Going in I expected a grainy, rather grungy image given the film's origins (and I should make it clear, that there's nothing wrong with that). I feel confident in saying that I Spit On Your Grave: Ultimate Collector's Edition's AVC 1080i 1.78:1 imagery is the worst I've ever come across in four years of reviewing hi-def discs.
However, all of this talk of censorship is ultimately rendered completely moot by the quality of the Blu-ray encode itself. Suffice to say that this Blu-ray runs for 100m 21s and features enough obvious edits and clumsy shot substitutions during the rape scenes to make you instantly aware that changes had been made. Cuts required in accordance with BBFC Guidelines, policy and Video Recordings Act 1984.'Īs I've never seen the film before, it's impossible for me to comment on the differences between this latest UK release and any of the previous (cut or uncut) versions that have been released around the world. Company was required to make cuts to scenes of sexual violence in order to remove potentially harmful material. To obtain this category cuts of 2m 54s were required. According to the BBFC website and its latest entry for the film, dated July 13, this year. Now, at this point it's worth pointing out that although the packaging for this release correctly states that this is the 'Most complete version ever released in the UK', I Spit on Your Grave still ran into a spot of bother with the British Board of Film Classification. The narrative crawls forward at a snail's pace and is completely lacking in logic, and excepting Camille Keaton, the performances are uniformly awful, with the actors portraying the rapists doing material so broad that even directors of silent melodramas in the 1920s and '30s would have rejected them for being too over-the-top. The problem is that ultimately, it's a bit of a bore. Yes, it's an unpleasantly brutal experience, but it does have some interesting things to say about gender and presentations of femininity. But personally, I can't bring myself to side with either the film's harshest critics or staunchest defenders. That said, it's also generated some spirited support over the years, and I still have fond memories of reading American film studies professor Carol J Clover's measured and rational defence of the movie in her seminal 1992 book about the horror genre Men, Woman and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. However, Jennifer survives the ordeal (physically, if not entirely emotionally), and embarks on a plan of violent revenge.įrom this synopsis it's easy to see why the film continues to court controversy.
#REVIEWS FOR MOVIE I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE SERIES#
Targeted by a quartet of men, she is abducted while canoeing and subjected to a series of horrific rapes and left for dead.
Originally titled Day of the Woman, but better known by its re-release title, I Spit on Your Grave tells the story of New York magazine writer Jennifer Hills (Camille Keaton) who rents a secluded cottage by a lake in the middle of the countryside so that she can work on her debut novel in peace. But not necessarily in the way you might be expecting. Skip forward to today, and I'm no longer an I Spit on Your Grave virgin (come to think of it, that sounds so wrong on so many levels), and I have to admit that this Ultimate Collector's Edition Blu-ray both shocked and appalled me. It seems that there was just something about it that didn't interest me. 45 (aka Angel of Vengeance) - so that can't be why I avoided the film for so long. Yes, I found the subject matter distasteful, but I've seen plenty of other films in this particular sub-genre and am still a huge admirer of Abel Ferrara's Ms. Despite being a child of the 'video nasty', having spent the latter part of the '80s and early '90s building up an extensive VHS library packed with titles like Nekromantik, Cannibal Ferox and Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS, for some reason I had never actually bothered with the film that - for many - was synonymous with this controversy-baiting collection of movies. And that's just the Blu-ray disc itself!Ĭonfession time: Before getting started on this review, I had never seen Meir Zarchi's notorious 1978 rape-revenge shocker I Spit on Your Grave. It'll make you want to tear your eyes out.
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