I’ve heard about I Spit on Your Grave quite a few times, but never in great detail. From what I could gather, it sounded like a classic ’70s Grindhouse pic with a cult following and that sounded intriguing enough. But then came word of a remake so outlandish that the filmmakers are releasing it unrated. Now my curiosity was piqued. Finally, I decided to watch the original and see what the fuss was about. To my great discomfort, it turns out that I wasn’t anywhere near prepared for this film.

I Spit on Your Grave (also called Day of the Woman) is about a woman who is out for homicidal revenge against four men after they brutally rape her and leave her for dead. I knew about this premise going in. I figured that in typical B-movie fashion, the rape scene would only last for a couple minutes and the revenge would involve several poorly-edited sequences of latex dummies leaking red corn syrup. I figured that the movie would be one of those cheesy, charmingly low-budget affairs.

I was totally and completely wrong. That is not this movie at all.

Folks, the rape scene in this movie goes on for twenty minutes. Hell, it’s not even a scene — it’s three scenes, each one more painful and squirm-inducing than the one before. In fact, the rape is made far scarier precisely because it’s divided into three scenes: You think that the rape is done and our protagonist can limp back to safety, but nope — it’s another guy’s turn. I initially thought that this was an exploitation movie, but I learned early on that the “exploitation” label did not apply here. As I understand it, exploitation movies are done for enjoyment and/or titillation, but there’s absolutely none of either to be found in the subject matter of this film. There is no joy or beauty in watching our female lead as she lay stripped, dirtied, bloodied, four times violated, twice inseminated (!) and barely breathing.

The rape scenes in this movie are horribly difficult to watch, but that’s as it should be. In my opinion, a rape scene that’s easy to watch would be far more offensive than one that isn’t. Still, that doesn’t make watching it any more pleasant. I have to admit that halfway through, I was wondering just how anyone could bear to watch this film. Then came the second half.

The “revenge” half of this movie is intriguing in many ways. Let’s start with Jennifer Hills, our main character played by Camille Keaton. First of all, look at her. Just look at her. Does that woman look like vigilante material to you? She looks to me like she could trip and break into a thousand pieces. Not a single muscle on her body, just skin and bones. Through the first half of the movie, I kept wondering how this stick of a woman would get the physical strength to overpower and kill four violent men. Turns out she doesn’t kill by way of brute strength. She kills by way of seduction.

This movie is constantly finding excuses to dress Jenny in skimpy or revealing clothes, if anything at all (I’m pretty sure she goes through the entire picture without once wearing a bra). But the wardrobe isn’t as important as the context. In the first third, she’s dressing easy because she’s trying to relax and have a good time. In the second third, she’s totally naked because she’s limping and crawling from one rape to another. In the final third, she’s dressing and undressing to make herself a baited trap.

Jenny murders the rapists’ by using their motivations against them. The movie thus spends a lot of time ruminating on criminal psychology. The four men all have their own reasons for what they do and the film focuses on quite a few of them. One, name of Matthew, is succumbing to peer pressure and he’s worried that no girl would ever have sex with him by choice. Matthew also appears retarded to some degree, so his own mental capacities and their effects on his self-esteem are implied to possibly play some role. Of course, it’s not like any of them have much for brains. Another one, Andy, ponders at one point if beautiful, knockout women ever “gotta take a shit.” His colleagues reply “women are full of shit.” Johnny is shown to have a wife and two kids, yet he still rapes Jenny because he still has manly urges to satisfy. He also posits that Jenny was asking to be raped because of the revealing clothes she wore. The fourth one, Stanley, says that he wants “total submission” from women. Even Johnny’s wife provides food for thought, cussing out Andy and Stanley as she bosses them around. I could go on and on about the visuals and dialogue that add to this meditation.

That said, there’s something I want to make perfectly clear: The rapists are never shown as in the right. EVER. This movie has absolutely no intent or interest in defending the act of rape, only to postulate on why it’s done, to show how merciless and evil the crime is and to punish it vicariously through our heroine. Furthermore, this movie isn’t some extreme feminist statement to say that all men are evil. No, it’s just that these particular men are evil because they see women as lesser creatures to be used up and thrown away as a means of passing time. Seriously, that’s the catalyst for this whole thing: These fuckheads got bored.

Anyway, Jenny kills these boys in the simplest way possible: She gives them what they want. She acts submissive to their sense of ego and strength, moves like she’s going to give them what they took by force… right up until their guard is dropped and she drops them. There’s also a recurring theme of Jenny using her attacker’s methods against them: The rope used to hijack her boat is the same rope that hangs Matthew. The knife Matthew was going to kill Jenny with is the one she uses to castrate Johnny in the tub until he bleeds out. Andy comes at her with an axe, which she takes and uses to kill him right back. Stanley torments her with the same motorboat that she later cuts him up with.

And then… the film ends. Just like that. No denouement, no epilogue, no nothing. She kills the last of the rapists, roll credits. The whole film suffers from bad pacing, really — there’s a whole ton of overlong shots and redundant scenes to pad out the thin premise. Sometimes this actually works very well, such as when Jenny is waiting for Johnny to bleed out. Other times, such as when Jenny goes skinny-dipping near the film’s start, it’s totally worthless.

It’s also worth pointing out that in true B-movie fashion, the dialogue is extremely hokey. The characters are all hopelessly one-dimensional and poorly acted, with the sole exception of Camille Keaton. The role of Jennifer Hills is surely a terrible burden to carry, physically demanding and emotionally complex to a mind-warping, soul-crushing degree. I can’t begin to imagine how Keaton managed to sell every moment of her screen time and keep her sanity in the process, but she did it. The word “kudos” doesn’t come anywhere close.

I hope that by now, I’ve given an accurate impression of just how fucked up I Spit on your Grave is. The film is specifically crafted to shock and offend, guaranteed to traumatize to some degree. You’re of course perfectly free — nay, encouraged to stay away if that isn’t your cup of tea. However, I’m of the opinion that every film lover needs to see a movie like I Spit on your Grave on occasion. It’s good to push your boundaries every now and then, and there aren’t many films to test your comfort zone like this one.

Of course, there are still two questions left to answer: Can it be made better and is a remake necessary? Well, from my point of view, there’s obviously a lot of improvements to be made in terms of pacing and writing. Additionally, the decades of advances in film technology will certainly make for a better-looking film with even longer and more gruesome kills.

As to whether it’s necessary, I’ve got two words: Torture porn. So-called “horror” movies featuring unsympathetic characters killed off in gruesome ways for our entertainment. Movies in which a violent and terrible death isn’t something for our characters to avoid, but what we’ve come to watch. None of this is new, but it seems much more common now, starting with Eli Roth and continuing with Piranha 3D. I personally feel that the time is ripe for a twist on the “torture porn” genre. A movie in which irredeemable pricks are killed off for deeper reasons than the pleasure of some evil spirit or sadist. I’m perfectly willing to see if the remake will deliver that, but no matter what happens, the original will still fit that bill just fine.