I Spit on Your Grave (1978)

So much has been written about this film - much of it by people who haven't seen it - that it is impossible to go into a first viewing of it - which I finally managed yesterday - without preconceptions.  In the UK it became, perhaps, the quintessential 'video nasty' in the public consciousness, despite being atypical of  the sort of films usually lumped together under this label.  The fact is that I Spit on Your Grave (1978) isn't a horror film in the conventional sense, (although much of what occurs in it is definitely horrific), like the Italian gorefests and crude low budget shockers that found themselves refused certification by the BBFC, but rather a brutal revenge drama with a female protagonist.  There are no zombies, no serial killers, no cannibals or supernatural threats, just a bunch of violent small town rapists who enjoy brutalising women.  Which is probably one of the reasons the film evoked such an extreme reaction at the time of its release: by removing the distancing mechanism of employing a fantasy framework for its horrors, which removes any sense of immediate threat to the audience, it brought it all too close to home for comfort.  

The principle criticism of the film centered around the lengthy gang rape scenes which take up around thirty minutes of the hundred minute or so running time. At the time of the film's release, it was claimed that these were entirely exploitative, designed to somehow titillate male audience members.  In reality, these scenes are filmed in the most untitillating way possible, emphasising the violence and humiliation being visited upon the victim.  They are incredibly harrowing and in no way glamourise or justify rape, instead making clear that it is about power, not sex - the perpetrators feel threatened by an intelligent, confident woman and set out to exert their 'superiority' in the basest, most violent way possible.  While these scenes still seem shocking now in the way they depict rape in all its brutality, back in 1978 they would undoubtedly have had a far greater impact on audiences.  Before this, films that dealt with rape and sexual assault never depicted the act, with it happening off screen - often it was passed off as being unpleasant, but without long-lasting effect, sometimes it was treated jokily, with the clear implication that victim had enjoyed the experience, or had been a semi-willing participant in the act.  While many critics still consider the rape sequences in I Spit on Your Grave gratuitously lengthy and detailed, they leave the viewer in no doubt that it certainly hasn't been an enjoyable experience for the victim, rather a brutal and demeaning experience with long-lasting consequences.

The latter part of the film addresses some of these consequences as it chronicles the victim's equally brutal revenge upon her rapists.  What's clear is that she has been so deeply traumatised by her ordeal that she believes taking matters into her own hands is the only way of getting justice.  It could be argued that this section of the film constitutes a 'female revenge fantasy', which balances the sort of male rape fantasies that informed both earlier depictions of rape and the actions of the characters in this film's own narrative.  Indeed, the woman succeeds in using a key element of the male rape fantasy - that the victim really enjoys the experience of being roughly dominated and will seek further such experiences - to entrap two of her rapists.  They are easily convinced that, rather than seeking revenge, she has been humbled by her experience and has come back for more.  While her killings of her rapists might be shockingly violent - hanging, castration, axe in the back and evisceration by outboard motor - they in no way match the brutality and violence of her rape ordeal.  If that catalogue of murder methodologies sound as if they might have come from a slasher movie, then it is because the then nascent slasher genre was probably I Spit on Your Grave's closest relative in the horror genre.  Except that, unlike the average slasher flick, here the actions of the killer are, arguably, justifiable and the victims fully deserving of their fates.  In the latter respect, the film is turning that other rape fantasy excuse of the woman having been 'asking for it', on its head.

While I think that the film is quite genuine in its attempt to present rape in a more 'realistic' fashion than it had been in prior film depictions and to present a more 'feminist' approach, it still remains problematic.  Bearing in mind that the film was originally inspired by writer/director Meir Zarchi's experience of helping a young rape victim and the her subsequent treatment by the police, it is surprising that the film doesn't include at least one scene of an indifferent or inadequate response by the authorities to more fully explain her resort to vigilantism.  As it stands, she never even reports the rape, instead deciding immediately to take the law into her own hands. Moreover, while the victim is ultimately 'empowered' to confront her rapists, the implication that she has to resort to similar levels of violence and brutality as her persecutors in order to gain 'justice' arguably undermines the legitimacy of her actions and moral stance.  There is also the risk that the will attract as part of its audience the very people who might identify with the rapists or get a kick out of the rape and humiliation of a woman.  This, however, is a risk inherent in any creative endeavour - just look at the number of people who identified with racist, sexist bigot Alf Garnett in the sitcom 'Til Death Us Do Part, despite it being writer Johnny Speight's intent that he be seen as a figure of ridicule for his beliefs.  Creators can't necessarily be held responsible for audience reaction to their creations.

The other issue to address is whether I Spit on Your Grave is actually a well made film.  On its release it was dismissed as being cinematic trash, a piece of ill-made exploitation cynically trying to pass itself off as a feminist statement. The reality is that, by the standards of seventies exploitation, I Spit on Your Grave is a surprisingly well made film with decent cinematography, editing, sound quality and effective direction.  Sure, it fells a little rough around the edges and its pacing is off - it runs around ten minutes too long - but it is clearly a professional piece of film-making.  It also boasts some decent performances from the cast, with Camille Keaton, (who I'd only ever seen dubbed into Italian prior to this), outstanding in the lead.  The portrayal of the rapists is also notable - these aren't the usual backwoods degenerate hill billies on display in many other exploitation pieces.  Instead, they are characterised and played as pretty much regular guys - the ring leader, John, for instance, is happily married with two kids, while another of them is the slightly dimwitted but ultimately harmless seeming and likeable grocery store delivery boy.  Certainly, the film doesn't deserve the sort of critical abuse it originally received.  Its unflinching portrayal of the actuality of rape isn't easy viewing, (to be honest, I don't think that I'd want to watch it again), but it is effective - doubtless the reason for the negative reaction when it was first released.

One can't help but suspect that the hostility to the film, particularly in UK where it labelled a 'video nasty' and effectively banned for a time, was down to the fact that it portrayed some uncomfortable truths about rape and violence against women.  What we should all be worried about, of course, is the fact that even more than forty years after the release of I Spit on Your Grave, women apparently still cannot safely walk home, or n a public park, alone, particularly after dark, without fearing that they are at risk from sexual assault and murder by men.  Worse still, the same tired old excuses get trotted out to somehow 'justify' their treatment by claiming that they had brought it all upon themselves: 'she was asking for it,' 'she enjoyed it really', etc.  Sadly, the film's underlying message, that women should be entitled to dress, speak and behave however they like, without fear of assault, seems not to have gotten through.  Maybe if it hadn't been so vilified and more people had been allowed to watch it...