I Spit on Your Grave
(aka Day of the Woman)
As a rape/revenge exploitation movie I Spit on Your Grave hits the right notes. A controversial exploitation movie that heavily divides people. One side says it’s just misogynic male fantasies and the other saying it’s a feminist movie where a damaged woman takes back her power and takes revenge on her attackers. As a fan of exploitation movies I get the revenge I wanted (though some of the men weren’t tortured enough).
Photo Credit: Barquel Creations
Released: Nov 22, 1978
Runtime: 1 hour 41 mins
Director: Meir Zarchi
Writer: Meir Zarchi
Actors: Camille Keaton, Eron Tabor, Richard Pace
PLOT
An aspiring writer goes to the country for the summer. She gets more than she expects when she gets raped by four guys. Her only satisfaction is the revenge she inflicts on the men.
MY THOUGHTS
For an hour and forty one minutes, we only get four kills (5 if you count Jennifer's innocence). Obviously the most disturbing is Johnny’s (Eron Tabor) death. You don’t actually see his penis getting cut off but the moments leading up to and after are more terrifying I think. You kind of hear a pop or something and Johnny doesn’t realize yet what happened. When you see the blood coming out of the water, that’s when you realize what she did. Is very scary. I don’t have a penis and I still cringed. I’m on the fence with Matthew’s death. It was mild, but his character is what I have a problem with.
As far as acting, most is ok. I did like that the characters of Johnny and Matthew were fleshed out more than the other guys. Johnny having a wife and kids makes him scarier because he can seem so normal (with a family) and yet be able to do such a horrible act.
Richard Pace as Matthew makes me the most uncomfortable out of the guys. He plays a man that you can tell has mental issues. He’s awkwardly slow and has the mentality of someone a lot younger. Yes, he eventually participates in the rapes, but I’m not comfortable with the revenge that was placed upon him. Yes, he’s guilty but to what extent?
Obviously the star of the show is Camille Keaton playing Jennifer. You feel her pain and shock as she is raped and degraded by these four men. I hope she got paid extra for the extended nude scenes she had to go through.
Jennifer, a woman from New York City, decides to spend the summer at a cabin on the lake. She attracts the attention of Johnny when she stops for gas and asks for directions. She soon meets Matthew who delivers groceries to her cabin. She is so nice to Matthew he gets a crush on her and starts bragging to Johnny and his friends. The men get bored and when they see Jennifer in a canoe they chase after her and eventually gets raped by Johnny.
They let her walk off naked and while she’s in the woods they catch up with her and she’s raped by another guy. Jennifer, bruised and battered, finally makes it home. She’s calling the police when they arrive at her cabin and stop her. They proceed to torture her and rape her more.
They finally finish and start to leave when they send Matthew back in to kill her. Matthew, unable to kill her, puts her blood on the knife and tells the guys he did it. They all go back to their normal lives for a couple of weeks, and when nobody hears about a body they go and investigate. Finally realizing that Matthew hadn’t killed her.
Jennifer tries to go back to a normal life but can’t. She comes up with a plan to get revenge on each of the guys. She wants to start with Johnny, but she sees him with his wife and kids and she moves on to someone else. In the end, they all get what they deserve.
=====================================
I wanted to take a quick break to let you know I found these great deals on Amazon for I Spit on Your Grave merchandise. I’ve applied to Amazon’s affiliate program and if I can get three purchases I will be accepted into the program. This will be of tremendous help with starting my small business.
=====================================
I Spit on Your Grave is the type of exploitation movie that is hard to say if you like it or not. There are several scenes that are uncomfortable for me to watch as a woman. As well as parts that if I were a man I wouldn’t like to watch. Overall it’s an uncomfortable movie, but I would say, as a horror movie, a terrifying movie.
I know some have problems with the fact it’s a male director, but I don’t have a problem with that. Especially knowing what inspired director Meir Zarchi to make this movie. (Read below for more details.) Overall if you’re into exploitation movies, more specific rape/revenge exploitation movies, then watch this. If this topic triggers you, then avoid this movie. I will be reviewing the remake and sequels at a later date.
