My in-quotations "fanfare" for Meir Zarchi's notorious 1978 rape-and-revenge shocker "I Spit On Your Grave" was informed as much by the film's ambiguity and contradictions as by its shocks and relentless, unflinching perspective; here was a film that had a reputation for being one of the Baddest Mothers to play the grindhouse circuit, but was, in reality, a film also inclined toward the kind of contemplative, introspective moments you'd find in a film by Bergman or Antonioni (yes, I said it). Needless to say, I found the revulsion leveled against it both justified and over-the-top; I took greater issue with Zarchi's inexplicable desire to play all sides: the faultless female protagonist (the luminous Camille Keaton) who is brutally violated by four misogynist -- yet also maddeningly innocuous -- hoods who seem to represent the very worst manifestation of inexplicable sexual rage. Despite this, "Spit" remains a fascinating, one-of-a-kind work, which makes the notion of a remake something even more curious: while the fan opinion of Today seems to have balanced the scales against the critical opinion of Then, Zarchi's film remains best-known as the film Roger Ebert derided as the worst of all time.
By some strange feat, director Steven R. Monroe and writer Stuart Morse have given "Spit" a modern face-lift that improves and expands upon the original film, provides clearer character motivation (not to mention more development), and settles into acts of revenge that are jaw-dropping in their audacity, yet strangely justified in their torture-porn excesses. While Zarchi trafficked in predictable payoffs distinguished by geysers of gore, Morse scripts scenes of torture so florid that they border on the abstractly poetic (while hanging on by a delicate string of credibility throughout). The rapists here are three-dimensional nightmares of liquor-slugging (yet backwoods-smart) horniness, and our female protagonist (Sarah Butler, in a performance as courageous as Keaton's) finds the perfect balance between fear and intimidation; empowerment and hellfire vengeance. The plot is suspenseful and largely unpredictable (even during the first act, which uses Zarchi's script as a template but goes into even more grueling, horrifying terrain of negative anticipation), though "Spit Redux" sometimes flinches when it should push its excesses that much further (the actual rape is truncated, illuminating contemporary popular attitudes toward sexual violence in film). And some of the machinations of the last act stretch credibility in terms of character consistency. Still, "I Spit on Your Grave" is a remake as potent as "The Hills Have Eyes," "Dawn of the Dead," and "Halloween" -- an electrifying reminder of just how potent and ugly the filmed image can be (and that's a compliment).
7.5 out of 10
By some strange feat, director Steven R. Monroe and writer Stuart Morse have given "Spit" a modern face-lift that improves and expands upon the original film, provides clearer character motivation (not to mention more development), and settles into acts of revenge that are jaw-dropping in their audacity, yet strangely justified in their torture-porn excesses. While Zarchi trafficked in predictable payoffs distinguished by geysers of gore, Morse scripts scenes of torture so florid that they border on the abstractly poetic (while hanging on by a delicate string of credibility throughout). The rapists here are three-dimensional nightmares of liquor-slugging (yet backwoods-smart) horniness, and our female protagonist (Sarah Butler, in a performance as courageous as Keaton's) finds the perfect balance between fear and intimidation; empowerment and hellfire vengeance. The plot is suspenseful and largely unpredictable (even during the first act, which uses Zarchi's script as a template but goes into even more grueling, horrifying terrain of negative anticipation), though "Spit Redux" sometimes flinches when it should push its excesses that much further (the actual rape is truncated, illuminating contemporary popular attitudes toward sexual violence in film). And some of the machinations of the last act stretch credibility in terms of character consistency. Still, "I Spit on Your Grave" is a remake as potent as "The Hills Have Eyes," "Dawn of the Dead," and "Halloween" -- an electrifying reminder of just how potent and ugly the filmed image can be (and that's a compliment).
7.5 out of 10