Review of I Spit on Your Grave (2010) by Solutions10 — 25 Oct 2011

For people like me who like their movies as brutal, shameless, sadistic, and as shocking as possible, this is certainly worth a watch, but it unfortunately pulls its punches in places you really wish it wouldn't.

The rape scene is lamentably censored, with very little nudity or violence. I give it props for at least offering a new type of sadism between the rapists, each with their own perversions, and the whole "horse show" thing was entertaining.

But when Matthew is forced to rape Jennifer, the camera shows us almost nothing, basically only implying that it's happening. The scene is desperate for some good acting between Jennifer's terror and confusion along with Matthew's own, but we don't get that.

We don't get a good shot of their faces as this is all happening, which is kind of central to the whole point. It's better than most rape scenes are constructed in film, but it's definitely pulling its punches, and it couldn't be more obvious and detrimental to the piece.

The sheriff is a nice addition to the mix, and becomes the central character in the entire ordeal. His violent rape of Jennifer is particularly special (and her creative revenge is appropriate). The movie is paced pretty well; I didn't think the rape lasted too long, as others have been saying.

I mean, it's mostly in real-time, and in the real world, some people like her are kept for days at a time being sadistically raped and abused, so thirty minutes isn't a big deal. The revenge sequences are creative and appropriately messy, and to my delight, were deliberately constructed for each rapist as for how they acted during the rape.

Jennifer gets quite creative in her relentless hunt to take down each of them as painfully as possible. Unfortunately, while the murders themselves are good, she isn't a very good murderer. She lacks any kind of less-than-sane berserker rage that would naturally fuel her.

She doesn't seem normal, or terrifying. Her acts are somewhat mechanical, done without much emotion, which is a shame, because her revenge fantasies are fueled by her lust for vengeance. She just looks too normal, too clean, to be what she is in this film.

One of her choices is questionable involving the sheriff's family near the end. In all fairness, she had every right to murder them. She probably should have for their own sakes, with the knowledge that the sheriff is a sadistic rapist.

What are they supposed to do afterward in a town like that? Either way, they're not getting a happy ending. Anyway, while some of the violence and rape is tragically censored for all the shock-value fans out there, and the realism gets a few points off for Jennifer's character not acting like a truly vengeful killer, it's nice to see someone try something like this and make it look pretty good.

The scene when the rape is over and Jennifer is walking nude in a dissociated malaise is, thankfully, how a real rape victim would commonly act from the nightmarish shock, confusion, and pain of being gang-raped.

That scene in particular is pretty killer. Worth a watch, for sure.