Review: I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE - Full Of Bizarre Excesses and Ham Acting

By Michael J Edwards / July 1, 2011

rating: 2

(Our FrightFest 2010 review re-posted as the film is on limited U.K. release from today) The next FrightFest offering I squeezed into was a less humorous prospect that Isle of Dogs, with its bizarre excesses and ham acting. Based on a controversial 70s exploitation/moral outrage film (depending on your point of view), I Spit on Your Grave promised to be a gruesome tale of rape and revenge. Not one for the faint of heart. Opening with Jennifer (Sarah Butler), a beautiful, urbane writer fleeing the confines of the city to work on her new book, the film soon descends into a damning indictment of macho male sexuality as a group of small-town guys take a fancy to her. She spurns their attentions, but they are not to be deterred and head to her cabin. As Jennifer was subjected to a horrific and humiliating assault that lasts for a fair chunk of the film, I actually found myself yawning and, though I felt ashamed that I could react so disinterestedly to what is clearly a harrowing series of events, I also wondered how the film could let me get into that languid state of mind. The answer I came to is pretty harsh on the film, but nonetheless I feel compelled to say it. The first 45 minutes or so, which build up to and deal with the attack, seem to be mere lip service to Jennifer's ordeal. It lacks the extreme violence needed to produce a physical reaction to her plight (like, for example, Irreversible, Salo or even The Killer Inside Me deploy) and it lacks the character nuance to go beyond a bland statement that 'this is a really bad'. The reason it's even there, it seems to me, is so that the bloody vengeance which Jennifer wreaks on her assailants after being left for dead can be cheered and clapped at each of it's bloody steps toward completion. By showing a lacklustre filming of something we all know is awful the film excuses the extreme gore and violence that it hurls out in the second half of the film. For me this has two huge problems. Firstly, the first half made me yawn and the second seemed like a series of loosely connected attempts to show some imaginative kills Secondly. by simply nodding at the horror of the rape which sparks Jennifer's killing spree the film lacks the emotional vigour to make any of its content hit home with any real impact. Thirdly, and probably worst of all, by not smashing home the horror of the attack the film makes no attempt to make the experience uncomfortable for those deranged few who do not share the majority view that even the mere idea it is abhorrent. And that shows a great disrespect to some very sensitive subject matter. This is a film that is morally dubious, but not as extreme and controversial as its predecessor, it is gory and violent without really hitting home in a visceral or meaningful way, and there are chunks that are actually quite dull. You could watch it just to be cheer at violence without feeling bad because you're cheering for the 'good' guy, but that's the only really redeeming feature I found. I Spit On Your Grave begins a limited U.K. run from today.