I Spit on Your Grave (2010 film)



I Spit on Your Grave is a 2010 American rape-and-revenge horror film and a remake of the controversial 1978 cult film of the same name (originally known as Day of the Woman). It was directed by Steven R. Monroe, and stars Sarah Butler, Chad Lindberg, Daniel Franzese, Rodney Eastman, Jeff Branson, and Andrew Howard.

Plot
Novelist Jennifer Hills travels from New York City to Louisiana to work on her next book in privacy. When she becomes lost while searching for the cabin she has rented, she stops for gas and to ask for directions. The attendant Johnny gives her directions and tries to flirt with her, to no avail.

Around the cabin, Jennifer spends the following days writing, tanning, hiking, smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol. When the cabin's plumbing becomes clogged, it is fixed by Matthew, a stuttering plumber who has social interaction disability. She rewards him with an abrupt kiss of gratitude. Matthew then tells Johnny and his friends Andy and Stanley about his visit. Johnny, whose ego was bruised after the gas station incident, decide that Jennifer is snobbish and needs to be "taught a lesson".

That night, the four men sneak into Jennifer's cabin and assault her, although Matthew refuses to participate. She escapes into the woods and bumps into Sheriff Storch and Earl, the owner of the cabin she is renting. Storch takes Jennifer back to the cabin, but when he finds her drugs and alcohol, he assaults her too. When Johnny, Matthew, Andy, and Stanley return, all of the men take turns raping her — including the reluctant Matthew. Stanley records everything with his video camera. Afterward, just as Storch is about to shoot her, Jennifer falls in the water and escapes. When they fail to find her, Storch tells the others to destroy any evidence of their crimes, including Stanley's videotape.

Jennifer begins to stalk her rapists to learn details of their lives. Stanley tells Andy and Johnny that his camera has been stolen — along with the tape of their assault on Jennifer, which had never been destroyed. Later that night, Johnny hears noises outside his house and finds evidence that suggests Matthew had been hiding in the yard. Storch intercepts a tape sent to his wife and confronts Stanley, Andy, and Johnny to find out who sent it. Johnny and Andy suspect Matthew, but they don't know where he is. Afterward, when they go hunting, Storch kills Earl with his shotgun, saying that he is taking care of "loose ends".

Matthew returns to the cabin, where he finds Jennifer. He attempts to apologize to her, but she tells him it's not enough and strangles him. She next captures Stanley in a bear trap, smears fish guts in his face, then uses his camera to record crows pecking out his eyes. Jennifer then drowns Andy and burns his face horribly in a lye bathtub. Next, she uses pliers to pull out Johnny's teeth and a pair of garden shears to cut off his penis, leaving him to bleed to death.

After killing Johnny, Jennifer visits Storch's family, posing as their daughter's new teacher. She takes the daughter to the park and, when Storch tracks her there, Jennifer knocks him unconscious. When he wakes up, Jennifer anally rapes him with his shotgun and reminds him that she was just as innocent as his own daughter. She attaches one end of a string to the trigger and the other end to the wrist of the unconscious Matthew, who is seated in front of Storch. When Matthew wakes up, his movements trigger the shotgun, which fires a round that tears through Storch's body and blows apart his face before hitting Matthew in the chest, leaving both men dead. Sitting outside, Jennifer hears the gunshot and smiles coldly.

Cast

 * Sarah Butler as Jennifer Hills
 * Rodney Eastman as Andy
 * Daniel Franzese as Stanley
 * Jeff Branson as John "Johnny" Miller
 * Andrew Howard as Sheriff Storch
 * Chad Lindberg as Matthew, the plumber with social disorders
 * Tracey Walter as Earl
 * Mollie Milligan as Mrs. Storch, the sheriff's wife
 * Saxon Sharbino as Chastity Storch, the sheriff's daughter
 * Amber Dawn Landrum as Girl at Gas Station

Production
Principal photography began on November 2, 2009, under Steven R. Monroe's direction. It was distributed by CineTel, and produced by the company's president and CEO Paul Hertzberg. Lisa Hansen, Jeff Klein, Alan Ostroff, Gary Needle, and Meir Zarchi (director of the original) served as executive producers. Location filming took place in Louisiana. The film was written by Stuart Morse, based on Zarchi's screenplay.

Release
CineTel Films planned a 2010 worldwide theatrical release. The film was part of the Texas Frightmare Weekend on May 1, 2010 in the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Irving, Texas, and part of the Film4 Frightfest on August 29, 2010. The Canadian unrated version premiered at the Fantasia Festival on July 20, 2010. The complete cast and Meir Zarchi, director of the original, were present. An unrated version was followed in limited release on October 8, 2010, in the United States. Coincidentally, another unrated horror film, Hatchet II, opened a week beforehand.

Home media
The film is distributed in the United States, Canada, Australia and the UK by Anchor Bay Entertainment. The DVD and Blu-ray were released in the United States on February 8, 2011. The DVD includes an audio commentary by director Steven R. Monroe and producer Lisa Hansen, 11 deleted scenes and teasers and trailers.

The DVD was banned in New Zealand, just before its April release.

Critical reception
Critical reaction to the film has been generally negative, with a 33% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. On Metacritic the film was assigned a rating of 27% based on reviews from 14 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Roger Ebert gave the film a zero-star rating (the same one he'd given the original) and described it as the "despicable remake of the despicable 1978 film". He claimed that it added "a phony sense of moral equivalency", stating "If I rape you, I have committed a crime. If you kill me, you have committed another one. The ideal outcome would be two people unharmed in the first place." While he allowed that the movie was made "professionally," as opposed to the original version that was devoid of any kind of skills or artistry, he considered this largely in the service of the truly offensive material, the rape scenes, later summarizing "this [version] is more offensive, because it lingers lovingly and at greater length on realistic verbal, psychological and physical violence against the woman, and then reduces her 'revenge' to cartoonish horror-flick impossibilities."

Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote, "In addition to all the obvious things that are disgusting about this movie, I Spit on Your Grave is trying to get us to hate each other. Hate it instead. It makes more sense and the hatred is much more deserved." Critic Andrew O'Hehir also denounced the notion that the film has a message, writing that it "just piles imaginary atrocities on top of real ones, and then halfheartedly claims that it means something. Well, it doesn't."

Some support for the film in mainstream press came from The New York Times, which wrote, "Female-empowerment fantasy or just plain prurience, 'Grave' is extremely efficient grindhouse." V.A. Musetto, from the New York Post, also offered some support for the film, stating, "If you can handle it, see it."

Like the original, the film did find limited cult support. Fangoria magazine wrote that I Spit on Your Grave "...is just as raw and upsetting in its onscreen brutality as the original. Perhaps more so, since the acting is significantly better this time around".

Sequels
A sequel, I Spit on Your Grave 2, directed by Steven R. Monroe, was produced and was given a limited theatrical release on September 20, 2013. The film's plot concerns a young aspiring model named Katie (Jemma Dallender) who accepts an offer to have photos taken for her modeling portfolio. Unfortunately for Katie, little does she know the event turns into a nightmare of torture, rape and kidnapping. The story has a rape-revenge plot similar to the first film.

In March 2015 Anchor Bay Entertainment announced I Spit on Your Grave III: Vengeance Is Mine, the third installment of the franchise. Sarah Butler returned to her role as Jennifer Hills and R.D. Braunstein as the director of the film.