Now, with more rapes!

I can’t say I wasn’t warned about this movie. I was aware before I even put the DVD in the player that Roger Ebert often refers to I Spit On Your Grave as the worst movie ever made. (Incidentally, this is what made me want to watch it in the first place.) I wouldn’t say it’s the worst movie I’ve ever seen but it was definitely the most realistically brutal. Although the brutality was the only realistic part of the entire film.

The plot of ISOYG is simple: aspiring female writer rents a cabin in the woods, on the way she runs into some local men at a gas station nearby, local men later rape the woman, woman gets revenge by killing them one by one. It’s really that minimal. In theory, I don’t have a problem with the plot. Although it’s disturbing to see a character get raped, the revenge the character takes is often very satisfying for the viewer. And rape scenes in movies are often only seconds long because the producers know how difficult it is to watch. Apparently, Meir Zarchi was either not aware of this or just didn’t care.

While sunbathing in a bikini in a canoe on the water, Jennifer (Keaton) is attacked by two men in a motor boat who attach her canoe to their boat and drag her to a remote location near the water. There she is raped by the ringleader of the group, Johnny, played by Eron Tabor. After the rape, you think that she has gotten away but her four attackers are waiting for her deeper in the woods. This pattern repeats itself. I Spit on Your Grave has the dubious distinction of graphically showing not one, not two, BUT FOUR rape scenes. Two of them were so brutal that I actually felt my stomach turn and my gag reflex react. In a movie that is 100 minutes long, the main character gets raped for about 40 minutes—no exaggeration.

Eventually the men tire of the game and they elect the weakest member of their clan, Matthew played by Richard Pace, to go back into Jennifer’s house and kill her. Being the weakest member of the clan, he cannot bring himself to do this but tells the others he has. After her bruises heal, Jennifer lures in Matthew and then Johnny and kills each of them. At this point the remaining two rapists, Stanley and Andy (Nichols and Kleeman) realize that something is wrong and take their motorboat to her house. The whole thing culminates in a scene with both men treading water while Jennifer drives the motor boat while wielding an axe. Two weapons there: axe and outboard motor. Once she has killed them, the credits roll.

The revenge that Jennifer exacts was only mildly satisfying for me. Despite the fact that she does chop off Johnny’s wang in a satisfyingly disgusting bathtub scene, the killings of both Johnny and Matthew were greatly marred by the way she lured them in. Here is a woman who has been viciously raped eight ways from Sunday and she lures these two (at separate times) into isolated places by using her sexuality. She even has sex with Matthew right before, and while she is killing him. She goes after Johnny with a gun and he seemingly convinces her that she really wanted to have sex with the men, was showing her legs to them at the gas station, blah blah blah. Jennifer cons him by making him think that she’s buying this crap and they go back to her house to take a bath together. After what those men did to her, it would take 10 years of therapy and a few bottles of wine before most women would even consider sleeping with any man or being naked in front of one, let alone her attacker.

I read lots of reviews of "ISOYG" after watching it and I’d like to quote one by Luke Y. Thompson, writer for the New Times, that I found on rottentomatoes.com. "Defenders of the film have argued that it's actually pro-woman, due to the fact that the female lead wins in the end, which is sort of like saying that cockfights are pro-rooster because there's always one left standing." Well said.

I know that exploitation films are supposed to be offensive to women, men, African-Americans, whoever. But I expect that the entertainment value or the artistic value of the film will outweigh that offensive nature or really be a part of it in a way that makes sense. There is really no entertainment value here. The only scene where I had my typical B-movie chuckle (which I look forward to) was when Jennifer becomes the axe-wielding motor boat captain. (Oh... and when, as she is chopping off Johnny’s penis, he says, "That feels so good it hurts." That was pretty funny too.) In addition, "ISOYG" couldn’t really decide who it wanted to offend more. Obviously the film is offensive to women with the rape scenes. But it is also truly offensive to men as well. Not to dismiss the fact that the only men seen in this movie are rapists but they are ONLY driven by their penises. Matthew and Johnny were either too stupid or too horny to realize that a woman that they repeatedly raped, beat and left for dead is probably not going to be seducing them. If you’re going to be realistic, then be realistic. Don’t have horrifyingly realistic rape scenes but then make your characters so flat and unreal. It doesn’t work.

DVD features include I Spit On Your Grave trailers, tv spots, radio spots, reviews and cast filmographies. The trailers were actually fun to watch because they very much reminded me of the trailers shown between Planet Terror and Death Proof during the Grindhouse double feature. The DVD also "features" scene selection so you can jump right to your very favorite rape. There are four to choose from, after all.

More than twelve hours after finishing I Spit On Your Grave, I’m still slightly shell shocked. Way too much rape, not nearly enough revenge.