The world of exploitation film ripped open and laid raw for you to experience. From 70's grindhouse to current underground, it is all here. So ripe you can practically smell it.
Underground Auteur Eric Stanze and the Wicked Pixel crew are back after
the success of their last film, the very spooky and ambitious DEADWOOD
PARK. This time Stanze is back into the grittier blood soaked territory a
lot of his fans may feel he is comfortable in. But don't let
appearances fool you, RATLINE is in a lot of ways his slickest, and most
challenging work. Stanze is still bending genre conventions at will,
here he does it in a roller-coaster fashion, never letting the audience
get a good foothold long enough to know what hit them. There is enough
story, gore and character in RATLINE for several movies and Stanze keeps
all the balls in the air surprisingly well.
The film begins
with two sisters played by Wicked Pixel regular Emily Haack and Alex Del
Monacco in a jam. They are ripping off some thug at a car repair garage
for a large sum of money and have killed him. After cleaning up they
are on the run. They head to a small town in Illinois to hide out where
an innocent young woman named Penny Webb (Sarah Swafford)
has offered them a boarding room. She is working for her Grandfather in
the city offices helping him relocate the city graveyard since urban
sprawl is setting in and many of the ancient graves belong to be people
long since moved away.
Elsewhere in the city there are what
appears to be a series of occult oriented crimes being committed, people
turning up missing, pets disappearing, and sexual assaults all related
to what appears to be Satanism. We find this out from a series of
newspaper clipping on the walls of the Self styled satanists themselves,
a rag tag group of teenagers including another Wicked Pixel Regular
performer Jessie Seitz as the girl who video tapes their crimes.
***do not read the next two paragraphs if you do not want spoilers to the plot of RATLINE***
The Satanists are killing neighborhood dogs and bathing in the blood in
moonlight sex rituals to try to bring about their lord and master, but
the action is just not good enough. So they set a plan in motion to grab
a person for slaughter. They set a trap to grab a passing motorist and
almost get the two sisters from the beginning but their streets smarts
prevent it. They do however convince a good Samaritan played by Wicked
Pixel regular and producer Jason Christ to stop and help. They quickly
kidnap him and take him to an abandoned warehouse for slaughter. But
things don't go as planned. When he in fact VICIOUSLY turns the tables
and kills every single last one of them in a stand out scene that will
have gorehounds on their feet.
Seems that the Satanists were
just a plot red herring, and that Jason Christ as Frank Logan is the
real villain of the film. As the plot unfolds we discover he is in fact a
supernatural killing machine from World War 2, created from Nazi Occult
experiments, and he has returned to find the other scientists involved.
Seems they have the ritualistic Nazi "Blood Flag" used to create him
and with it he can secure his continuing immortality. Penny's
Grandfather was involved in those experiments and has the flag. So Frank
will stop at nothing to get it. But there may be other connections to
the sisters as well.
What Eric Stanze has done with RATLINE is
take a complex story and weld it to a Saturday afternoon exploitation
style framwork and make both styles work with ease. The film spends the
first third being basically a grindhouse horror movie filled with
splatter and naked people, basically speaking loud and proud to the
horror kids making sure they get their fix. Then the REAL villain of the
piece arrives and knocks everyone's dick in the dirt. That's when the
plot is allowed to get moving and to everyone's credit the movie does
not slow down, it only get's more interesting thanks to a dynamic story
and good acting all around.
Stanze's films always have a lot
of complexity to them, and he usually delivers a lot of information in
one fell swoop. Case in point how ICE FROM THE SUN stops for the main
character to hear all about how the rules of the game to work, or the
lengthy flash back in DEADWOOD PARK (that is a incredible and dynamic
sequence). In RATLINE he finds an almost brilliant way to get a lot of information into the open in one fell swoop by having a character watch a
declassified government film on the Nazi Experiments. The film is one
the filmmakers obviously produced themselves but the replication of the
era is astonishing and it is a fascinating artifact. Once that scene is
over we know exactly what is transpiring.
Though RATLINE is
not all blood and fire. One of the best elements of the movie is that
there is a lot about relationships. There is an eroding relationship
between the sisters because of the crime they have committed. Emily
Haack's character has an emotional issue's dealing with her estranged
Father. Penny has a nice relationship with her protective but
conservative Grandfather and best of all there is a rather touching and
very well handled love story that develops between Emily Haack's
character and Sarah Swafford's. Seems that Swafford's Penny is a Lesbian
but hiding because of the conservative community she lives in and Haack
is a bit older and been through a lot more hard times and they fall for
each other. In the middle of this rough and tumble horror film there is
this amazingly toughing, very soft-hearted love story subplot that
really works. So much that I kind of wish it had gotten more screen time
as both actresses are really good together.
In some
ways this is one of Eric Stanze's best films. It is lean, and free of
fat. While I love all of his work, a lot of horror fans have trouble
connecting to his more esoteric work. This one is much more trimmed
down, and accessible to mainstream fans. While still keeping the things
that make his work great. There are no compromises here, but the story
telling is great, the film-making technique is top of the line and the
actors are all on board.
