Was this remake entirely necessary? Actually no. Especially when you consider Meir Zarchi’s 1978 revenge film continues to be a widely revered, and critically reviled piece of volatile grindhouse cinema that not only set the stages for future revenge films, but was already remade subsequent its theatrical release where we saw no end of women on a rampage revenge films in the late seventies in to the eighties. “I Spit on Your Grave” is still one of the most heavily discussed and angrily debated cult masterpieces to this day inspiring hatred and praise from many film buffs and to this day inspires pure vitriol from iconic film critic Roger Ebert who despises Zarchi’s film so passionately, he banishes anyone who enjoyed it.
“I Spit on Your Grave” was a given considering the need for torture porn is still high in the film circuit, and studios are anxiously scouring for new material for the sub-genre. Meir Zarchi’s film was ripe for a modern remake instilling the same dynamic and sense of punishment for Jennifer’s sexuality as Zarchi’s film, but injecting more contemporary facets like cell phones, and the relevant inclusion of voyeurism through a character’s camcorder. True, the camcorder device has been implemented in thrillers since the mid-nineties, but here it takes on a new definition of perversion and terror, especially when in one moment character Jennifer is unwittingly being filmed mere inches away from the darkness of her vacation cabin. One of the aspects writer Stuart Morse expands upon is the role of the alpha male and his pack of perverts, all of whom have their reasons for torturing and raping poor Jennifer Hills.
Morse doesn’t remotely attempt to empathize with them, but instead turns them in to actual characters, where in the original they were more blank violent terrors who stuck down on Jennifer one day and wouldn’t relent. This builds a competent tension and mounting suspense leading in to Jennifer’s (star Sarah Butler is shockingly on par with the immortal Camille Keaton) ultimate ordeal where Monroe zeroes in on her futile attempts to endure endless rape and torture by the group of men who set out to prove their sexual power, and punish her for dominating her sense of self worth and sexuality. “I Spit on Your Grave” much like the remake of “Last House” is less focused on torture and more on the revenge aspect. Jennifer’s ultimate payback, while much too “Saw” for the sake of the story, is as brutal as director Munroe intends it to be, and when we’re subjected to her idea of payback, it offers some grueling and disgusting catharsis for this scorned young woman.
The question we’re left is: Where does she go from here? That’s always the lingering thought after payback. We’re told in the first half of the film that Jennifer is a novelist. A year later she re-appears as Batman and Jigsaw rolled in to one. Not only is she able to outwit and out stealth her hunter foes, but is able to build elaborate and grueling mechanisms that make her tormentors suffer cruel deaths. And why should we even believe that when there’s never an indication of her ability to trap and maim animals? Did Liam Neeson appear to teach her the fine skill of vengeance? Nevertheless what made Camille Keaton’s performance in the original film so uncomfortable was that her character Jennifer acted and reacted upon rage and uncalculated vengeance thus when she strikes down her tormentors, it’s more based around impulse and her slowly deteriorating sanity.
Unlike this Jennifer who becomes a monologuing sneering villainess prone to giving speeches to the villains before destroying them in vicious torture devices. Meanwhile the watering down of Jennifer’s humiliation and torture reduces the rage and hatred the audience is meant to feel toward her crime, and Monroe opts instead to focus on the covering up of the crime with the Andrew Howard’s character leading the charge as the corrupt sheriff. Howard is demented and despicable in his performance (I enjoyed him in “Pig”), but the addition of his back story with his children adds a rather unnecessary emotional anchor that never really adds to the overall resolution of the narrative beyond a red herring that is predictable and wasted. Steven R. Monroe’s version of “I Spit on Your Grave” is a competent remake and a vicious thriller that compliments director Meir Zarchi’s original rape revenge film perfectly as a re-working that expands on sub-plots and characters, while keeping true to the spirit of the grindhouse classic. I still prefer Zarchi’s contribution by miles, but this is nothing to scoff at either.