Critics despise it mostly for its rumored unwatchable rape scene that is said to last for quite a while, making it all the more painful. The movie's criticism is ignored while the more it is talked about, the more people watch it.
It is surprising to say that I haven't seen the original "I Spit On Your Grave," and I've found it more safe that way. And I certainly didn't rush to see the remake, mostly because it was unrated(which is usually the kiss of death for any film). I waited for the DVD. When I finally saw it, I quickly decided that it's certainly not a movie for everyone. Some will find the violent nature of the film to be too much for them while others will find it a powerful and brutal exercise in justified revenge. I am on the positive side.
I know what you're thinking? How can a movie in which a girl is raped for an extensive amount of time be entertaining? Well, the rape scene in "I Spit On Your Grave" is definitely no picnic. It's less subtle and more brutal than the one in the remake of Wes Craven's "The Last House on the Left," but it's not as long as it is reputed to be, unlike the original.
However, as harsh to watch as it is, there is a feeling of hope for Jennifer right from the start. The rape scene only eggs our protagonist and the audience to get back at the villains and deliver some major justice. The movie promises that, and it's a promise kept.
From what I've heard, in the original, Jennifer takes revenge on her violators by actually seducing them, which, next to the assault scenes, probably set off more angry arguments than that of "The Last House on the Left." The revenge scenes in the remake are fun while they are still pretty disturbing and near unwatchable because Jennifer doesn't come back the same person she was before, and as she tortures the men brutally, her sense of humor is macabre and nifty as she spouts out lines like "I thought you were an ass man"(let's not talk about that scene) or "You like to watch, don't you?" as she tortures the film fanatic of the rapists while filming his death with his own camera. Her revenge is a magnificent one.
The movie is held together not as much by director Steven R. Monroe as it is held together by its cast. Jeff Branson, Rodney Eastman, and Daniel Franzese are especially noteable for their performances as Johnny, Andy, and Stanley, as well as Chad Lindberg as the retarded Matthew, who is painfully forced into being the first to rape Jennifer.
Let's talk about our heroine. Jennifer Hills is played by newcomer Sarah Butler. There is a negative side to her performance but also a very positive side. Butler looks a little too young to be playing a professional writer, which does take away a tiny amount of believability. However, she has a lot of guts to play a role like this. She stretches so far out of her comfort zone in order to film the rape scene, which is never easy for any actor or actress to do if they are doing such a scene. Also, she portrays Jennifer's revenge as oddly realistic and it is never cartoonish. Even though her casting was a slight miss-step, Butler pulls through and gives an amazing performance.
I said it before, and I'll say it again. "I Spit On Your Grave" is not for everyone. I'm not saying that rape is a good thing, but the movie lends a feeling of female empowerment and strength to the character of Jennifer Hills, making her revenge all the more sweeter than any we've seen in a while. The torture scenes are just as gut-wrenching for us as the characters, but in a way, every one of us has a side that wants to be scared and repulsed, which is probably one thing that makes horror so popular. Some movies can be fun, others can't. "I Spit On Your Grave" is a weird mixture of both. Call me crazy, but this Day of the Woman was a day well-spent.
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