RATLINE is available on
Amazon.com as a streaming or direct download rental or purchase and as a DVD directly from
Wicked Pixel themselves. The newly released DVD has two commentary tracks one with just Eric Stanze, the other with the lead actors and Eric, an hour long behind the scenes documentary and of course the WPC trailer reel. So if you are a fan of Eric Stanze's other work
or just really solid Indie horror films, you should do yourself a favor
and just check this out. It is yet another winner from the WPC cannon.
THE EXTERMINATOR (1980) D. James Glickenhaus 1.78 Anamorphic Widescreen Blu Ray /DVD Combo Pack Synapse Films
This seminal exploitation action classic is finally available again on the digital format after being out of print for a number of years. It was available in the very early days of the DVD format in an acceptable but not particularly impressive ltbx dvd release that was in turn just a port over of the Anchor Bay Ltbx VHS release from the late 90's. This new release see's the film for the first time totally remastered in full HD and totally uncut for the first time ever with some scant extended violence. No full scenes mind you, but when you see that fist infamous decapitation you will totally notice how it is much more juicy and unpleasant that you have ever seen it before.
For the uninitiated THE EXTERMINATOR is another in the very popular late 70's canon of revenge fantasies featuring the everyman who is pushed to the limit by some ferocious street crime and sets out to clean it up on his own. Here a lot of the structure is handled differently making the film interesting. Robert Ginty plays Vietnam Vet John Eastland whose best friend (played by B-Movie Kung fu actor Steve James) is beaten and mugged by low level street thugs. This vicious beating lands the poor guy in the hospital paralyzed. So John sets out on the streets to find the thugs to do them in. But even after quickly finding them he realizes this is not quite enough. Mounting hospital bills and just a general feeling of drowning in the filth of the street sends him on a mission to continue to take out the trash. Working his way through the various scum and street life of New York.
Many things set THE EXTERMINATOR apart from other grindhouse examples of the genre right from the get go; namely solid performances from Robert Ginty and Steve James (who is unfortunately not on screen very much). James is set up early in the film to be the actual hero of the piece as he saves his best friend not once, but twice. Once in the incredible, violent and harrowing Vietnam opening sequence, then later in the scene that introduces the thugs that will do him in. The film pulls a fast one by having him crippled and Ginty become the the avenging spirit of the film. It is a smart bit of scriptwriting to play it out this way and both actors do a good job of creating a real sense of believability in their friendship. Early on when Ginty finds a pair of thugs responsible for his friend's condition one of the thugs tries to reason out his behavior by claiming "it doesn't matter, he was only a nigger!" sending Ginty in a searing rage. He exclaims back to the thug "That...Nigger is my best friend you motherfucker". But he doesn't yell the line. He delivers it in a deliberate clinched teeth bit of rage that is entirely 100% believable. A moment of devastating emotion that grounds everything he does for the rest of the film.
What people remember THE EXTERMINATOR for is the outrageous violence and bone crunch stunts. For a low budget movie this was pretty over the top stuff that pushed a lot of limits. From the opening scene in Vietnam the included possible the most realistic decapitation ever put on film as well as the most insane helicopter stunts performed INCLUDING those in such films as APOCALYPSE NOW. Turns out the stunt drivers responsible are the same guys who did the helicopter stunts on TWILIGHT ZONE THE MOVIE. Another moment everyone remembers is the infamous meat-grinder death or the torture with soldering iron. All of which are here in full blown remastered delight. But one thing I always found unique about the movie is how there is a moment about half way through where the movie stops and we get to watch as the main character creates specialized poison bullets using mercury. The scene serves no other purpose except as a "how to" on exactly how such a thing can be done!
I'm also a big fan of the music in the film, especially the final song in the film by Chip Taylor called Theme for an American Hero. A song that captures the perfect loneliness of the main character and of a generation of broken men coming home from the Vietnam war.
The film has a sub plot featuring Christopher George as a cop who is on the trail of The Exterminator and while his performance is good and he fills it with quirks, I have always found this part of the film to be dead weight. Granted this is where we get a lot of the major Vietnam subtext as he discusses it with his bubbleheaded girlfriend played by Samantha Egger. But for me the main film is with Ginty and his revenge. When the film drifts from him I find myself drifting too.
Dictatorially it is a strange movie too. Glickenhaus makes some really odd choices that can either be really disconcerting or considered brave depending on how you want to look at them. He cuts a lot of what other director's would feel is necessary. Things basic screenwriting would dictate important like finding, stalking and catching the bad guys. Early on in the film Ginty catches the first of the thugs. Only we NEVER see any of that. The film fades out and fades back and he has the guy tied up and he is now questioning him with a flamethrower. We never see how he found the guy, caught the guy or even how he got the flamethrower. He tells the guy "if you're lying I'll be back" a line that even becomes the tag line of the trailers. Yet he never comes back to finish the guy off and ends up finding the gut much later in the movie when he is robbing an old lady. Once again no explanation of how the guy got loose or why he never went back for him. Some of that is simply lazy screenwriting , but some of it is clearly Glickenhaus dispensing with "fat" and cutting to the chase.
