I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE Review On "Violent Maniac's Cage"

I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE

ALSO KNOWN AS: Day Of The Woman.

(1979, USA)

DIRECTED BY: Meir Zarchi.

Film is not nearly as disgusting or brutal as reputed to be. It does have some nasty degradation and rape but if you've seen many films of this type I Spit On Your Grave is not one of the worst. Its about vacationing Camille Keaton who goes to her summer home by the lake to write her first novel.

A local mentally handicapped man likes Keaton and his three friends decide to pay her a visit. First they taunt her and then they all take turns raping her. The whole ordeal lasts a half an hour at least but the rapists follow Keaton around before each one of their turns begins and after it is the next one's. They beat her and throw her around in the mud until they follow her home and finish they're fun. The mentally incoherent one is told to finish the job and kill Keaton which shows the men are cowardly but the sap doesn't have the guts to do it so he lies about it.

After two weeks Keaton recovers physically anyway and goes on a mission of revenge. She castrates, hangs, axes and gets one guy with an outboard motor. The film is silly and some things Keaton does like lift up a man which is dead weight by a rope would be impossible for a woman her size to accomplish. I'm not discriminating towards women I'm just being realistic.

There aren't really any gore effects and the kill scenes are not as half as effective as I expected them to be and the film is not nearly as sleazy either. Not a bad film but as revenge flicks go Last House On The Left is unbeatable and far more disturbing. I wouldn't call this x-rated material.

Rating: 3 Skulls

Review by: Richard J. Taylor

Email: rtaylor@roadrunner.nf.net

I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE

ALSO KNOWN AS: Day Of The Woman.

(1979, USA)

DIRECTED BY: Meir Zarchi.

Basically this movie is crap and you shouldn't see it and therefore you probably have no reason to read on. The thing is, the movie, in its own shoddy way, is an interesting piece of crap, not an enjoyable one, but for any film majors out there, read why I felt it earned the one star it got.

O.K., well, this film is pretty famous because when it came out it was a big controversy and people picketed it and blah blah blah. Then, when people actually saw how bad the movie was, no one really cared anymore. It is understandable, however, why the plot alone would get people all riled up.

The plot of I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE is as follows: a city-woman goes to the country to a cabin to do some writing and get some peace and quiet. She soon meets a bunch of guys who hang out together. Three loser slimy guys and one mentally retarded man who they both take pity on and mock. Before long, they take out the woman and gang-rape her in a long, excruciating fashion culminating with the three slimy dudes convincing the mentally-challenged guy into raping her as well. Disgusting, isn't it? Yes.

But, that's only half of the movie. The woman survives these attacks and quite quickly begins to plan her revenge. The rest of the movie is for the audience to sit and watch the four men get the punishment they deserve: death, in a variety of gruesome ways.

It sounds terrible and it is...the acting sucks, the dialogue sucks, the filming sucks, etc. etc. But, the movie is interesting in a few unique ways. One: the rape scenes are terrible, yes, and violent, yes, but nothing about them makes the viewer sick or need to turn away (this isn't my male opinion, I watched it with two women).

Two: where are we supposed to find the horror? Is it in the rape scenes or in the gruesome deaths of the four men? They are getting their due justice so we are supposed to be glad that they die, and we are...even when one of them bleeds to death in a bathtub after being castrated. So, how does this film fit into the horror category necessarily? It's weird.

Three: Is it feminist or not? The basic plot sounds like a simple feminist rape-revenge structure, but it's a bit more icky than that. We watch twenty minutes of this woman getting raped, but her revenge is a bit more sketchy. With the exception of one of the male deaths, we never really see a long, excruciating death of a male. Even the guy who gets castrated we know dies because the woman leaves the bathroom to LISTEN to him die. How many horror movies do you HEAR a woman die. Almost always you see it. So, how come we couldn't see these rapists die the slow deaths they deserved given the long, long rape scenes.

I know, I know, there's really nothing I've said that is gonna make you run right out and rent the film and that's the right reaction. It's not a very enjoyable movie and not a very meritorious one either. But, I'd be lying if I didn't say it is interesting. One final note: the women who have seen it that I know admit it sucks, but don't hate watching it as much as the men. Hmmm....

Rating: * (out of a possible 4)

Review by: Dan Sachar

Email: webdaddy@smackem.com

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