I Spit On Your Grave: Revenge Is Not So Sweet
Published on September 29th, 2010 in: Feminism, Halloween, Horror, Movie Reviews, Movies |
Camille Keaton, I Spit On Your Grave
Michelle Patterson wrote 10/4/2000:
m-
No offense because you’re sort of a stranger to me, but I don’t get why you’re defending this movie.
It’s the sort of thing that is beyond defending, honestly. I had a conversation with a friend of mine (the same guy who recommended) and he said that he had a feminist film teacher who didn’t exactly like the movie but didn’t understand why critics like Ebert or Siskel were so over-the-top in their reactions. I get it. What sort of people like this? What sort of people would want to watch this? What sort of people would want to make this?
I think it’s just that I’ve had friends who were assaulted and I seriously doubt they’d want to see anything like this, up on the screen, for our ENTERTAINMENT. It’s just reliving a really terrifying moment, only it never lets up. It never stops.
And when she gets her supposed revenge it’s even more sickening. Then, she decides to get seductive? I mean, you said this movie shies away from that, but she uses that to snare the victims and I don’t get how a woman could do that to the people who did something so vile to her.
Do you have other movies like this that you’d recommend? I honestly hope not. I feel like I need to watch something Disney-related just to cleanse my mind from this Spit movie. . .
~M
Michelle Patterson wrote 9/20/2010:
M,
I’m saying this: It isn’t as though I’m defending what happens in the movie. I’m defending the idea of the director to present something like this as it really is and at the same time not giving in to any established Hollywood BS as far as how these scenes should be portrayed.
We’re meant to feel bad because this IS bad. When there is a close-up of her face it isn’t one of ecstasy, it’s a grotesque mask of pain and terror. When there are close-up of the rapists’ faces, they are slobbering, slithering creeps. They aren’t handsome.
Rather than looking at this as a straight up horror movie that happens to be pretty sick, why not look at it like a morality play? One of them quotes, “Total submission, that’s what I like in a woman,” and it’s laughable because none of these men really know how to treat a woman or handle a woman in their lives. They’re still a mystery, so it’s just easier to muck with that mystery than to try to solve it in any meaningful way.
She’s seductive with a purpose. No matter what she does, they’ll interpret it as her either being a) cold or b) overcome with the idea of having sex with any and/or all of them. She uses that idea to her advantage in order to trap them and then punish/kill them for the crime against her. It’s inevitable and the only way in which she’ll get resolution from this.
Just try to imagine that the movie wasn’t made just to get people off, but to make them think. Did you know it was originally called Day Of The Woman? The very last line in the movie is, “Suck it, bitch” and it’s said by a woman to a man. She’s taken her power back and that’s a pretty significant moment. Period.
~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. “
Time limit is exhausted. Please reload the CAPTCHA.