At the end of the day people remember the movie because it is a successful exercise in cinematic brutality and revenge wish fulfillment. Lots of us wish we could be THE EXTERMINATOR. Director Glickenhaus understood that, and was smart enough to craft real characters and put good actors in there to play them. That is the reason the movie has stood the test of time. This new DVD/Blu Ray combo delivers it the respect it deserves. A pristine presentation, a fantastic commentary (with fun nuggets like the explosion in the film was the biggest ever shot in New York) the first time ever on home video the Dolby Stereo tracks are available, and of course the trailers and TV spots.Synapse Films should be commended for going the extra mile (like the ALWAYS do) for making sure this was done right. Jump on this set if you are any kind of self respecting exploitation film fan.
Lloyd Kauffman's PRODUCE YOUR OWN DAMN MOVIE! TROMA 2 DVD set
This two disc set fromTromacontinues in the series of "instructional" dvd's from founderLloyd Kauffmanintended to help young young filmmakers find their way in the movie business. Intended to work with his bookMAKE YORU OWN DAMN MOVIEand the DVD set of the same name and the soon to be released SELL YOUR OWN DAMN MOVIE (which is the one I personally am looking the most forward too). Kauffman calls on his many years of film distribution experience and contacts to put together a fairly entertaining concoction of advice that is surprisingly useful.
The first disc is basically a throwaway and only of much use to fans of TROMA and Kauffman as it is basically Lloyd on several sets where he was doing comeo's. The footage is interesting, as we get a look at behind the scenes on films like the remake of MOTHER'S DAY, the new filmMOMA'S BOYSor my own current favorite film of 2011 James Gunn's SUPER. The footage is fun, and a good time to see the bigger productions interact with with Kauffman, who basically seems clueless most of the time with how such machines actually work.
If the release was only this it would be nothing more than the kind of thing that would be you tube material but thankfully it is not. The second disc is a wealth of interviews conducted by Kauffman with a host of industry insiders on the topic of funding and producing movies in the film climate today. Ranging from bum rushingDavid Cronenberg at a convention to getting big time producerAvi Lerner to actually sit down at his office for a rather in depth discussion.Monte Hellman makes a HUGE major course breakfast while discussing his entire career. Roger Cormantalks about the differences of making the very low budget Sci-Fi channel style films he makes now vs the old school classic he used to make. Newcomers The Duplass Brothers discuss their process of deconstruction and getting their ultra low budget films into Sundance.Ernest Dickersongoes into a surprising amount of depth about getting funds together and working within the mainstream. Uber producerSteven Paultalks about finding funding as does Caroline Baron. I skipped listening toMick Garris.
The topic everyone discusses at length is how in the old days you could raise financing her in the USA with a good idea, or using things like Tax shelter, or penny stocks. Now you HAVE to have a star, or something ready to pre-sell the whole package and go to foreign sales markets. It seems ALL projects from a small indie drama to the biggest projects likeRAMBOare funded the exact same way now through presales on the foreign market or through places like the American Film Market with things like big stars of marketable talent behind the camera as collateral. This is why remakes and sequels are such bankable ways to go, because it is a gaurentee on inestiment.
The second disc on the set is actually a very helpful, very interesting big of movie making insider information. Maybe not revelatory information, but certainty useful to those looking to break in and make films in the this climate. Disc one is just of use to TROMAfans who like to watch Lloyd Kauffman clown around.
Was it really the day of the woman? This little exploitation movie dreamed up by expatriate Mier Zarchihas remained among the most controversial of all horror films over the years. Sharply dividing fans over it’s vile content. You want to start a fight in a room full o gore loving horror fans? Get them talking aboutI SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE. Inevitably it will turn to gender politics and soon feminist tracts. Without fail people will be accuse someone of sympathizing with rapists and it is all done for.
I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE is a volatile time bomb of a movie that, even today even after a crappy remake, and several decades of nasty rape scenes in other films it still holds an edge.
What I intend to do here today on Exploitation Nation is what I did on our first day out the gate. Explore the movie with some depth, and then I have invited a host of writers, artists and filmmakers that I know and respect to chime in with their views. Mostly I wanted them to recall their first encounters with the film. But I am sure a movie this excitable will draw out far more than just the recollection of whether or not they saw it on VHS or beta.
I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE began life as a film called DAY OF THE WOMAN written and directed by an Israeli filmmaker named Mier Zarchi who was living in New York city. He claims he was moved to create such a violent and savage film because he encountered a badly beaten rape victim in Central Park. On the commentary of the film he recounts a story of meeting a young woman in New York City that was nude, bloody, beaten and had a broken jaw. He took her to the police to which she was treated not like a victim, but like someone who had committed a crime herself. A crime of being a woman, and that being raped was something that just came with being female. This horrific outrage was what fueled him to write and create the story.
