Lisbeth Salander ain’t got NOTHIN’ on…

I guess after spending time online, dealing with immature males who tweet me calling me “cunt, “b*tch” and worse when I see a movie where a character like Lisbeth Salander kicks the asses (both physically  and legally) of the men who ravaged her, well it’s sort of cathartic.

But sh*t  even Lisbeth wouldn’t go as far as the character Jennifer Hill did in the 2010 remake of the 1978 movie: I Spit On Your Grave, which remains to this day one of the most controversial films ever made, and certainly one of the most hated. Released in the time of the explosion of shocker and exploitation flicks in the late 70’s, the film featured graphic violence and a 45 minute rape scene which is the main focus of the movie.
I’m a fan of thriller movies, but like High Tension, I.S.O.Y.G has little to do with horror and more to do with visceral unrelenting violence.

First the violence is perpetrated against our protagonist Jennifer Hill, a writer who retreats to a cabin in the woods for a little R&R only to be attacked and raped by a group of men, and when she recovers she exacts her revenge on them. 

Therein lies the rub, where as any decent life honoring human being may feel an ounce of sympathy for Jennifer’s victims, considering the level of brutality perpetrated against them, (even after they brutalized her) Jennifer doesn’t.
 
In one scene after she has escaped her captors and devised her complex revenge consisting of modalities so torturous they are medieval in conceptualization. Jennifer cradles one of the attackers she encounters, his head on her lap, as he cries and expresses his profound sorrow.
She reaches behind her, grabs a rope and starts to strangle him, eventually dragging him off-screen by the neck while saying “Sometimes…Sorry isn’t enough.”

That’s relatively mild as the revenge methods tick up in brutality and include fish hooks to keep another attacker’s eyes open, smearing him with fish innards and leaving him to the arriving crows (he couldn’t escape he was secured to a tree, accomplished after being knocked out with a bat).

As I squirmed and winced, watching this movie through eyes shielded by fingers. I kept wondering why I continue watching I.S.O.Y.G even though repulsed.

This is why:

How many times have I heard: “That’ll show her!” but more disturbing is the notion that many young males don’t believe they should be behaving in such a manner but are nonetheless motivated by how other males perceive them. When the tables turn as they almost always invariably do and Jennifer started her killing spree” I as the viewer was as much into seeing Jennifer get closure as the character is.

If as a viewer you remained attuned to this film, you will feel a sense of relief when Jennifer starts to wreak her final act of revenge you see she maintains her humanity nonetheless when she encounters the young daughter of one of her attackers.

I give: I Spit On Your Grave a B- . I Spit On Your Grave is graphic in the depiction of violence against women. So disturbing that  I skipped past much of the initial attack on Jennifer.

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