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| "I shit on your grave!! I do!!" |
Director
Steven R. Monroe follows up on his R & R hit (rape and revenge)
I Spit On Your Grave (2010) with the inevitable
I Spit On Your Grave 2 (2013) -- this time with a slightly prettier lead in
Kristin Kreuk lookalike Londoner
Jemma Dallender (a bit like
Hanna Mangan Lawrence too, innit?) and with better, more memorable villains, although they are typically East European again, as Hollywood's preferred criminal profilin will have it. The beloved critic
Roger Ebert, who famously rubbished the
1978 original and its
2010 remake, is probably turnin in his grave right know, knowin that this franchise has managed to outlive him. For what it's worth, the product is a more polished, technically accomplished concept sequel with improved realistic torture for you gore hounds out there. This reboot features Katie, a wannabe model who gets more than she bargained for, after agreein to a free photo shoot with some dodgy blokes. Highlights include an extended rape scene on the floor and several good kills involvin a shitty toilet bowl (literally), a cement mixer and an electric prod, not to mention an excellent nipple removal scene reminiscent of
Grotesque (2009), plus the best, most graphic castration scene I've ever seen on film.
Bad news on the doorstep:
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| We gotta nip it in the bud, I say. |
I think it's a story of two halves, in more than one sense. The rape bit is nasty, steady stuff. However the revenge bit, which I believe to be central to makin these kind of movies work, is only partially present.
Jemma Dallender actually commands a stronger screen presence than her predecessors
Camille Keaton and
Sarah Butler but the narrative robs us of any sort of meaningful reflection on the part of the aggrieved character that would have made retribution sweeter. The downtime I'm talkin about involves only a subway pigeon roast and a few half-arsed conversations with a sympathetic priest in a church. Notwithstandin some logistical concerns that plague the story and requires frequent suspensions of disbelief, Katie's unlikely escape and rebirth as the hellbent avenger is hard to relate to because she goes from desperate, helpless victim to a calculated, punchline-hurlin badass too quickly. She seems to have forgotten about the anguish that drove her so far in the first place, while we have been invested to see her keep it, especially for the decisive moments in which she is to exact her revenge. Huntin down her captors become an exercise in car-crash curiosity and the payoff we ask for is reduced to a series of shock violence and human depravity.
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| Jemma Dallender is a little tied up at the moment. |
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| "Nice shoes. Wanna fuck?" |
Perennial wonderment:
How should we do
I Spit On Your Grave 3 ? I say, have a male lead this time, a pizza guy maybe, who gets raped and tortured by some old maids. Any better ideas? Drop me a line below.
Reminds me of:
I Spit on Your Grave / Day Of The Woman (1978)
and
Thriller - A Cruel Picture (1974)
. It's rare but I do find that this movie has actually provided a reasonably more entertainin modern times reupdate on those rape and revenge movies, although it broke no new ground.
I can't remember if I cried:
The nipple removal scene!
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| "Hmm... I wonder what this does..." |
Most memorable line:
None.
Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?
Starburst Magazine's Paul Risker framed it well:
"For all the controversy of Straw Dogs' notorious rape scene, the
film remains a reflection of the ideologies of its director Sam
Peckinpah. It explores the individual’s relationship to violence and the
necessity of violence for survival. Whilst this reflection is embedded
in the film’s subtext, I Spit on Your Grave 2 asks you to attempt to find a reason to celebrate it by projecting meaning and metaphor onto it where none exists." The movie could have been 15-20 minutes shorter, to achieve what it did. By the way, I saw a 107-minute version, so don't get shortchanged because I read that there are some festival cuts around.
★★1/2
Bonus material:
I have loads of photos for you below but I don't suggest you click through unless you don't intend to watch the movie. Enjoy!
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Joe Absolom gives it up for the best castration scene in cinema history.
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| "Is this really the script? Jeez. Mum's not gonna like it." |
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| Roast subway pigeon. A must for every convalescent rape victim. |
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| Yavor Baharov is in for a shitty time, literally. |
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