MyRating: YY1/2Director: Steven R. Monroe
Cast: Sarah Butler, Jeff Branson, Andrew Howard, Daniel Franzese, Rodney Eastman, Chad Lindberg
MPAA: Rated R for pervasive strong sadistic brutal violence, rape and torture, nudity and language
A remake of the 1978 controversial rape revenge movie I Spit on Your Grave (Day of the Woman), that was being banned in many countries when it was released due to its graphic violence against woman, which also made the movie to receive the 'cult' status. I haven't watched the old 1978 version, so I cannot compare it to this 2010 version, but what I can tell you is this remake is an extremely sadistic and violence movie that may be too hard for some people to watch.
A young and good looking writer, Jennifer Hills (Sarah Butler), would have never thought that her retreat to a solitary cabin in the woods, to start what should have been her exciting new novel, will become the worst nightmare of her life that will also tear down her entire future. Some local guys, 'disturbed' and 'aroused' by her beauty and aloneness, feel the need to break into her cabin to teach her how they welcome a 'big town' girl, as well as to scare the hell out of her. But their 'scare game' quickly and unbearably turns into physical abuse and assault, as they brutally torture and rape her. In a very terrible and pity condition, the girl somehow escapes the assaulters and goes missing. And the guys believe that she has died, only to later on realize that they will have to reap the crime that they have sown, as Jennifer comes back with a vengeance. And the nightmare turns into theirs, as they have to face the horrifying revenge from the girl, that they could never think of. The much, much worse tortures that will not only make them regret what they have done to her, but also make them wish they never have met her at the first place.
It may look like a 'guilty pleasure' torture porn movie, but it was not (well, maybe the 1st half, but not the 2nd half when things becoming pretty hard to watch). The rape scene was disturbing, as disturbing as the fact that one of the guys still has to answer the phone from her little girl at home, while they are in the middle of assaulting the lady. This guy in his normal life may be seen as a respected man of the society, a good husband and a loving father, but inside is a morally depraved man, who is willing to take all the risks in order to satisfy his animal instincts. What a 'sick' reality and world we are living in.
But if you think the rape scene is the most disturbing part, wait until you see the revenge scenes from the girl, where the guys were being punished in their own different ways based on how they have treated her. The extreme violence graphics and the explicit on-screen brutalities as shown in her revenge were way, way too sadistic and painfully gory, even reached a disgusting level, that will make you very uneasy while watching it. It made me shiver and wanted to skip some of the overly terrifying scenes. What the guys did to the girl was definitely unforgivable and they should ultimately face their punishments, but how she made the guys suffer actually made me felt pity for them.
I think how Jennifer could think of and pull all these kinds of hellish and inhumanity acts was actually not plausible and believable enough, because not only it needs physical strength to beat all these big guys easily, but also it needs an imprinted cold 'hearted' blood to do all that. Maybe if she also saw her boyfriend or husband or child being killed by these guys in front of her, it will be more easily to believe what she became and able to do. But who knows, the hatred may be enough to turn her into the cruelest devil to execute all these brutalities (anyway, they did it to her in the first place), since it is a 'sick-sick' world we are living in. I'm not saying that what the guys did was not deserved the punishments, they did, but I simply think that how the story plot moved and the character development was just not believable enough for a nice and meek lady like her to do all these horror and hard core violence stuffs. It felt a bit rush to move on to the revenge scenes without further character development of Jennifer.
Even though this movie smells like a 'B' class movie with a 'B' class theme, but the movie was actually well produced and the actings were not those of 'B' class actings (which usually will annoy you with very poor actings), as all the actors here acted quite well, including the 'brave' appearance of Sarah Butler. Overall, a decent horror movie, even though I must say the violence was too much for me.
I believe some people will embrace this movie and some will hate it to the bones. If you are not into this kind of genre and your heart can't handle extreme violence, I warn you to avoid this movie. But if you are okay with excessive violence, then this movie may become another 'cult' one. (MJ)