The film was shot in upstate Kent Connecticut which is a very picturesque small town. Zarchi chose very wisely to shoot the film is long takes and with almost no music. Something that is almost inperceivable on the first viewing because the imagery is so strong. But the long stretches of silence really make the film very haunting. This technique forces things like body gestures, and looks from actors to stand out much more, accentuating the menace.
Camile Keaton, fresh off her turn as Solange in the Italian thriller WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO SOLANGE? stars as Jennifer Hills a struggling writer who has gone to her family cabin for the summer to write her novel. She quickly inflames the libido of the rednecks in the small town who are simply not accustomed to seeing liberated women of any sort. So her more city like ways of wearing skirts, bikinis and talking back to the menfolk are taken as flirting at best and as a sexual affront at worst, to these boneheaded, boner wielding savages. To try and temper their monstrous behavior they have the town mental defective as their mascot, a kid named Matthew (Richard Pace) who they use as their whipping boy. When Matthew takes a shine to Jennifer, it is their way to justify the oncoming sexual assaults. They can claim it is all to get Matthew laid, when it is all to act out their worst bestial qualities. To destroy what they do not understand. To fuck away that which sexually threatens them.
The worst part is that Jennifer is actually very nice to Matthew and tries to not be unkind. But before you know it the most infamous scenes of the movie are afoot. I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE is infamous for the rape scenes. They are not only graphic, but last a long time. Far too many sources will quote erroneous times, Anywhere from 35 to 50 minutes, The actual time is actually around 25 or so, as there is a goodly amount of cat and mouse lead up that often seems to get lumped in to the actual assault. She is assaulted several times over by each one of the greasy thugs and Matthew (who's scene is frankly a bit ridiculous who him yelling "I can’t cum" over and over into the camera). Many critics have contested that these scenes are gratuitous, and meant to be titillating to the most base viewers in the audience. That the reason the film exists is to elicit a sexual reaction from viewers who like to watch women being debased.
I contend that is simply not the case, if it were the scenes would be handled very differently. In fact the entire movie would be. There were plenty of movies at that time in the exploitation world that used rape as titillating and they always end with the women being raped loving the experience or falling for her attacker. The old she had to get over the experience to realize she liked sex thing. That is clearly NOT what is going on here. At no point during these scenes is it portrayed in anyway that Jennifer is compliant, or complicit with what is happening. She is clearly being shown as a victim of these men. She is also pretty carefully photographed, though there is nudity, it is not lingering. No close ups of her nipples or crotch, and the nudity doesn't just hang there ogling her. Only when she gets up after being raped to walk away does the camera stay on her for any significant amount of time. Then it is a shot he emphasizes how dirty, beaten and hollow her face looks.This is a woman taken to the point of destruction. More often than not the point of view of the rape is hers. The camera is shown to be getting attacked by the men and we the audience as the ones sharing in the horror through her eyes. NOT the other way around. Which is what the detractors fail to notice again and again. There is no distancing device, ala a flashback like say THE ACCUSED. Instead we are right there next to her down in it.
Matthew is told to kill her but instead leaves her for dead and she survives. The second half of the movie is Jennifer finding ways to get the men alone and killing them off. The movie isn't always as strong as it could be in the second half especially considering the year it was made, and leaps and bounds in technology film has come since then. But there is an undeniable frission in many of the scenes where she seduces the men into a moment of vulnerability only to do them in. The movie’s most famous being when she calmly castrates Johnny (Eron Tambor) head of the gang and then goes downstairs to listen to music while he dies. This is easily one of the finest moments in all of the era's exploitation movies. The scene is indeed sleazy as she seduces the slimebag into the bathtub. Yet once she has him bleeding out and he is screaming in pain the scene reverts to something altogether more. The movie follows HER as she sits downstairs just listening to him die. It is an effective moment of POWER for the Jennifer character and one of the strongest moments of revenge in all of the cannon of these types of films. Not because she castrates him, though that is satisfying, but because the film stays with her and we watch HER satisfaction at listening to the man who violated her die a horrific and painful death.
It is also Johnny who has the most interesting and most repeated bit of dialogue in the film as well. When Jennifer catches him and has him at gunpoint he launches into a rather sleazy justification of why he and his buddy’s did what they did, explaining to her that her being a woman, and showing the sexiness she did was too much. That “a man is just a man, and you can’t give a man ideas like that”. Johnny as the ringleader and the voice of all rapists GETS WHAT HE AND THEY DESERVE.
In fact the movie doesn’t really top this moment as the other death scenes with a hatchet and outboard motor don’t deliver the same gut charge this scene does. But what the movie does deliver is a final moment of triumph for Jennifer as we see her ride off in a motor boat, victorious. There is no moralizing, no casting her in a light as some sort of criminal for taking the law into her own hands. No cops show up to arrest her. She is ever so slightly smiling when she rides away, knowing she did what she had to do, and we are invited to feel she did the right thing.
Contrast that with the much better reviewed, much better loved LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT which was without a doubt the first to land on the scene with the rape/revenge deal. But LAST HOUSE takes a very moral approach to the savagery, with the bad guys punished, the parents in the story are forever tainted by the violence. At the end the bumbling police show up and the Parents are arrested for the killings.
