I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE

Young writer Jennifer Hills rents a house in the countryside to write her new novel in peace. Her first contact with the locals isn't the best, as after being approached by Johnny, the shady gas station attendant, she is chased away in a bad way. Johnny and his two friends are still struck by Jennifer and begin to spy on her in her privacy, until one night, the three boys, together with the mentally challenged errand boy Matthew and with the complicity of the local sheriff, sneak into Jennifer's house and rape her in turn all night long. Left for dead, the girl abandons herself to the waters of the river, disappearing into nothingness. But Jennifer isn't dead and she's ready to return to consummate her revenge. In 1978, a film destined to make a lot of noise was released, "I Spit on Your Grave," one of the most disturbing and realistic exponents of the rape & revenge genre. Still remembered today as the film with the most ferocious and longest rape scene in cinema history (about twenty minutes of abuse inflicted on the brilliant actress Camille Keaton), "I Spit on Your Grave" over time has become a cult in its genre and it can be stated that after more than 30 years it is still a hard film and certainly only suitable for strong stomachs. In times of wild remakes like those we live in, do you think the small cult directed by Meir Zarchi could have escaped the logic of the remake? The question is obviously rhetorical and so "I Spit on Your Grave" also had its own 2000s remake, just as it happened to two other famous exponents of the rape & revenge genre like "The Last House on the Left" and "Straw Dogs." Unlike the aforementioned titles, however, the remake of "I Spit on Your Grave" - which in the Italian market version kept the suggestive original title "I Spit on Your Grave" - is not made for a major Studio, on the contrary it is a quasi-independent product just like the original work of the '78. This means no compromises, no TV-launched starlets and more freedom in the story and staging. Do not underestimate these aspects because if in the recent versions of "The Last House on the Left" and "Straw Dogs" not even a boob was seen and who was supposed to die instead was saved to offer a spectacle appetizing to the widest possible audience, in "I Spit on Your Grave" no compromises are made and a raw and disturbing spectacle almost as much as the work of the '70s is thrown to the spectators. Steven R. Monroe, who in the past directed the terrible "Devil on the Mountain," the negligible "House of 9" and a ton of C-movies for TV, does not have a great directorial personality but in addition to signing with "I Spit on Your Grave" his best work ever, he still manages to give the film a rough look very much in tune with the type of film he is tackling. But the really surprising aspect of this lifting operation is that "I Spit on Your Grave" does not turn out to be a useless remake like most of those that crowd the market. The reason is simple. Meir Zarchi's film undoubtedly focused on the moment of rape, the "rape" phase, offering us that unbearable long agony of Keaton possessed in turn by the four scoundrels. Monroe's film, on the other hand, puts more emphasis on Jennifer's revenge, making the "revenge" phase central to the narrative. Obviously in "I Spit on Your Grave" the violence on the woman is not lacking, long and intense even in this case, but the attention and imagination of the screenwriter are undoubtedly catalyzed on the atrocious ends to which the five rapists (yes, here one is added) will go. These are clearly revenge acts thought in the perspective of torture porn with echoes of Jigsaw, with incredible death machines that offer an interesting point of view on the change of times. If once, in fact, the maximum could be represented by a castration in the bath foam, a terrible and effective scene but which left much of the action to the imagination, today between excoriations with caustic soda, eyeballs torn out, penises cut off with pliers and made to swallow and anal penetrations with a pump-action rifle there's really something to make you pale. Obviously even the verisimilitude of the basic story tends to fall and everything is reduced to a horror show that plays to show itself more and more sadistic, killing after killing, leaving the suspension of disbelief to do the bulk of the work. But it cannot be denied that in the end the game works and this torture porn variant is largely preferable to a photocopy update of the already beautiful original film. Sarah Butler in the role of the protagonist works quite well, although she lacks the fragility and that particular sex appeal that Camille Keaton had. Among the scoundrels, the one who convinces the most is Andrew Howard ("The Hangover Part II"; "Limitless"), both for his acting ability and for the writing of the character, a sadistic guardian of the law and at the same time a loving husband and parent. In conclusion with "I Spit on Your Grave" we are faced with a good film and a good remake, capable of exploring different aspects compared to the original and probing current times returning to the horror cinema market what the public today asks, without ever yielding to the logic of the mainstream. The level of violence and atrocities in "I Spit on Your Grave" is extremely high, so if you are particularly sensitive to scenes of violence, especially against women, avoid watching it. Add half a pumpkin.