If you rent or buy I Spit On Your Grave you are more than likely aware of the movie’s content and subject matter. So I feel no need to comment on how shocking grotesque horrifying painful and sick it is. You can be the judge of that.
But then again every filmmaker has the right to tell whatever story they wish and in that regard I Spit On Your Grave is a terrible success. I guess I must at least give everyone involved credit for successfully capturing the horror of rape especially considering how uncomfortable the film makes its viewers. They red-neck ingrates really appear to rape the poor woman in the film and she really seems to torture the bastards afterward. My guess is that this was their intention but that doesn’t mean I have to enjoy it.
As for the Blu-ray itself its fairly slim. The HD video quality looks decent but the film has been so overly color corrected and muted you can hardly tell. There are several deleted scenes most of which were condensed into a montage in the film (and thankfully so each scene is painfully boring). The lone deleted scene excluded from the montage was a basic horror cliche showing the girl getting freaked out at nothing (literally a branch against the window).
Then we get to the commentary track. Usually commentaries are featured in the bonus content menu but this one was buried in audio options. Probably for good reason because let’s be honest – who on Earth would want to listen to a commentary track about a shitty rape/torture porn movie (besides me but I get paid to do it)? The director Steven Monroe and producer Lisa Hansen give us all the basic behind-the-scenes factoids: how long each shot took how they ran out of time/money how wonderful the actors are blah blah rape rape oh we had such a hassle with the catering blah blah rape rape. And that’s the thing their tone and what they’re watching on screen do not match at all. I know they’ve probably seen the movie dozens of times and talked about it ad nauseum but we’re still watching some pretty brutal imagery and they’re just nonchalantly saying “oh yeah this scene was rough to film.” NO SHIT SHE IS SIMULATING BEING RAPED AND TORTURED. It would almost be funny if it weren’t so grotesque.
I will give the film this – it’s a great exercise in revenge fantasy. And Jennifer (played by Sarah Butler) does come up with some pretty grisly means of exacting her revenge. Doesn’t make it any easier to watch though.
If you’re into this kind of movie you’ve already seen it or plan to. Skip it otherwise. Nothing worth seeing here at all.