While I respect LAST HOUSE it is this very distinction that has always made me prefer I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE. I find the lack of moralizing to be preferable and less false. After watching what is essentially the first half of the film where the main character is abused, I prefer to see the bad guys punished and not be told I should feel bad about it. And honestly I feel that I SPIT is simply a better made film than LAST HOUSE. A distinction I am sure few fellow critics and fans share.
The movie was originally released in 1978 to no business under the title DAY OF THE WOMAN. Camille Keaton won an award for Best Actress at the Cataloninian International Film festival while it still bore this title. In 1980 the movie was bought by the Jerry Gross Organization who created the brilliant and aggressive ad campaign we know and love today. He changed the title to I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE (even though there was already an obscure race hate movie by the same name in existence) and launched the movie with the ad line “This woman has just cut, chopped, broken and burned five men beyond recognition, and no jury in America would convict her!” Never mind that only FOUR men attack her in the film and not one of them is burned at any point! The poster of a scantily clad, bloody and bruised woman clutching a knife BY the blade is now etched into the mind of horror fans the world over. Anyone who grew up as part of the Fangoria generation remembers seeing this in the ads in the mag, or the poster at drive ins and grindhouses across the country. Under this new ad campaign the film became a blazing success.
But with that success came major controversy. The controversy that still chases the film in some ways. In the United States the hounding began with Siskel And Ebert who devoted an episode of their syndicated PBS show SISKEL AND EBERT AND THE MOVIES to the growing trend of violent slasher films. More specifically to the slasher films they seemed to feel “hated women” such as DON’T ANSWER THE PHONE, THE TOOLBOX MURDERS and most viciously I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE. On the show they particularly ripped into the movie and those who seemed to go to see the film as people who enjoyed watching women being abused and raped. They recounted an experience of seeing the film with a crowd of vicious folks who were shouting at the screen cheering on the rape on screen. While that certainly sounds unpleasant and offensive, it doesn’t in my mind reflect on the film as much as a few dumb-asses in the audience. Sounds to me like they had never seen a horror/exploitation film with a grindhouse/urban audience before. And they really should be smart enough to see that for what it is. I have always been curious about the fact that Ebert places LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT highly on his list of revered films with a three and a half star rating yet finds the I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE is a zero star movie. I can’t help but to wonder if his first viewing experience had been different if his opinion would be as well. Or is the film just simply too amoral for his tastes? The two of them campaigned hard to get people to, if not ban the film, to at least show some moral fiber and good taste in simply not going to the movies that they detest on that show, It didn’t work of course and only alerted a whole lot of other people to a few movies they otherwise wouldn’t have known about.
Here is SISKEL AND EBERT'S AT THE MOVIES episode about WOMEN IN DANGER
in it's entirety.
Over in the UK things were much worse. The Video Nasties scare had begun by the early to mid 80’s where it was actually illegal to own movies on the list of banned videos. I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE was chief among those. So if you were caught owning a copy of I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE after 1984 you could actually go to jail. There was no cut version, no seeing it at a revival house, simply jail time for owning it. Finally in the early 2000’s that was lifted and a cut version was released on DVD.
But the strong content of the movie coupled with the media backlash put this movie on a radar that even among horror fans made it persona non grata for some people. Even though it was a huge hit on home video and a staple at mom and pop video stores across the country, it was the movie that people loved to hate. You would be hard pressed to find a positive review of the movie, or even a horror fan willing to admit they liked. At least previous to the ELITE Laserdisc release in the late 90’s.
In my opinion it was finally the remastering of the movie that convinced people that this movie was not some simple piece of awful trash. This laser release, followed by the special edition DVD in 2003 went a long way to show people the movie was far most artistic and well Intentioned than people originally thought. The beautiful and well mounted photography could finally be appreciated, instead of the murky VHS mastering. The clean sound awakened people to one of Mier Zarchi’s most brilliant cinematic choices, which was to forgo using music in the film. There is no score In I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, just ambient noise and some very faint on set music. Otherwise the movie is all natural sound, which adds to the sense of isolation.
The DVD has a great commentary from the director and a second even more appreciated commentary from Joe Bob Briggs,who at first many feared would deliver a “funny” commentary. Instead he delves in deep delivering a fact filled exploration of the making of the film and the controversy around it. It is easily one of the best commentaries recorded for an exploitation release.
Last year there was a largely useless remake of I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE released, The biggest problem being that the original film was such a vicious ground breaking release, that how could you even hope to top it. Or even have the same cinematic footprint, You can’t, so instead they just go for more involved gore and violence. But in the process loose the important elements of the story, which is the focus on the character of Jennifer. The remake literally lets her go off screen for almost a third of the film's run time after she is raped as we watch the rapists twist and worry over the fact they might get caught. There is an addition of class distinction added, and the filmmakers drop how she becomes a sexual predator herself, which is maybe a good thing. But once the movie loses the focus on her, it loses the focus completely. The film becomes just another torture driven gore fest, not terribly different than a dozen other genre offering that stain the table these days. There was an unofficial "sequel" by zine editor Donald Farmer in 1993 called SAVAGE VENGEANCE that did star Camille Keaton but reportedly it was majorly unfinished and many on set problems left the final project with a lot to be desired. Especially for a low low budget, basically backyard production.
