Better than I assumed it would be.
I Spit on Your Grave (2010)
Directed By: Steven R. Monroe (Sasquatch Mountain)
The Prologue
I admit when I heard they were going to remake I Spit On Your Grave, I probably snickered and said something to myself that would qualify me as an asshole. But could one blame me for that? After all, the original “Day of the Woman” wasn’t something I could see getting remade now days and still keeping the dirty feel and impact. Yet the folks over at Anchor Bay gave it a go in 2010, and now here in 2011 that film has hit DVD and Blu-ray! And I am pleased to admit I’m somewhat happy with the results, or at least waaaay more impressed with than I ever assumed I’d be.
The Movie
So writer, Jennifer Hills, wants to take a trip down to the country to work on her second book and in doing so she rents a place in the middle of the woods. Now of course these silly country boys just can’t take the sight of a pretty girl so they decide the best way apparently to catch her attention is to trap her, brutalize her, and rape her. However, what they don’t do is finish the job. As a result of this, Jennifer is PISSED and decides it’s time to take revenge on every single one of the guys who committed these horrible acts to her.
On the surface I’ll say this much, overall it’s a better shot and looking film than the original. It also has better acting and adds enough new elements of the story without changing too much. On the other hand, it just doesn’t capture the dirty feel of the original. Maybe that’s because those were the days of grimy damaged film, and these are the days of beautiful HD. Due to that I think some of the realistic impact of the original is lost, but that’s probably the only thing I’d say the original does better. Of course even with that its hard to blame this film because doing a rape and revenge flick in this day and age is a lot harder to make than it was back in those wacky 70′s.
Also if you want me to pinpoint some more flaws in the movie allow me to bring up the fact that the story states clearly that from the point they commit these awful acts against Jennifer until it’s time for that woman to start her path of revenge it has been at least a month. Now I live in the country my friends. I’m not saying by any means that groups of guys around here get together and rape the city folks, but if you take someone from up north and you drop them in the middle of the woods, they probably won’t make it a week, never mind a month. Now we never get a background on Jennifer besides the fact she’s a writer, but that’s a big plot hole. And we also can’t forget it’s a small town, how does she, being a stranger, get all this info on these guys she ends up having without someone seeing her? Everyone knows everyone in a small town, she’d stick out.
Also, perhaps I’ve missed something somewhere, but she also has changes of cloths, cans of food, and even a car at one point in this film. How does she do that?? It’s not much of a spoiler for me to bring up the fact her stuff was all destroyed. Where did she get money and this other stuff? I’m not a guy that gets bugged too much by a plot hole in a horror movies, because it’s horror after all, but this had soo many it not only was noticeable, but it bugged the shit out of me. Now, if we look past that stuff the rest of the movie isn’t too bad at all. Sure it’s not as brutal looking or grindhouse-ish, but it does a lot better than the original.
And if you have yet to see this you probably would like to know what it does better, correct? Well for starters, I must say Sara Butler is a much better Jennifer than Camille Keaton (Sorry folks, it’s true). Jennifer’s revenge is much more elaborate and hardcore on those who wronged her, and the cast is just better overall than the original had. Jennifer really does some sick stuff to get back at these guys and it’s done much better here than it was done in 1978. So with that all being said, it’s a movie worth seeing, it’s a good film. And it’s another remake that would be much better remembered in the future had the original never existed or if you watch it without having seen the original. I did like it, and I’ll happily admit that had it been just a bit more dirty looking than the original and lacked all the plot holes, I’d have ranked it even higher than the old school cult classic that is the original.
The Conclusion
If I had to pick between the two I’d probably still slightly pick the original, but there’s a lot of stuff going on in this movie that makes it worth seeing. So I’ll give Anchor Bay all the credit in the world for making it as good as it is. There’s some great acting here, and props also need to go to Sarah Butler for Jennifer and Jeff Branson, who in the role of Johnny stepped way out of his normal “good guy” roles he played in the soap opera world. So in conclusion if you can look past the logic and plot problems you have a film very much worth a watch.
The Rating (7.5/10)
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