Fantasia 2010: Steven R. Monroe’s I Spit on Your Grave

[Editor’s Note: This was published during the 2010 edition of the Fantastia Int. Film Festival. We are republishing the article to coincide with the theatrical release.]

I Spit on Your Grave has two strikes against it right out of the block: one, die hard horror fans are very vocal about their distaste for remakes of their favorite films of yesteryear; and two, the fact that it’s a remake of one of the – if not the – most brutal rape revenge films ever made means that even if it’s good (it is), the subject matter is way up there on the controversy barometer. So the big question is: did I Spit on Your Grave need to be remade for a 21st century audience? Director Steven Monroe (Wyvern, Storm Cell), a huge fan of the 1978 original (also known as Day of the Woman), seems to have thought not, but made the film out of a sense of necessity: at the pre-screening introduction of the film’s world premiere at Fantasia he said that when he saw the rights had been acquired for a remake he had to get the directing duties if only because he didn’t trust any other filmmakers to do it justice. What anybody else would have done with it is a moot point now, as Monroe has delivered a solid film that mostly stays true to the original in tone and emotion while also creatively upping the tension and dread for audiences of today.

The premise is simple: city girl writer Jennifer Hills (Sarah Butler, in a breakout performance) retreats to a cabin in the sticks to focus on her next novel, only to be brutally raped and left for dead by a gang of local country boys. It isn’t long before each of them realize (too late, of course) that Jennifer didn’t die and is intent on getting revenge in very creative ways. While it doesn’t sound like there’s much to it, the film runs almost two hours, with a good chunk of the running time devoted to the graphic depiction of the humiliation, torment, and gang-rape of Jennifer by the thugs. It’s very uncomfortable to watch and yet the viewer is hard-pressed to even blink, for we know that these guys will get what’s coming to them in the end (pun semi-intended…see the movie, you’ll get the joke).

The subtle differences in the 2010 version actually make for a much less controversial film. This Jennifer Hills is about as squeaky clean as they come. Sure, she drinks and smokes the occasional joint in private, but she doesn’t do anything that can even remotely be seen as inviting to the yokels who end up violating her, as opposed to the shades of gray in the moral ambiguity of the original. Obviously, nobody deserves to be raped, and I Spit on Your Grave 2010 makes that very clear. The biggest difference (apart from the addition of the Sheriff Storch character, played brilliantly by Andrew Howard of The Devil’s Chair and Blood River fame) is the contemporizing of the revenge meted out by Jennifer. Many will say it amounts to the torture porn of such films as Hostel and the Saw series, but in this case there’s a valid reason for it. And how!

As evidenced by the patron who fainted and fell down a flight of stairs at the premiere and the fan at the post-screening Q&A who praised executive-producer Meir Zarchi – who was present along with Monroe, Butler, and producer Lisa Hansen – for the 1978 original he directed while basically calling Monroe’s remake a gory piece of crap (Anchor Bay is releasing it unrated, as the MPAA had ordered more than a hundred cuts to the film in order to get a rating), this version will no doubt polarize viewers and incite much discussion. Props to Miss Butler for having the guts to go to a very dark place and take on what must have been an emotionally draining role and turning in a fascinating performance. I Spit on Your Grave can best be summed up in a few words: brutal, intense, and morbidly satisfying.