Cirio Santiago mounted his own "remake" in 1985 called NAKED VENGEANCE which is a largely berzerk action, sleaze exploitation fest that uses a lot of the same structure,but goes far into left field typical of Philipino exploitation fare.
I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE is one of those rare films that is still as shocking today as it was when it was made over thirty years ago. Very few movies mange to hold the power to shock, enrage and make people argue three decades after they are released. But I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE is one of the few that can claim that honor. While many people will want to claim it is an inferior film for many reasons, the very fact it is STILL DOING ITS JOB stands to reason otherwise.
And Now what the friend's of EXPLOITATION NATION had to say
Allen Richards
Webmaster of B-Independent.com
Those gams. Boy, oh boy, those gams. That rump too...
Summer, 1985, and I'd just turned 12 but didn't own a VCR yet. That didn't stop me from swinging by the video store after my weekly excursion to the dollar movie at New Carrolton Mall - really a strip mall with one enclosed end that housed an AMC multiplex, Sears, a comic shop where I spent the rest of my allowance, and that video store. That video store was always the last stop before the 2 mile walk back home. I can't remember the name, and the mall was razzed years ago to make way for urban sprawl, but there was nowhere else where me and my pre-pubescent friends could get a look at some tit. Sure, the DAWN OF THE DEAD box had some boobage, and the slack-ass working the register didn't seem to give two spits if we ducked into the Adult Isle for a minute or two, catching our first glimpses of Betamax Beaver, but there was just something about that I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE box art that I couldn't help but to keep coming back to. Oh, yeah, it was those gams. That rump too.
42nd St. Pete
Legend, Smut-Master, DVD host and New York Grindhouse Historian
Saw it on a double bill with the original Boogeyman in a grindhouse in Hackensack NJ called the Oritani. I had higher expectations than the film delivered, but the poster sucked me in. All the rape scenes were brutal and the audience dug it as the patrons consisted of dustheads , homeless guys, and drunks(me). I felt that all you needed to make this a hardcore roughie would have been a couple of insert shots.
The revenge payoff wasn't that great either as it was four guys killed instead of the five advertised on the poster. Every guy in the place grabbed their junk during the castration scene. Now fast forward a couple of years as it was released on video by Wizard. I had a store then and it cost me $50 to get it. It rented out almost every night as word of mouth was great advertising.
Footnote: The Oritani crowed was more into Boogeyman than I Spit on Your Grave. If my decayed brain remembers correctly, we also had Blood Beach and Zombie that summer too, all courtesy of Jerry Gross.
Rachael Deacon
Artist, Filmmaker (A FEVER AND A RIVER), and Musician (THE BEASTING)
I don't remember where I was or who I was with the first time I saw I
SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE. It feels like it's always been in my memory bank.
Having an incredibly soft spot for rape/revenge films, I ravenously
sought them out after seeing LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT as a teenager. But
honestly, I am not particularly moved by the film. I never was. I feel
as though the bulk of its themes have been explored to a much better
effect in films that came before it. I respect it and recognize it as
a solid work. I have watched it and enjoyed it a handful of times. I
have had wonderful conversations with friends about it. It's just not
one of my favorites.
My personal relationship with I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE - and the source of
my respect for it - lies within its sexual politics. Or, arguably, its
lack thereof. This is an extremely unpopular viewpoint. For as long as
it has existed, film theorists, journalists and enthusiasts have
demonized it for its main character's exploitation of her own
sexuality in exacting her revenge against the men who brutally and
repeatedly raped her. She doesn't seek them out and simply execute
them. She seduces them before slowly and painfully ending them. This
aspect of the plot is rare even within the rape/revenge sub-genre and
has inspired countless articles, essays and rants against it. And it's
exactly what I like about it. It's exactly why I think it isn't
completely overshadowed by far stronger entries of its kind.
Countless others would say that the victim's seduction of her rapists
reduces her to nothing but the sexualized object they mistake her for.
I say that it's a reclaiming and repurposing of something powerful
that was stolen.
It's naive to say that rape is all about sex or all about power. It's
a murky bastardization of the two that only someone capable of such a
horrific act can understand entirely. But we can understand that one
of the most basic aspects of human nature is sexuality. It's messy and
complicated and mysterious, but it's always there. Even after rape.
Sometimes even more so. Is it not conceivable that a traumatic sexual
experience would cause the victim's sexuality to take a dark and
violent turn? And is it not a fitting and human response for the
victim to then channel her violent sexuality in the hopes of relieving
her resulting anguish? WHY IS THIS A PROBLEM? I have a sneaking
suspicion that it's because you think too fucking much.
Recently I stumbled across a quote by David Cronenberg that made me
want to vomit all over myself it rang so true. He said: "An artist
does not have the social responsibility of a citizen. He has, in fact,
no social responsibility whatsoever." The people who are stumbling
over the politics of I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE are putting too much
emphasis on the politics of I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE. This movie was not
conceived as a political statement, and should not be read as such.
