11 October 2024
I Spit On Your Grave (1978)
100 min.
Directed by Meir Zarchi.
With Camille Keaton, Eron Tabor, Richard Pace, Anthony Nichols, Gunter Kleeman.
A variation on Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left (1972), this infamous exploitation shocker features a standout performance from Keaton.

Not to mention one of the best grindhouse titles of the late 1970s.

Aspiring writer Jennifer Hills (Keaton) goes away to a vacation home, and is attacked and raped by a group of local thugs.

But the story ain't over.

She decides to take deadly revenge herself. As she tracks down the five men who violated, humiliated and disrespected her, she hacks, cuts, stabs, and bludgeons her way to redemption!

Tacky, sleazy and exploitative, with a cast made up of mostly amateurs...and yet the whole thing somehow works.

It does what a horror film should do - it unsettles in a way that gets under your skin, and is at least as good as the somewhat overrated Craven film. The "castration scene" alone will have you squirming in your drive-in bucket seat.

Keaton's demeanor here is perfect: measured, understated, sometimes stoic, which makes her revenge scenes all the more shocking.

Also known as Day of the Woman.

Great tagline: "This Woman Has Just Cut, Chopped, Broken and Burned Five Men Beyond Recognition... But No Jury In America Would Ever Convict Her!"

Indeed.

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