20 Greatest Revenge Movies Of All-Time

20. I Spit On Your Grave

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Inarguably the most famous of all "rape and revenge" flicks (that strange little sub-genre that popped up in the '70s and spawned countless chronicles of gruesome female retribution), 1978's I Spit On Your Grave isn't a great film by any standard.

But despite the fact that the performances, the script and the production values are mostly awkward, the film retains a strange kind of power. It is, after all, notoriously violent - even by modern standards - and its depictions of a woman on a rampage (in this case, one Jennifer Hills, who sets out to murder a group of men who wronged after she's gang raped in the Connecticut countryside) are notably cathartic, each one depicted in increasingly gruesome ways.

This is certainly one of the most important pictures in all of revenge cinema. For that reason alone, I Spit On Your Grave is worth 100 minutes of your time; as a feminist wish-fulfilment fantasy, a piece of cinematic history, or - when the mood strikes - a despicable video nasty.