Starring: Camille Keaton, Eron Tabor, Richard Pace, Anthony Nichols, --- Sarah Butler, Andrew Howard, Jeff Branson,
Plot: An aspiring writer is repeatedly gang-raped, humiliated, and left for dead. She soon seeks out the men, systematically hunts them down to seek out her ultimate revenge or better yet get justice.
"After it was all over... she waited... then she struck back in a way only a woman can!"
I first watched I spit on your grave when I was 11 years old. I remember very vividly because I was in a Ma and Pa video store scanning the horror section as I always did and they're among the sunbaked VHS covers, was a half naked woman holding a knife.
I instantly became drawn to the picture and my curious little freaky horror movie mind had to see this picture. So that's what I rented and the rest is history. If you know me I am a diehard revenge movie fan. I love those movies were the innocent person is tortured, tormented, in someway, but then turns around and takes the bad guys out.
I grew up with the Death Wish series and Clint Eastwood's revenge westerns and so I Spit on Your Grave became an instant guilty pleasure.
When I had heard they were making a remake I really wasn't that sad or mad or angry like most of the goofy movie buff world gets whenever a remake is stated because I knew, I Spit on Your Grave was one of those movies that would benefit from a remake. The original has not stood the test of time so I was happy that a new approach to a classic might just succeed.
"Y'know, sometimes I look at these gorgeous-looking chicks, I mean the ones that look like real knockouts, sexy and all... and I wonder... I wonder if they gotta take a shit, too." ---Andy
Remakes are always going to happen no matter how much fanboys or goofy nerdy horror people bitch and moan. The bitching is not going to work, it's going to happen, so the best bet is to deal with it and if you don't want to deal with it, don't watch it. I really don't look at them as remakes. I look at them as a retelling of the classics. A lot of horror movie's do not stand the test of time and certain ones need remakes as long as it's done right. As long as it's done in the vision that the original one had. As long as it's done in a visceral disturbing way.
I feel there are many remakes that do succeed or at least stabilize themselves as new classics. I believe the remake of The Hills Have Eyes, the remake of The Last House on the Left, the remake of The Crazies are just a few that stand out in my mind as being worthy modern-day Classics to the originals.
For instance, the remake of The Crazies is a lot better than the original, actually in all honesty is better than then original. So sometimes remakes work and sometimes remakes don't, it just depends. The original I Spit on Your Grave has always been a classic in my book, it's a disturbing revenge film. A woman that's tortured and tormented by a bunch of hicks, back in the woods, she comes back and seeks her revenge in most vivid ways.
I'll always remember I Spit on Your Grave because it shocked me as a kid. I believe that violence against women is horrible, it's something that should not be tolerated in any form or fashion. So when I saw the character of Jennifer Hill be tortured, raped, beaten, it really left a lasting mark on my childlike mind at that particular time and so when she came back and sought out the violent end's to those that destroyed her, it made me giddy, giggle and somewhat complete.
Certain type of violence has to be so it can close the ordeal that took place. The original I Spit on Your Grave in my book is a must see, must own, little Classic of its time.
The revenge films, those dirty grind house films where women are tortured and mutilated and destroyed by the destruction of the horror of a beastly monster known as man. Jennifer Hill ended up showing them all. Jennifer Hill went against the boogie man. She went against the massive wall of society that puts down women, that thinks men can destroy women at all cost but Jennifer Hill becomes a modern day vigilante hero, destroying the evil of the world.
Now here's where it gets a little difficult for some to understand my viewpoint. This is where some people get upset because of my views. Yes a woman should be allowed to do what she wishes. Yes a woman should be able to go out in the middle of nowhere and spend vacation. Yes a woman should be able to walk down the street or jog in the dark in Central Park but guess what ladies and gentlemen it is stupid to think that something is not going to happen or could happen.
I am not saying you should not have the right to do it, all I am saying is you should have the logic not to do it.
It's sad but if you take a woman and place her out in the middle of nowhere and there's a bunch of guys, specially back woodsy guys with lust, and here comes the city-folk girl flaunting her stuff and city folk ways, something might just happen. That's like a woman only wearing a thong walking into a Hells Angel motorcycle bar and she doesn't expect something to happened, give me a break, it's stupidity, not woman's rights.
So that leads me to the remake of I Spit On Your Grave; because that subject matters plays out a little more in this one then it does in the original. Here you have Jennifer Hill, a writer coming into town by herself in the middle of nowhere. City-folk girl, educated, pretty. The first thing she does is meet up with all the good local boys at the gas station and the first impression doesn't go too good. She basically lets everyone know she is by herself. Soon Jennifer Hill finds the cabin and likes to runaround out in the open with short shorts, showing cleavage and I am not saying that women don't have the right to do that, they should, but when you're by yourself and you have no means of safety and there's a bunch of people that could be watching you, looking at you, you should think twice, plus you shouldn't be there by yourself in the first place, there I said it, get on to me, yell at me women's rights, but the truth is, men can be dogs and men can be some evil sons of bitches and men can be some dirty dog bastards when it comes to the idea of sex in the raging heat of the moment all logic can fade away.
The remake did a great job in showcasing the aspect of an independent woman coming to a small town and local hicks not taking to an educated city-folk girl, flaunting her stuff. There are moments that are disturbing, visceral. There are moments that are shocking for what they got away with on the movie theater, at least I know this is the uncut version and they did chop some minutes away from the theater version but this version of the unrated version works in all it's modern-day glory of remaking an old classic that needed an update, because as I stated the original did not stand the test of time. It needed a new visual approach. The new capture for a new modern day culture to show the original revenge film.
I Spit on Your Grave, the newest one, does work in many ways. It does capture the heart of the evil of the guys. The violence and rape against Jennifer Hill is captured in a disturbing way to watch. I only have one complaint and that would be some of the acting in spots by Sarah Butler who plays Jennifer Hill, her crying, when the first initial attack started was kind of cheesy, almost like she was forcing herself to cry, like a fake crocodile tears and you could tell it, that was my only downfall to the film.
All in all I think all the acting works. I think each individual character is drawn out and showcased. You don't need to much characterization with a lot of the characters because you can pretty much tell who, and what they are, and the lifestyles they live. That backwards redneck with a dick dominant male type of character.
I think the greatest character of all out of the men is the sheriff. His acting, his persona plays with you. Andrew Howard did a fantastic job acting the part.
Jennifer Hill takes her revenge. The revenge scenarios are great they play out wonderful in the vividly graphic way. There is some great little new twist on the deaths. I enjoyed for the most part all of them. I think they work for what they are.
Something interesting to note is the original poster in 1978 states she gets revenge on five men but in the original there was only four. In the remake they added another making it five.
Also in the remake Jennifer Hill gets gas at the station, the total is 19.78 which is the year the original came out.
I think the remake is a good film. The original always will be a classic to me, just because it was the very first of its kind that I saw where the woman comes back and takes revenge. It was the very first one I picked up and saw that a woman fought back where as in other horror movies, the women where always tortured and killed and they where the ones that became destroyed and never got to get their revenge or it took, the dick swinging man to save them. I Spit on Your Grave was the first one where I saw the female victim actually become the hero.
I always found it fascinating that Camille Keaton the original Jennifer Hill is the great niece of Buster Keaton the one of a kind actor and comedian.
Both these films work. Watch the original and then move on to the remake for some classic revenge.