Rating of
3/4
I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE - Not Just For Teenage Boys
Mr. E Horror - wrote on 08/25/09
A.K.A. DAY OF THE WOMAN, I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE titillated me and my friends when we were emerging from our tweens. It was no easy task getting the VHS home. I had to rent it. My parents had to take me to the video rental place and rent it for me. It was our good fortune that the cover of the box was a plain black (if I am remembering correctly), and it was titled DAY OF THE WOMAN- very innocuous. It was also our good fortune that it was the unrated version. Not only did this version offer some of the sights that the R rated version didn’t, but the owner of the video store treated unrated films as he did G rated films. If they didn’t have a rating, they couldn’t be prohibited.
We would get the movie home–we probably rented it ten different times–and we would sometimes wait out the story, but more often than not we would fast forward to the good parts. Anything that involved a naked woman was great fare for us. It wasn’t until years later, when I had more experience and exposure with women and wasn’t quite so excited about video boobies that I realized how messed up it was that this was the movie that we got our rocks off to. When I think back to all of the possible films that could have taken its place–any of the Skinemax variety–I now wonder why it was that film. Was it because it offered something even more taboo than nudity or sex? Did I choose the film time and again because I am a horror fanatic through and through? I like to think that we chose this movie because the stars aligned with it in just the right way–see above with rating and cover.
Now that I am in my early thirties, I go back and see the film for the innovative moviemaking that it is. It is a startling commentary on women’s rights, feminisim, and though much more localized to the horror genre-the final woman phenomena. It is visually grainy and gritty, no acting is really needed. It goes from sex act to revenge act without any real dialogue. It is frightening in its realism and forever holds a place in horror movie history–and of course a place in my . . .um . . .a . . .heart.
Oh yeah, the female lead is Buster Keaton's granddaughter. Small world.
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