And now for your Forever Final Girl Exclusive…Did you know?:
All four male actors asked to appear naked in the film, to remove awkwardness or embarrassment about their own nudity, and to show solidarity for Camille Keaton who spends much of the film nude.
One crew member quit during filming of the second rape scene. He simply couldn't stomach any more violence. The film's make-up artist quit the film halfway through. She had been gang-raped and couldn't bear to relive the horror of her attacks, even though she was aware of the film's plot before agreeing to work on it.
Features the longest rape scene in film history, roughly 25 minutes.
Meir Zarchi said he was inspired to make the film after helping a young woman who had been raped. He said he, a friend, and his daughter were driving by a park when they saw a young woman crawl, bloodied and naked, out of the bushes. They picked the girl up, took his daughter back home, and talked with the friend about whether they should take her to the hospital or the police. They decided to take her to the police first. The officer, who Zarchi described as "not fit to wear the uniform", insisted she answer questions about her assailants before she went to the hospital, even though her jaw was broken and she could barely talk. Finally, Zarchi insisted to the officer that they take her to the hospital right away. He later found out the girl was attacked while taking a common shortcut to meet with her boyfriend. Soon afterward the girl's father sent Zarchi a letter of thanks for helping his daughter, and offered him a reward, which Zarchi turned down.
Camille Keaton said in 2019 that she doesn't feel this film or those like it are misogynistic at all, as some have claimed. She said, "The first film was inspired by true events after Meir Zarchi rescued a woman who'd been raped, so I don't think it's exploitative, it's empowering to women. That's what I love about Meir's work, it doesn't glamorize anything and even the grittiness of the cinematography shows the tone of what's happened. Statistics show that in the United States 1 in 5 women have been raped, so the truth is that it's a very real and worldwide issue. Most of us know someone who's been affected. When a movie takes on a subject like this, I think it's very brave." She added that the censorship of this film is a hypocrisy. "We can go on the internet right now and see porn, which children can easily access, but we can't show a portrayal (i.e. it's not really happening) of someone being raped which is a real issue. I believe art can wake people up, especially something that makes a statement."
British feminist Julie Bindel actively picketed the film when it was first released in the UK. She later recanted that view, stating that she now considered it "a feminist film".
Star Camille Keaton married writer-director Meir Zarchi. They were married for 3 years before divorcing in 1982.
When Meir Zarchi filmed Matthew's death scene, Richard Pace started to convulse while hanging. Zarchi initially thought it was really good acting, then quickly realized something was wrong. Pace wasn't choking, he was having a panic attack due to fear of heights.
The model in the iconic poster shot seen from the rear, clutching a knife, was Demi Moore. This was confirmed in her memoir "Inside Out." Producer Charles Band bought the video distribution rights for the movie in 1981. When it came time to design a new poster, he felt star Camille Keaton was too thin and wasn't shapely enough for the poster, so he sought a new model. At the same time, he was also producing the sci-fi horror film Parasite (1982), which co-starred Moore, who had been a nude model before getting into acting. He thought she had the perfect back side for what they needed, so he chose her to pose.
The UK Special Edition contains an Easter egg. On page three of the special features, go to 'main menu', hit left, and highlight Jennifer's knife. The Easter egg reveals a selection of stills from the movie.
The film was originally released in 1978, with the title "Day of the Woman", and was poorly received at the box office. In 1980, distributor Jerry Gross renamed it "I Spit on Your Grave", after a 1959 French drama, and re-released it. This time the film received more publicity, and became a key target of Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel's campaign against films featuring women in danger.
Have you seen the other I Spit on Your Grave movies? Check out my other reviews here: I Spit on Your Grave Franchise.
Let’s get into the rankings:
Kills/Blood/Gore: 4/5
Sex/Nudity: 4/5 Ummmm..it’s rape and Camille Keaton is naked for a long portion of this movie. Also, there is male nudity as well.
Scare factor: 3.5/5 The scares are more for the terror of the ongoing rape.
Enjoyment factor: 3.5/5
My Rank: 3.75/5
IMDB: 5.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes: critics: 5.3/10 audience: 4/10
Letterboxd: 2.8/5