It's a story about a woman under extreme emotional and physical duress
who snaps. Then she cuts off one guy's penis in a bath tub and hangs a
retard from a tree. It's a sometimes-effective, sometimes-boring,
mostly-plausible piece of art. I may not love it, but I will always
defend its integrity.
Shade Rupe
Legendary Interviewer, writer and promotional guru, Author of DARK STARS RISING and FUNERAL PARTY 1&2
I am not sure I ever saw the original I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE in a theater. I do remember that large Wizard video box though. Those early years of VHS and those oversized boxes carried such menace. For those wishing to see evil on our television sets, those Wizard titles would undoubtedly provide the chills and screwdrivers in the eyesockets we were hoping for. What I didn’t realize is the artistry I would find nestled in that black plastic tray enfolded by that colorful box depicting a women’s trashed backside, with a knife held tightly in her hand.
My first exposure to the film came the way it did for a lot of people, through Siskel & Ebert’s At the Movies. This was a time well before the internet spouted out any manner of ‘important’ upcoming films every three seconds. Movies meant something and it was much easier for a down-and-dirty feature to get released in those days. William Lustig’s Maniac is a success story of this era, and I remember sneaking into a screening of Chained Heat with Linda Blair. Although these films were rarely discussed with any form of interest beyond a nasal snubbing by film critics, they were available to multiplex and drive-in crowds who had a hunger for a more extreme form of cinematic entertainment.
I had been watching At the Movies for some time as did most movie-heads of the era. They really did provide the information we needed for upcoming releases, and their back-and-forth repartee added to the fun of choosing what to see. None of us were quite prepared for the pair’s reaction to Meir Zarchi’s film. Ebert was horrified to his core. He was shaken. His exclamation to the world that the film was ‘a vile piece of garbage’ and that the ‘film is without a shred of artistic distinction’ gave more props to the release than it would have had otherwise. Ebert went on to say that he hoped his protestations would act as a deterrent to viewers rather than an excitor—his plans most definitely went awry.
I Spit on Your Gravebecame an instant classic before it had been seen. This was well before the days of instant internet access. This was something discussed at school, on the phone, and in the pages of Fangoria magazine. The local Fotomat video hut didn’t carry it. Once Wizard Video released it, it was ours. I was still somewhat of a lone geek at that point. Geek once meant ‘loser’ rather than today’s ‘rockstar’ meaning, and it wasn’t so easy to find folks to share these films with. I believe my first viewing was watching it alone, seeing those scenes that Gene and Roger showed us, warning us against the film. And I’ve never ever forgotten what I saw.
I hate to spoil, so please skip if you haven’t seen. You must see these images without my direction. The scene of Ms. Keaton lying nude on the floor while the crew disparages her existence. Wow. Total debasement. It wasn’t anything I could know from reading De Sade, which was more humorous, or any other film, though Bergman’s The Virgin Spring would come close. Last House on the Left had its soul-crinkling shivers, but not as strong as this. Last House had its moral judgments and the attendant punishments. I Spit was just mean. Yet I always felt it was a feminist film. Camille butches up pretty fast after her survival, and she takes no prisoners. None at all. All are guilty.
On a later VHS viewing, shared with two women friends, it was a wholly different experience. Women often have a different reaction to rape than men. The girls had some shock in them, yet they were my friends so they had some kind of preparedness. One scene that has always struck me with poetics rather that disgust was the rape over the rock. As Camille slowly makes her nude way back to her cabin, we see her in a long shot, sun streaming through trees, birds singing their songs. The scene is reminiscent of Sir John Everett Millais’ The Death of Ophelia, with its deflowered beauty amidst nature, even if the image itself conjures Mari Collingwood’s water-drenched demise in Last House. I exclaimed out loud to my female companions: “This is so beautiful! This is pure sublimity!” Although Coe was a bit horrified by my praise, Kelly ‘got it’ a little more. Both girls did stay until the oxide particles had danced their dance. Coe made her way out into the citified sunshine immediately. I think it took her awhile to forgive me for that day.
I still find beauty in the piece though I would assume the director did not have the word ‘art’ in mind when composing his film.
Dave Kosanke
Creator, editor and writer of the constantly awesome zine LIQUED CHEESE, frequent contributor to HORRORHOUND magazine
The first time I ever heard of I Spit on Your Grave was back in 1984 when I was 13 years old. I had just sent off for a subscription to Fangoria magazine, and my first issue had arrived in the mail (#39). Lo and behold it contained an interview with director Meir Zarchi on the making of his controversial film. Right off the bat the editor's note stated that the film was so notorious that Fango didn't even know how to handle it, and also called it the "most criticized movie of recent years." I didn't think about the film too much then, mainly because it seemed out of my league for a budding horror fan and the idea of brutal rape scenes were NOT my idea of a good time. Once I started reading more magazines I found that just about everyone hated it. Issue #4 of Demonique has a review which includes this passage: "Anyone who defends I Spit on Your Grave must be hopelessly perverted and/or very limited in their exposure to film in general." However when Chas Balun unleashed his book Horror Holocaust, it contained a chapter on both Last House on the Left and I Spit on Your Grave. He at least gave it some good ink, even stating "It has a strange, mesmerizing drone to it; and by the time the woman turns the tables on her rapists, a queer sort of repulsive satisfaction with the product is achieved."
