15 Recent Horrors You Should Avoid This Halloween

5. I Spit On Your Grave 2

The Thing 2011
Anchor Bay

Ugh. As if Meir Zarchi's infamous 1978 video nasty wasn't enough, they went and remade it in 2010. And if that wasn't bad enough, there followed a sequel in 2013. Lacking either predecessor's vaguest reason for being (the first, an 'educational' anti-rape piece, according to Zarchi, the second, its remake), this one is an exercise in nasty, banal exploitation.

Lured into capture by rapists posing as fashion photographers, Katie embarks on a vengeance-driven killing spree, bringing her rapists to murder justice. Like its predecessor(s), I Spit On Your Grave 2 feels far more interested in the rape element of its rape/revenge, tacking an unsatisfying and unmemorable bloodfest to the back half. Again, ugh.

Surprisingly, the next sequel - subtitled Vengeance Is Mine' - is actually worth seeking out, with more on its mind than your average male-directed rape/revenge thriller. None of them, however, make for particularly cheery Halloween party viewing. A subgenre maybe best avoided altogether.

Contributor
Contributor

A film critic and professional writer of over ten years, Joel Harley has a deep and abiding love of all things horror, Batman and Nicolas Cage. He can be found writing online and in print, all over the Internet and in especially good bookstores.