I Spit on Your Grave (2010)
** (out of 4)
One could argue that the original film is one of the most notorious movies ever made so it's impossible for this sequel to stir up the same type of outcry from various members of the public. The story in this remake is pretty much the same as a female writer from the big city (Sarah Butler) travels to the country where she plans to finish a book but she's eventually raped by five men (one more than the original) and then seeks her revenge. I'm sure anyone walking into a movie called I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE is going to be aware of the original movie and I'm going to guess that your feelings on the original will have an impact on your feelings towards the remake. If you found the original to be a poor movie then I think you're going to enjoy the remake a tad bit more because it's certainly more polished, has better production values and some of the performances are better as well. Personally, I've always found the original film to be underrated band while it was rather brutal and untasteful I thought it had a level of authenticity that really made it stand out from countless other rape/revenge flicks. Sure, the acting wasn't excellent and there were a lot of questionable points but I think overall the film has an authentic look and feel to it and that's what makes it seem so real and brutally honest. A lot of that is missing from this remake because I think it would be safe to say that what we get here is a lot cleaner and not nearly as offensive. For example, the rape scene is still rather brutal but it's not nearly as bad as what we saw in the original and it doesn't go on nearly as long. I think that's going to be a good thing for most people. Where the film does go more extreme is when it comes to the revenge aspect because the death's are extremely violent and over the top. I certainly won't ruin them but I will say the most famous death from the original is re-imagined here and the others are just as memorable and they don't pull any punches. The death scenes are more in line with what you'd see in SAW so some might question how she was able to pull everything off, although I do think they have them set up a certain way so that people can look at the female victim in a different way. Performances were good for the most part with Butler doing a nice job in the role of Sarah but I think the screenplay does her more justice early in the film and during the attacks. When she goes to seek her revenge the screenplay makes the wrong decision of having her talk and some of the stuff said was just lame. Chad Lindberg, Daniel Franzese, Tracey Walter, Rodney Eastman and Andrew Howard play the rapist and all of them do nice jobs with their parts. Fans of the original film are going to notice a couple nods to that film, which were a nice touch and I do think the film threw in a few twists and turns to throw off those familiar with the earlier movie including an extra bit that puts a twist in the rape sequence. I thought the director also milked up the drama of most people knowing what was going to happen by building some tension as we wait for the eventual rape to happen. Overall, I think this remake is a decent enough of an attempt but in the end it just doesn't contain some of the magic of the original movie. A couple of the death scenes are more effective but on the whole I'd recommend it to those who can handle such films but I'd still stick with the original.
