Review - I Spit on Your Grave

I had always heard of I Spit on Your Grave (aka Day of the Woman), but until tonight I had never actually seen it. I spent the first half of the movie feeling overwhelmingly disturbed. I spent the second half of the movie feeling overwhelmingly entertained.

The story starts out innocently enough. Beautiful, young writer Jennifer Hill (Camille Keaton) takes a summer home on the banks of the Housatonic River so she may while the days away working on her first novel. She stops for gas on her way to the cabin and gets out to stretch out her legs. Unfortunately for her, she catches the eye of Johnny (Eron Tabor) who owns the local gas station. You sense from the get go that he and his friends Stanley (Anthony Nichols) and Andy (Gunter Kleemann) are just bad news.

As Jennifer unpacks she is interrupted by Matthew (Richard Pace) the local grocery delivery boy who is delivering her groceries. He seems smitten by Jennifer and rides off on his bike back to the old gas station which seems to be the local hang out for hooligans and half wits. He tells his friends of the new girl on the Housatonic whose tits he has just seen.

The story quickly descends from innocent to horrific as the hickville, band of brothers decide that what Jennifer needs is what only they can force her to take. You are now in line for the most horrific (and longest) gang rape scene in cinematic history. It was the most disturbing thing I have ever forced myself to watch. Once you thought it was over, poor Jennifer rounds the bend and hears the harmonica music of Stanley (2nd hick in charge) and you know the madness has not just ended, it is perhaps only just beginning.

Whether you call it I Spit on Your Grave or Day of the Woman, this film does at least one thing - it portrays rape for what it really is . . . a horrible, non-glamorous and heinous act. The gritty filming that is so common in these 70's "cabin by the lake" films really works toward the overall feeling of I Spit on Your Grave.

And the revenge, my friends, the revenge was oh so sweet. This was the second half of the movie that left me feeling overwhelmingly entertained. Jennifer's revenge scenes were really well done. She used what her rapists had taken from her against them and ultimately settled the score quite nicely.

A must see 70's cult classic.

I Spit On Your Grave Movie Cast and Credits

Directed by
Meir Zarchi

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Meir Zarchi

Cast (in credits order)
Camille Keaton .... Jennifer Hill
Eron Tabor .... Johnny
Richard Pace .... Matthew
Anthony Nichols .... Stanley
Gunter Kleemann .... Andy
Alexis Magnotti .... Attendant's Wife
Tammy Zarchi .... The Children
Terry Zarchi .... The Children
Traci Ferrante .... Waitress
Bill Tasgal .... Porter
Isaac Agami .... Butcher
Ronit Haviv .... Supermarket Girl