RG
Roberto Giacomelli
•Jennifer Hill, a writer in search of the right calm to write her next novel, moves into an isolated house in the countryside. The girl is used to sunbathing by the river and wandering around in scanty attire in her garden, but one day she is spotted by a group of thugs who force her onto their speedboat and take her to a secluded place where they rape her in four. Believed to be dead, Jennifer is abandoned, but after a period of convalescence and a visit to church to seek absolution for what she was about to do, the girl seeks revenge on her tormentors.
One of the most famous representatives of the "Rape & Revenge" genre and a cursed film par excellence (banned for many years in numerous countries around the world including Canada, New Zealand, Norway, Ireland, England), "I Spit on Your Grave" still appears today as a rather disturbing experience for the viewer. If compared to other films of the same genre, "I Spit on Your Grave" proves to be the most savage and misogynistic, boasting a central part, that is the rape scene, of an exasperating length (about 30 minutes): in this long stretch of time, the young writer is humiliated, beaten, and raped by the four men in all imaginable ways, making the viewing extremely hard even for the most seasoned viewer. The final part, the one dedicated to revenge, appears as a liberation also for the viewer, but on this occasion the director adopts a lighter touch in the representation of violence, although the scene of the evisceration in the bathtub will be remembered for a long time. The director of this film, Meir Zarchi, manages to make the entire story as realistic and disturbing as possible, thanks to a semi-documentary tone, characteristic of the entire "Rape & Revenge" genre, accentuated by the absence of a soundtrack (except for the tune played on the harmonica by one of the four thugs) and a naturalistic photography. The cast is almost entirely composed of unknowns who boast this single acting performance in their curriculum, with the exception of Camille Keaton, the actress who plays Jennifer, who had already made a name for herself in significant roles in "What Have You Done to Solange?" (in the role of Solange!), "Extracted from the Secret Archives of the Police of a European Capital" and "The Sex of the Witch".
If one were to consider the amorality and total misogyny of the film, "I Spit on Your Grave" would undoubtedly be a film to boycott; but if one overlooks these details, recurrent by tradition in all films of this genre, and considers the good performance of the actors and the skillful direction of Zarchi, as well as the feeling of watching a kind of snuff movie, one can comfortably consider this film a successful work. Naturally, inserting this film into the general panorama of horror cinema, it represents very little, but if considered simply for what it wants to be, that is a shock movie capable of making people talk, it has fully achieved its purpose.
A must-see for those who appreciate the "Rape & Revenge" genre, negligible for others; not recommended for the most impressionable.
Curiosity. "I Spit on Your Grave" boasts one of the strangest original titles ever thought of, literally "I Spit on Your Grave".
There is also a direct sequel in 1993 by Donald Farmer titled "Savage Vengeance" in which Camille Keaton also returns in the role of Jennifer Hill.