The Super Network

3.5/5

I Spit On Your Grave (2010) is a remake (review of the original film here), it promised to be much more violent than the original. Well in a way yes it really is, but it kind of went backwards in regards to the first half. I am not entirely sure the original film really needed a remake to be perfectly honest. I think the film is fine and it still holds up today. Yes it was low budget but I think that does work in it’s favour. You can see this film had more money behind it, but that does not guarantee a better film. I felt this film had a stronger second half, however it really needed a stronger build up to really sell that strong second half. Spoilers will follow, I find myself unable to review this without a few spoilers. This film follows the plot of the original, well the basics anyway. Jennifer Hills goes off for some quiet time to write, to a cabin in the woods. On her way she ends up making a fool out of one of the locals, she gets their attention to a degree. After a visit from the town ‘simple’ man, he goes back to the other locals and a simple misunderstanding causes them to go to her cabin. They torment her, where she eventually gets raped by two of the group and left for dead. After recovering physically she goes to get revenge on those who hurt her, in the most brutal ways.

A huge difference as far as what Jennifer goes through is that she isn’t gang raped for a good 40 or so minutes like she was in the original. She goes get raped, and it doesn’t last nearly as long, what these men do is torment her like crazy. It does hit, but it doesn’t hit nearly as hard as it did in the original. I am not sure why they decided to change it so much, but I expected this to hit harder. There is a lot of emotional and psychological torment, it still does not feel right, however it feels some how a bit too calm with the revenge to follow. Now the revenge here is far more brutal and mean than the original, this kind of revenge just didn’t seem right for what these guys did. I mean it seemed far too excessive and it turned comical (intentional maybe), it didn’t feel quite right. Now as I say that, the revenge aspect was something to be seen! I mean they did things here which were rather unique and certainly made it difficult to look at. It does take a lot for me to look away, and a certain scene involving fish hooks, eye balls and birds certainly did the trick. All of this mixture did make for an uneven film, but there was definitely a lot of effort behind it and I could definitely see where they were coming from. We do live in different times, however I think I would have preferred something a little different.

On the acting side of things, this film belonged to Sarah Butler (much like the original belonged to it’s star). She gives a fantastic performance, all the way through. She makes Jennifer a likable character, someone we can relate to in a way. She seemed real, and that was an important part to this character. This would have failed with an actress not capable of engaging the audience, and she really did. When stuff did happen to her, it really hurt. Chad Lindberg as the ‘simple’ Matthew was also a stand out here, he played his role to perfection. And like the original there is a sympathy factor with his character, he’s quite innocent to start with and he’s being bullied by these guys. He wants to fit in, and it seems he’ll mindlessly do anything to do just that. Andrew Howard was something else as the Sheriff, he was creepy for the moment we first see him. You know an actor is doing their job well when you instantly get goosebumps and know something bad is going down. I got to give the man props, he was definitely evil to the core. Jeff Branson leaves his soap opera past behind and plays a very disgusting character, he is cliched too. I don’t know what it was, but he some how made this work and I felt sick just looking at the guy. Did he deserve what he got at the end? Well I guess someone had it coming … The other guys were basically cookie cutter copies, they weren’t overly memorable with their performances and they’ll be remembered more for their demise.

There is no doubt this film will leave an impression on you, much like the original did. It does not surpass that film, but still looking at the big picture it is an above average genre film. Director Steven R. Monroe had some balls on him to remake such a notorious film, and go the way he did with it. I mean this could have easily been something much worse, we are left with something which is above a lot of other horror films. Sure this isn’t original, and the whole revenge film isn’t a new concept. He did try and do something different, while it didn’t entirely work for me I am sure it worked for others. The easiest way to give this a recommendation is to say if you enjoyed The Last House On The Left remake, this will surely be right up your alley. They do have some things in common, and be warned this is probably much more difficult to sit through as far as the violence and gore goes. But I do think The Last House remake had a more disturbing violation sequence.