Remakes seem to be common place these days especially when it comes to the genre of horror, cult classics like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th are just two of the widely known slasher flicks to get the modern treatment. when they were originally released they and many more like them set off a string of controversy leading many films to be banned completely – now it seems the consensus has changed, they are easily found on DVD yet their remakes are even more bloody more violent and more realistic. i have been a horror fan for as long as i can remember so there is a certain level of desensitiziation when it comes to both old and new horror, as much as i love the older cult classics i find myself continuously seeking out and tracking down newer reimagining's of the classics and in todays media driven world there seems to be no shortage.
The film is a remake of the 1978 cult classic of the same name, branded a video nasty by the film classification board and ultimately condemned by most critics it was to be banned almost world wide with some countries releasing cut versions of the film. over the past few years some countries have re-released the film under various ratings with various cuts of certain scenes, one thing that remains however is the controversy the film sparked in its day and so it comes as no surprise that a remake of the film has been released – again the controversy and again the same response from film critics world wide. i’m by no means easily led when it comes to someone else's feelings of a certain type of media, people are entitled to their own opinions and that’s why i always try to not judge a book by its cover whether it be a movie or a game, and so being an avid horror fan i had to see it for myself.
Jennifer Hills is a writer who seeking seclusion for her next book retreats to a cabin in the woods, little does she know that her arrival attracts so much attention especially from a group of morally deprived local thugs who set out to turn her world upside down. breaking into her cabin things escalate and what follows what can only be described as torture and abuse – both of those things are not uncommon in modern horror especially in films like Hostel and A Serbian Film. again though like its original I Spit on Your Grave takes it a step further with overly gratuitous acts of humiliation and intimidation which though expected were still shocking. like the original before they can kill her and do away with the evidence of their misdeeds she manages to get to a bridge where she lets herself drop into the waters bellow, over the next few days they continue to search the river for any sign of her body finding nothing – until she finds them. now the real theme of the movie takes over, the film is in essence a revenge tale where a great evil is done onto a person so they return that evil in large doses. absolutely hell-bent on revenge Jennifer spends the rest of the movie tracking down and brutally dispatching her tormentors using whatever methods are available to her.
as far as trumping over the original in terms of actual cinematic power it has, the acting especially on Sarah Butlers part is a big improvement as is the cinematography giving the film a gritty yet almost surreal feel. the horror itself is by no means tame nor is the gore, the second part of the film feels like what an older version of Hard Candy would be capable of if she were really pushed and this is why the film would have male audience members squirming just as much as their female counterparts. at the time of the original films release the charge was that the film shows deplorable violence to women (and it does) however some people said the main female role was a sort of ultra feminist in that she carried out such acts on her terrorizers – whatever the case two wrongs don’t make a right and the film was buried.
did i like the movie? it had its moments, like i said i like to follow up on horror remakes but would i recommend it to non horror/gore fans? not in a million years. it is extremely shocking and unforgivingly brutal in all aspects but at the end of the day it is only a movie, much like other remakes of similar video nasty's before it. in short if you don’t like horror and gore, if you deplored Hostel and the SAW franchise then you will hate this movie.
