In the midst of a controversial backstory like that, the filmmakers of the new Anchor Bay release must've been soiling themselves in nervousness trying to figure out how to top it. After all, we're in a jaded age now where kids grow up on movies like 'Saw' and 'Hostel'; mere gore doesn't shock anymore and rarely offends. People have become used to the formulaic structure of a horror film and simply go along for the ride; there's very little left that is considered taboo territory.
Until 'I Spit On Your Grave', that is.
I'm fairly sure that rape is still one of the more untouched subjects in contemporary horror film, and often if there is a scene of violent sex it is done in cutaway shots and implications more than actual panning camera work. While the original film was very blatantly an exploitation film that was honestly about 80% rape scene and 20% kills, the new one keeps that percentage a little more balanced but takes the rape scene to a whole new level.
The film was very well shot, with beautiful camera work and several effects (such as overexposure during the outdoor scenes) that paid tribute to the grainy film stock look of the first film. The premise was believable and kept very true to the first film; a beautiful young woman, Jennifer Hills (Sarah Butler) embarks on a remote cabin retreat alone to get some writing done on her new novel. On the drive up, she encounters a pack of local hoods at the gas station and has an altercation with their leader, Johnny (Jeff Branson) when she refuses to play into his come-ons. Jennifer excuses herself and continues on to her cabin, unable to predict the horrors waiting for her.
Several days pass with Jennifer drinking wine, working on her novel and sunbathing. She has no idea that one of the louts, Stanley (Daniel Franzese) is videotaping her most private moments from a vantage point in the surrounding woods, making homemade spank-bank films for himself and his buddies.
One night while indulging in some drinks, the boys get to ribbing Johnny about his strike-out with the girl. Stanley brings up an incident earlier that day that he caught on film--- their friend Matthew (Chad Lindberg), a mentally-handicapped young man, was sent out to Jennifer's cabin to repair the plumbing. When he was successful, she was so enthusiastic that she kissed his cheek in gratitude. It caused Matthew, a virgin and completely uncomfortable with pretty women, to run away, and the boys have a great laugh at his expense. It gets Johnny to thinking, however, and he decides that he should show Matthew exactly what "city whores" are for. The boys head over to Jennifer's cabin to cause some mayhem.
What follows may be one of the most uncomfortable scenes ever filmed, and I can't honestly imagine how the actors did it without feeling like they needed to scour their skin off with a Brillo pad between takes. Jennifer is tormented and humiliated, made to act like a 'show pony' and peel her lips back to show her teeth, fellating various objects for the boys, and made to dance as if she's enjoying herself. Andy (Rodney Eastman) throws lit matches into her hair to make her squeal, and Stanley videotapes everything. Jennifer manages to escape and runs into the woods, where she collides with the local sheriff (Andrew Howard) and his hunting partner Earl (Tracey Walter). She pleads the sheriff to come and arrest the boys, and when he returns to her cabin he finds the wine bottles and marijuana cigarette she was enjoying earlier and asks her if she's sure she wasn't inviting trouble.
Of course, the audience can see where this is going; the boys return and the sheriff joins in on the fun for a truly horrific rape scene in which Matthew is forced by his friends to lose his virginity to a screaming, struggling Jennifer. He is gibbering and completely out of his mind by then, the chaos too much for him, and he succumbs to the pressure of his friends' taunting and follows through with the rape. Afterward, Jennifer escapes into the woods and is pursued, where she is brutally gang-raped by the other boys and the sheriff. When it's done (an unbelievably long, graphic scene in which the audience was so silent you could have heard a pin drop), Jennifer staggers naked onto the bridge and falls into the water before the sheriff can shoot her. Her body doesn't come to the surface and the boys panic, assuming she may have escaped; they vow to search the river every day until she washes up.
A month passes and the boys begin receiving clues that someone knows about what they did; however none of them put together exactly who it is until it's far too late for them. Jennifer takes great pleasure in hunting each boy down and killing them in some of the most creative and horrible manners imaginable, culminating in a beautifully gory finale with the sheriff himself.
