I Spit on Your Grave Movie Review

Oddly, there's no spitting in this movie, and no graves either. But I Spit on Your Grave, also known as Day of the Woman, carries with it some serious cult baggage.

The story truly could not be more simplistic. After arriving in a small country town, skinny novelist Jennifer (Camille Keaton, grand-niece of Buster) is promptly gang raped and left for dead. Weeks go by, and when she recovers, she kills her attackers one by one, via hanging, dismemberment (use your imagination as to what member...), and more unsavory methods. End of movie.

Graphic and disturbed, Meir Zarchi's updating of Wes Craven's Last House on the Left, this tale of vengeance is as awful as you might have heard. The acting is pedestrian and the script is as challenging as tic-tac-toe. I Spit on Your Grave is an exploitation film of the highest order. It's famous because it really is grotesque, though not quite as explicit as I'd heard.

Far more noteworthy is Elite's DVD release of the film. As bad as the movie is, the commentary track by the legendary Joe Bob Briggs absolutely demands a listen. In fact you can skip the regular audio altogether (remastering this in Dolby Digital and DTS seems like a waste anyway) and listen to Joe Bob's hilarious running gag. Zarchi has a commentary of his own as well, but Briggs' is the one to check out.