I Spit On Your Grave - Lilith Likes to Watch Halloween Trick & Treat 2024!




Title: I Spit On Your Grave
Year:
1978
Starring: Camille Keaton, Anthony Nichols
Director: Meir Zarchi
Synopsis: A young, beautiful career woman rents a backwoods cabin to write her first novel. Attacked by a group of local lowlifes and left for dead, she devises a horrific plan to inflict revenge. - Via Letterboxd.com
Lilith's Notes: Near as I can tell, the marketing for this film is the origin of the phrase "No Jury would convict..."
Buy: Amazon 





"You want her total submission, you got it."

Before Lilith Likes to Watch was an actual endeavor, I would sit down and force myself to endure relatively edgy films. You know, films that were banned, or low-brow, or just straight up porn. Films high society scoffed at, films that were infamous for all the wrong reasons. Films that one doesn’t mention in polite society. Don’t let your imagination run too wild. I knew my limits and I never dove into anything too terrible. I still have no interest in watching Martyrs or A Serbian Film.

Still, that tendency never really left me. It still slithers around under my skin from time to time, and rears up and issues a challenge.

Ergo, every now and then, I get a really depraved streak and whine at Kage to sit down with me and re-watch the original 70’s revenge flick, I Spit On Your Grave.

Year after year, time after time, he said no. This Halloween, I didn’t give him a choice in the matter.

I Spit on Your Grave is an infamous film. It’s banned in several countries and has a reputation for being notoriously vile, mean-spirited and nauseating.

At times, it is all those things. But it’s also contemplative, a touch more nuanced than it’s reputation would leave you to think, and, perhaps a little empowering.

Or, maybe not.

Jennifer Hill (played by Camille Keaton) is summering in a lakeside cabin, with a goal to write a novel. She stops at a local gas station, where Johnny (played by Anthony Nichols) and his three friends work and hang out. She tells Johnny of her authorial aspirations as he fills up her tank, then heads for the cabin.

Some time later, Johnny and his boys are fishing and Matthew, the slow one (played by Richard Pace) confesses he’s never been with a woman. The guys hatch a plan to terrorize Jennifer.

You probably know what happens from there.

I’m not sure if the guys went to Jen with explicit intent to violate her, or if things just escalated. Because heaven forbid a woman not donate every shred of her time and attention to a man. It’s probably something that could be debated in academic circles. On the other hand, it’s an exploitation revenge flick. It doesn’t need deep pathos.

They absolutely went with the intent of having Matthew assault Jennifer, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they each intended to take a piece of her, and used the excuse of rising anger to insist it was all her fault. That she made them do it.

The performance by Camille Keaton is astounding. Jennifer’s screams and cries are summoned from the depths of her soul and are bone chilling. They are the howls of a broken human, and when things quiet down, Jennifer walks through the mud and forest, half-lost and fully dazed, She drags her beaten body over the threshold of the cabin only to be confronted by one of the greatest jumpscares in cinema history.

The protracted suffering Jennifer is forced to endure could speak to even the more hardened hearts. These men are vile and their own suffering is extremely cathartic.

But, of course, this is still an exploitation grindhouse movie, and can’t help but bow down to certain story tropes. It bothers me that Jennifer seduces her targets into a false sense of sexy, sultry, security before dispatching her vengeance.

Matthew could have been lured into a trap with a plate of cookies, for goodness sake!

I do like that Jennifer takes back her power, and kills are rather creative. I can’t get enough of the steely look in her eyes as she targets Stanley in the lake, never once losing track of him. The expression of determination is just so intense.

I’m not going to entertain the debate on whether or not this film is feminist or misogynist. I don’t have the credentials for that. I think it’s something that each viewer has to decide for themselves.

Yes, the acts depicted in this film are horrific. No, I couldn’t look away. It’s gratuitous and spirit-crushing and a cult classic.

Sometimes realism is the most terrifying thing there is.

Best Moment: Other than Camille Keaton’s acting. There’s a shot after the final assault where the guys go off on their boat and Jennifer’s torn bikini is just floating on the surface of the lake, abandoned.

Worst Moment: The rape. It’s unflinching, and perhaps revels too much in it, when they could have done more with a lot less.

LILITH'S SCORE: 3/5 - It’s weak and slow in the first act, and it’s certainly not for everyone, and shows its age. But, it’s a cult classic bolstered by one phenomenal performance.

Until next time, my voracious voyeurs. I’m Lilith, and I’m always watching.

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