I Spit on Your Grave Blu-ray DVD Movie Review (1978)
I Spit on Your Grave Blu-ray DVD Movie Review (1978)
I Spit On Your Grave (aka, Day of the Woman) DVD Movie Review, by Staci Layne Wilson. Directed by Meir Zarchi. Starring Camille Keaton, Eron Tabor, Richard Pace.
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Check out our review of the 2010 Remake here: REVIEW
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Just in time for Valentine's Day, Anchor Bay is releasing both pitiless, blood-drenched versions of the seminal rape-n-revenge torture porn flick, I Spit On Your Grave. On Blu-ray, no less. Since we've just recently reviewed the 2010 version, I'd like to focus on the 1978 original, which I had not seen since I was a kid (liberal upbringing + Z Channel = horror.com movie reviewer).
Camille Keaton (a relative of Buster Keaton, proven by her overacting) plays Jennifer Hill, a dreamer who rents a lonely lakeside cottage and plans on writing her first novel in absolute peace, solitude, and quiet. Instead, she becomes the target of four local men who turn Jennifer's working vacation into a waking nightmare of violence and violation. Usually, this would be the entirely of the story: her ordeal. But writer-director Meir Zarchi takes a turn into revenge territory, seemingly inspired by Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs (1971) as Jennifer goes on a brutal bender.
While the acting and the acts of aggression are definitely over the top in I Spit On Your Grave, much of the pacing of the film is slow and laconic. It's a hard watch, much along the lines of Wes Craven's similarly plotted payback horror flick from 1972, The Last House on the Left (but sorry, no hippy-dippy David Hess original compositions). Yet, there is something insidious and memorable about the movie — which explains its U.K. banning and subsequent scholarly dissertations (notably, Men, Woman and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film, by Carol J. Clover). While I didn't really like the movie, I do respect it and recommend that true fans of the horror genre see it once.
If you're already a fan, then the Blu-ray is worth the space in your library. (Both versions, actually — I prefer the second one.) Special features include :
- Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Meir Zarchi
- Audio Commentary with Author/Historian Joe Bob Briggs
- The Values of Vengeance: Meir Zarchi Remembers I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE
- Alternate Main Title
- Trailers, TV Spots, Radio Spots, Poster & Still Gallery
Please know, however, that most of the material is rehash from Millennium editions and U.K. releases. There is a new 24-page booklet inside, written by DVD liner note vet Calum Waddell, which is good but it's largely focused on the production of the recent remake.
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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson