I Spit on Your Grave 2010
So, I’m in a no win situation with I Spit on Your Grave 2010. If I say I like it, I get branded a freak for liking Rape/Revenge movies. I did like this movie and think, for a remake, it did a great job invoking the horror of rape. Having said that, if you are triggered by rape or sexual assault, then don’t watch this movie.
Photo Credit: Anchor Bay Films
Released: Jun 17, 2010
Runtime: 1 hr 48 mins
Director: Steven R. Monroe
Writer: Adam Rockoff, Meir Zarchi
Actors: Sarah Butler, Jeff Branson, Andrew Howard
PLOT
A writer rents a cabin in the woods to write her next book. She attracts the attention of some locals who end up brutalizing her, but she turns the tables on her attackers, getting the revenge she needs.
MY THOUGHTS
There are six kills in I Spit on Your Grave. That’s not including the dead fish and birds we see throughout the movie. Minus poor Earl who was killed by the asshole sheriff, the revenge deaths were pretty good. One guy dies from a bath of lye. Another gets his eyelids permanently opened by using fish hooks, just to have his eyes pulled out by birds.
The lead asshole gets the ummm castration treatment. Can’t say it didn’t happen to a nicer guy. I liked the torture before that (the teeth being pulled out and him basically giving head to a gun).
Now, I’m torn with the sheriff’s and Matthew’s deaths. I think the sheriff’s torture was the best. Since he likes to give it in the ass he ended it in the ass. Be warned, Jennifer basically anally rapes him with a shotgun. Then wires the gun to a pass out Matthew. As soon as Matthew wakes up and moves the shotgun will go off. I thought it was a creative torture/death device.
Where I have an issue with this movie (and no it’s not the rape scene. It was only about 8 minutes long and I don’t think it was as graphic or extended as in the 1978 movie). My issue is with Matthew. He obviously has mental issues, and not just some sort of ADHD or something like that. He has legit mental issues. Yes he did rape Jennifer, I do think of course he should be punished. But I don’t think he should have died. I don’t know what I would have done with him, but that death was kind of a hard one to swallow (so to speak).
The acting was pretty good. Sarah Butler did a great job as our final girl Jennifer. I found her believable and could totally feel her fear and pain throughout the movie. Though I don’t think I’ve seen anything else she is.
Rodney Eastman (known for playing Joey in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 & 4 and an uncredited role in Chopping Mall) plays Andy, one of the rapists. It was hard for me to believe he was an asshole rapist. All I keep thinking of is him playing Joey, the nice guy who helped defeat Freddy (or helped on one and died in the other movie).
We get a small role from Tracey Walter as Earl, just a friendly local that Jennifer talks to, only to be killed by the sheriff. He is known for roles in Conan the Destroyer, Silence of the Lambs, Rob Zombie’s 31, and countless other character actor work. The rest of the cast did a pretty good job as well.
Jennifer, a writer from the city, rents a cabin in the woods to work on her next book. Unfortunately when she stops for gas she embarrasses the gas attendant. She leaves without thinking about it.
One evening she starts hearing strange noises coming from outside. Unfortunately it’s a group of four friends that decide to mess with her. She gets away and runs into the sheriff. Unfortunately for her, the sheriff is just as bad, if not worse, than the rest of them.
We get a lot of build up, and then the 8 minute rape scene that seems shorter than the original movie. We don’t see each of the guys rape her. She then gets away from them and jumps off of a bridge. They wait for her to come up for air but she doesn’t.
For a number of days they wait to see if her body shows up but it doesn’t. Then the guys start receiving “gifts” or items that were Jennifer’s. Matthew seems to be wracked with guilt and may be the person leaving the gifts. Until we see Jennifer visit Matthew and start strangling him.
Jennifer lures Stanley and Andy to a house and then tortures them. Andy gets tied to a plank above a bathtub with water and lye. Eventually his head sinks into the water and burns his face. Stanley steps into a bear trap where Jennifer ties him to a tree and with fish hooks, ties his eyelids open and rubs fish guts on his face. Eventually the birds peck out his eyes.
Next she goes after Johnny. She hits him over the head. He wakes up stretched out, hanging from the rafters with a horse bit in his mouth. Jennifer spends a little more time torturing him. Which he wholeheartedly deserves I might add.
She finally moves on the sheriff. She goes and meets his wife and daughter first. Then tricks him to a park where she knocks him out. He wakes up bent over a table with his ass out. He begs and pleads but she basically rapes him with a shotgun. Then she ties fishing line to the gun and the other end to a knocked out Matthew. When he wakes up and moves the shotgun will go off killing him and Matthew.
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Overall I think the movie is well made, with good acting, and an overall good story. The first half is hard to get through but it is a rape/revenge movie. The first half is terrifying for women and is supposed to be hard to watch. The second half with the revenge is also good and has inventive ways to torture the rapists. I don’t tend to like remakes but I thought they changed enough to make it pretty good. If rape doesn’t trigger you and you don’t have a problem with rape/revenge then watch this.
And now for your Forever Final Girl Exclusive…Did you know?:
According to Jeff Branson, although it was never used, there was an "out word" that Sarah Butler was to use if the rape scenes got too intense for her.
It took Sarah Butler a week before she could bring herself to commit to making the film.
Sarah Butler accidentally chipped Jeff Branson's tooth filming the torture scene where she is forcing him to perform fellatio on a magnum. Actual unloaded firearms were used throughout the movie rather than prop replicas due to budgetary constraints.
It took Sarah Butler a week before she could bring herself to commit to making the film.
The powdered lye Jennifer mixes in the water filled bathtub to kill Andy was actually Alka-Seltzer.
The actors did all of their own stunts, barring two stunts that insurance wouldn't cover: Jennifer jumping into the river to escape her attackers, and Matthew falling down the stairs.
Roger Ebert gave this film zero stars as he had done with the original film. By his own account, he reserved zero stars for films he found to be either "artistically inept" or "morally repugnant". He especially questioned this film's supposed moral equivalency of getting revenge after a rape, stating that both acts were equally despicable crimes.
According to director Steven R. Monroe, the studio submitted an uncut version of the film to the MPAA to see if by chance they would get an R rating. The MPAA came back and said "look, you've got an NC-17 movie, but we don't recommend that you cut it down because we feel like it's really impactful." They then decided against editing the film and released it as Unrated so it could play in more theaters.
At the beginning of the film, Jennifer buys $19.78 worth of gas. 1978 is the year the original film I Spit on Your Grave (1978) was released.
While the location in which the film takes place is never identified, Louisiana inspection stickers can be seen on the vehicles.
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: 3.5/5
Scare factor: 3.5/5
Enjoyment factor: 4/5
My Rank: 3.75/5
IMDB: 6.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes: critics: 3.2/10 audience: 4.7/10
Letterboxd: 2.6/5