Throughout all of this I was still unsure if I really wanted to see the film, so the years went by with no I Spit on Your Grave in my collection. Finally when DVD hit, the announcement that I Spit on Your Grave would get released in 1998 sealed the deal for me. I felt I was now old enough (and had read enough material on the film) to comprehend it. After all the negative press the movie got, after watching it that first time I didn't see what the fuss was all about. Sure the rape scenes were hard to watch, but I felt that was the point, to make sure the viewer understood how awful this act really was. I also felt the lack of background music really helped to give the film this weird and unsettling edge that kept the viewer off guard since there were no musical "stings" to alert you that something bad was about to happen. Also since she did get her revenge, the film worked extremely well to punish the bad guys which is really all I wanted to see. I became a fan right then and there and never looked back. Sure I would like to tell people I saw the film many moons ago, but hey I can't lie, and truth be told if I had seen it with younger eyes I doubt I would have been able to appreciate it.
I had the chance to meet Camille Keaton twice, and found her to be one of the best guests I've ever had the pleasure to chat with. Not only that, but I bought one of the ultra rare Day of the Woman one-sheets from her which now hangs, signed and framed, in my office to show my support for this unjustly maligned film. Like the late, great Chas Balun said "Like it or loathe it, I Spit on Your Grave must always be reckoned with when discussing contemporary horror."
Eric Stanze
Director of SCRAPBOOK, DEADWOOD PARK, RATLINE.
My memory is a bit foggy, but let me try to piece it together. I was either on the brink of entering my freshman year of high school, or I had just entered high school. My family was living in Pittsburgh at the time. I was devouring every horror movie I could rent at the local video store. I purchased the book "Horror Holocaust" by Chas. Balun, and while I was aware of the title, I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE before this, I believe it was Mr. Balun's book about ultra violent horror flicks that brought into focus for me what Meir Zarchi's film was all about.
I cannot remember how soon I saw the movie after being educated about it by Balun's book. I have no memory of renting the VHS, but I do remember my reaction to the film upon first viewing. One word sums it up. The film was stark.
The movie seemed to not give a shit about anything - including, it appeared, the physical or emotional comfort of the actors. Where a mainstream film would pan away, Zarchi's camera stayed fixed. Where a mainstream film would dress it up, Zarchi's film left it filthy and gross. Where a mainstream film would soften things for a potentially sensitive audience, Zarchi's film said, "Nope, this is simply fucked up and you're gonna swallow it."
There is no music score in the film, and the violence takes place in the harsh light of day - almost certainly decisions based on the tiny budget - but these aspects do much to achieve the starkness I found so memorable.
Many revenge flicks - of that era, as well as more recent films - provided a brief jolt to my system, only to be forgotten about a few days later. I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, however, managed a tone that made it stand out, and hold up well to this day.
Andrew Shearer impresario of GONZORIFFIC FILMS
Director of FAKE BLOOD, DOLLFACE and THE EROTIC COUCH
I've watched "I Spit on Your Grave" several times, but I've only seen the rape scenes once. I rented it from Video Library in Athens in the mid-1990s during my initial spree of finally getting to see films like "Trap them and Kill Them" and "Short Eyes" that I'd read about for years. There's a lot I love about "I Spit". The camera work is wonderful (the opening title sequence in the car is usually what immediately springs to mid when I think of the film) and its non-use of music sets it apart from pretty much all its peers from that era. Some of the performances are goofy, but everyone looks appropriately sleazy and authentic. Camille Keaton reminds me of a more sexually confident Sissy Spacek from "Carrie". Wikipedia calls me a feminist, so I suppose I should have some sort of strong opinion about "I Spit". Truth is, I don't. In my opinion, the worst thing a movie can do is misrepresent itself, making promises it can't keep. And when we're talking exploitation cinema, that happens more often than not. "I Spit" lives up to its legendary title, pulls out all the stops and, like "Last House on the Left", gives you little room to breathe once the brutality sets in. Still, there is calmness and even corny-ness in between to make it all go down a little easier.. Camille Keaton's performance is high-caliber stuff, unforgettable and affecting. I don't think for one second that she's being raped for the sake of giving the viewer a thrill. In fact, my biggest criticism of the film is that the revenge murders don't have near the same level of intensity and impact as the rape. The bar is set too high and there's not a satisfying enough follow-through (though Keaton's character is able to find her power after it has all been taken from her, I always felt like it wasn't quite enough).. But realistically, how could there be? These guys get off easy because they get to die. Know what I mean? The true testament to the value of "I Spit on Your Grave" is that it is still being seriously discussed all these decades later, and people still have very strong opinions about it.