The reason that this film is so poignant rests entirely on the actors; Sarah Butler's turn as Jennifer is so unbelievably convincing that your heart goes out to her, and she invokes exactly the empathy that the director was going for. The audience is one hundred percent in Jennifer's corner; no one thinks she's a bitch who 'had it coming', no one thinks she goes too far in her plot for revenge. She is beautiful, witty, charming, and believable; she is any girl you've ever known, self-reliant and independent, who has her identity stripped from her brutally in a single act of grotesque selfishness.
While she carries the performance's lead on her capable shoulders, the supporting ensemble is equally phenomenal. Nightmare on Elm Street 3 & 4 alum Rodney Eastman is revolting and completely sells his role as a psychotic asshole; he is appropriately creepy and unsettling just in appearance alone, the intensity of his gaze enough to make you squirm and ask for an adult. Chad Lindberg, best known for his work on Supernatural, is absolutely terrific as Matthew. The role required him to reach a certain balance between sympathetic and revulsion; the audience has to hate him for going along with his friends, but they have to pity him too and pray that his death is a quick end. He is the only one genuinely remorseful about what they've done, and the guilt is already tearing him apart by the time Jennifer gets her revenge. Lindberg brings a depth to the role that is truly refreshing and beautiful, and it shows a real leap of acting talent on his behalf to play a handicapped person so convincingly without turning it into any sort of parody of the character's mental state. Daniel Franzese, who will be most recognizable for his turn as the catty gay high schooler Damien in Mean Girls, undergoes a drastic transformation from fey sidekick to completely repulsive voyeur in this film. He is potbellied and sports a shaved head, a heavy Southern accent and a mean, piggish look to him; he is out to hurt and to catch it all on film. This role is completely different than anything Franzese has done before, and it adds a new layer to his resume in a way that none of his fans would expect. Andrew Howard is not only unsettling and horrifying as the sheriff (because truly, what's worse than going to a law official for help only to find out that he's in on the fun himself?) but he lends a twist to the role that makes the character all the more upsetting for audience members. And Jeff Branson plays Johnny as such a cocky, condescending asshole, a complete chauvinist and unsympathetic in the least, that our audience gave a massive cheer when he met his end.
While we're on the topic of 'ends', I won't spoil them for you, but allow me to shed a little light - they are far more horrific in this film than in the original, and much more ingenius. While they are slightly contrived (as in, I find it hard to believe that Jennifer Hills, no matter how well-defined her abs were in this movie, could move Danny Franzese or Jeff Branson by herself while they were unconscious), they are truly unique from anything I've ever seen in a horror film before, and they were almost ingenius in their metaphorical relations to the roles the rapists played in her assault. Our audience was torn between cheering and utter silent horror; two grown men walked out of our theater, and after the lights came up at the end most people looked brutally violated themselves, pale and shaken by what they'd seen.
I would like to point out that I am not squeamish and it's hard to scare me; that said, I spent a good third of this movie with one hand over my face, alternately squealing in anticipation of something terrible or gasping as it happened. At one point during a poignant scene, I actually moaned "Oh, fuck my life" and covered my eyes (which, as happens, was the only sound in the theater at the time and made everyone around me crack up).
Would I recommend this movie to you? Absolutely. It's got great acting, good writing, and more gore than you can shake a stick at (hell, the makeup effects alone are a reason to hail this film as one of the best things horror has done in awhile). It sticks with you and is truly unsettling in a way that will make your skin crawl and your soul feel like it needs some Oxy-Clean. But beyond that? If you have ANY triggers about rape or humiliation, or you are even slightly squeamish about incredibly graphic gore, this is not the film for you--- and for all of you dickfaces that bring your toddlers to "Halloween" because you couldn't get a babysitter, I wouldn't suggest making that judgment error with this film.
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