IT’S CURIOUS AND YET strangely fitting that I Spit On Your Grave should be our first feature to focus on our Flashback Friday posts.

Fitting because it follows on the theme of revenge horror films from our podcast discussions on The Last House On The Left  of which this movie is arguably the pinnacle.

Banned in numerous countries around the world and severely panned for its crude and exploitative focus on rape and the vilification of its lead female character Jennifer causing film critic Roger Ebert to cite it as the “worst movie ever made” and a “vile piece of garbage.”
It’s not just the act or several acts that follow and the torment that is inflicted upon her, but the sheer relentlessness of it all these actions that make for incredibly uncomfortable viewing.
So much so that you can’t help but question the reason for such gratuitousness.

If it was about the revenge, then the that revenge had best be sweet, and even though the poor excuse for humans are duly dispatched, by the time it comes around, you are left not caring.

By the time it comes around, you’ve been turned off by all that unfolded previously.

The acting is poor.

The plot is left wanting.

And the subject matter is badly handled.

I Spit On Your Grave may have reached cult status and will probably stay as such whilst it stays in the limelight. (The recent remake and subsequent sequels have strengthened that at least for the time being.)
And yet in this Horror Surgeon’s eyes, the movie doesn’t deserve such a high place on the classic horror mantle.

Especially when placed alongside the likes of Friday the 13th or A Nightmare On Elm Street.

Best to be shelved and forgotten about.

-Paul Farrell