I Spit On Your Grave: Revenge Is Not So Sweet
Published on September 29th, 2010 in: Feminism, Halloween, Horror, Movie Reviews, Movies |By Michelle Patterson
While working on this piece, a hopeful idea flickered to life: could 23-year-old Michelle and 33-year-old Michelle be pals? Although perhaps possible, perhaps I’m too hopeful that my past self and present self should be friends in some alternate universe. Seeing as I have yet to shake the pop culture-related obsessions which began in my youth and continue to snowball into one massive contradictory mass, it’s not that much of a long shot, physics quandaries aside.
So until time travel becomes reality, here’s the imagined correspondence between two versions of myself about an important piece of film-making, the original I Spit On Your Grave.
Michelle Patterson wrote 10/03/2000:
m,
Listen, I understand what we’re not too close or even know much of each other at this point to talk about a serious topic, but to get ready for the month of horror movie marathons/October, some friends and I decided to have a weekly horror movie fest. A sick friend—I didn’t even know he was this bad off, mentally—suggested this movie called I Spit On Your Grave. Total ’70s cheese and terrible acting and did I mention that there is this very very long rape scene and I mean never-ending?! Then, the rapist just slowly plots her revenge and does it in the sickest ways ever. Luckily, we were all super wasted by this point and didn’t take it all that seriously other than to take a swig of beer to rinse out the bad taste in our mouths. Disturbing. I don’t know why people could even think that making a movie like that would be interesting or even scary. It was just worthless and wrong.
Have you seen it?
~M
Michelle Patterson wrote 9/17/2010:
Michelle,
Yes, we are just slowly getting to know each other and it’s completely fine to talk about serious films or even our reactions to them. What you need to remember, though, is the way we can compare how other rape scenes in films, not even horror but action, suspense, mystery, etc. are to this particular movie. (In fact I think rape scenes are one of the few types of movie scenes, save maybe musical montages that find themselves in every single genre. What an honor!)
It is a sincerely unrelenting and horrifying movie, but at least it feels honest. The gaze remains at a respectful distance and we never are meant to “get off” on anything at all. It’s all about confrontation and disorientation, just like the crime itself. Sometimes, in other films with rape scenes, it slows down or music plays with the intention to manipulate our thoughts on the characters and the events. It’s all style. Grave is ugly in many different ways, but at least it doesn’t try to stylize one of the worst crimes one can imagine. She’s nude a lot, sure, but it just shows us how fragile and vulnerable she is instead of making us find her sexy or focusing on how good she looks, despite the circumstances. Which is pretty interesting, I think.
~m
4 Responses to “I Spit On Your Grave: Revenge Is Not So Sweet”
September 30th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
Very cool piece. Well done.
It’s incredible to me that this brutal, micro-budget grindhouse flick is still so endlessly discussed 30-plus years later. It certainly says something of it (and, to be honest, it says something of the influence wielded by Siskel and Ebert; whose declaring it the worst film ever made surely aided it in not simply being forgotten). It is definitely not a film one forgets having seen.
Given the probably hundreds of films I want to see which I still have not, I’m a bit embarrassed to admit I’ve seen this one 3 or 4 times during my life; once as a kid where my reaction was not unlike that of the 23 year old you, once in my late teens or twenties for whatever reason, and once accompanied by the terrific Joe Bob Briggs commentary on the original Anchor Bay DVD release (which does sincerely, albeit irreverently, defend the film – quite sincerely, for example, arguing it’s a far more powerful, and no more exploitative, exploration of its subject matter than The Accused).
I’ve certainly heard and read the film defended before, but rarely by a woman, and rarely so articulately. As one who’s always found the film to be rather worthless apart from being a particularly grim cultural curiosity piece, I likely won’t view it again to re-assess (as by now it’s surely time for me to move on to one of the hundreds of less rapey films I’ve still yet to see), but your arguments are well made.
While watching the trailer for the remake just the other day, it struck me that they seem to be focusing more on the victim’s revenge. It certainly could be argued that in this very strange context, this is the enlightened approach. I won’t see the film to find out, but I suspect this remake may be aiming for a pretense of a more soul restoring type of revenge.
While in the original, I always found the fact that her vengeance is given about 1/3 the amount screen time as her degradation a bit conspicuous, I always appreciated the last scene — where she’s a hallowed out husk, blank-eyed and broken, having been granted no closure nor peace — as being the one moment in the film with real artistic value. It’s truly startling. Even if one doesn’t agree with what it’s saying, you do have to admit it’s saying something. I suspect the remake won’t even accidentally stumble upon such an ugly truth.
September 30th, 2010 at 1:55 pm
I agree. Great analysis! Rape scenes are one of my horror movie dealbreakers so I don’t know that I could even get through this movie, but I appreciate you taking it seriously and explaining why.
LLM
March 30th, 2011 at 8:44 pm
[…] for me, the deadline for the piece didn’t correspond with when the remake would hit theatres. Revisiting the original with a different approach led to an appreciation, of sorts, to what it (accidentally) revealed about the nature of the basic […]
October 11th, 2013 at 11:59 am
Interesting read about a topic with many conflicting views, though this bit confuses me: “Then, the rapist just slowly plots her revenge and does it in the sickest ways ever. “
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