Film Review: I Spit On Your Grave (2010)

Unlike the original Last House On The Left, I never really had much time for I Spit On Your Grave. Released in 1978, and also known as Day Of The Woman, I just found it to be cheap, nasty, badly acted and missing the tension and flare that Wes Craven gave his film.

So, I was kind of hoping for a Last House remake style improvement, and to an extent, I got it.

I Spit On Your Grave tells the story of Jennifer (Sarah Butler, in what has to be an incredibly gutsy performance), a young author who escapes city life to write her new book in a remote cabin in the woods. Her arrival is noticed by the locals, who come round and in an incredibly long and drawn out scene, attack and rape her repeatedly. She survives (just) and seeks revenge...

Very similar to Last House again then. But, much like the original, I Spit On Your Grave struck me as cheap, nasty and too reliant on scenes on sexual abuse on a young woman (the scene where they make a mentally handicapped man rape her are particularly unpleasant), scenes which lack any kind of subtlety and tastefulness (it is possible.) Hard to believe the scenes in question were actually cut for UK release by 43 seconds (the second film in 2010 that got publicity by being cut by the BBFC, the other was A Serbian Film.) But it's still less brutal than the original.

The film finally shows some promise in the 'revenge' portion of the film, and it contains some quite original and extremely brutal (and I mean brutal) kills as Jennifer picks off her attackers one by one. Only at this point did I really get anything out of the film. The 'attack' part of the film starts about 20 minutes in, not giving the viewer much breathing room and pretty much takes up the first hour of the film, it's not till after that you get a breather.

It's all just a case of the remake again though. Like so many, no one could have asked for this former 'video nasty' to be remade, but here it is, with not a great deal added to it.

**1/2

A horrible and really distasteful first hour is followed by quite an entertaining revenge portion, but that first 60 minutes remain and the film makes no effort to try and change what the original was. A game of two halves, as it were.