It is empowering to people that lack common sense.Īs for the plot, it goes something like this: Jennifer Hills (Camille Keaton) is an aspiring writer that takes a summer vacation to a lakeside cottage in the country to finish writing her latest novel. Critics that have defended the film suggest that it is a "misunderstood feminist film." 3 This film isn't empowering to women, nor is it empowering to men. There is no skillful direction, no soundtrack, and the violence on screen is for the sheer sake of violence. Its dumb characters are portrayed by terrible actors who recite meaningless bits of dialogue. Instead, it was banned in some countries, renounced by two esteemed critics in ours, and ultimately released on DVD so that audiences could share the experience of watching a "controversial" film.Ĭontroversy aside, I Spit on Your Grave is one stupid film. In fact, I think the film should have completed its theatrical run in Chicago in the summer of 1981, quietly left multiplexes and been banished to home video, where it would have lived out the rest of its days buried in a pile of discarded VHS tapes in someone's garage.
I was offended by the film to be sure, but not to the extent that Siskel and Ebert were. Something in me had to know if the film reviled so much could be that bad, if the controversy surrounding its depictions of violence and rape against women was appropriate or misconstrued, and whether or not the film needed to be discussed further. I admit to being someone with such a curiosity, which began when I read that Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel had called it the worst film they had ever seen and launched a successful campaign to have the film pulled from the United Artist Theater in Chicago 2. There is a morbid curiosity that lingers over I Spit on Your Grave, a film that in the thirty-years since its original theatrical run 1 has gained cult status for its depravity.
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