After surviving the 2010 remake of the rape-revenge horror I Spit on Your Grave, Sarah Butler returns as Jennifer Hills in Anchor Bay’s I Spit on Your Grave: Vengeance is Mine, the third installment this time directed by R.D. Braunstein and written by Daniel Gilboy*.
I Spit on Your Grave: Vengeance is Mine drops us back into the world of Jennifer Hills (Butler), who is in recovery after surviving the events in the first film. She’s speaking to a therapist about how she’s dealing with trauma from that day, which segues into Hills joining a group for rape survivors. There, she meets Maria (Jennifer Landon), who is sick of being the victim. The two of them fantasize strength and control, and verbally begin their evolution into a duo of powerful women. The first act plays out like a sort of superhero horror movie in which the duo snipe at sexual predators, and eventually get physical with the father of a girl in their group. It’s empowering stuff that’s surprisingly fun, with all of the energy feeding off the Landon’s wicked performance.
(Spoilers.) Just as Hills begins to find confidence in herself, she learns that Maria was murdered by her ex-boyfriend. This is the tipping point that sends her off into a violent frenzy of full-blown revenge. With the loss of Landon’s character, Vengeance is Mine becomes dark, mean-spirited and unfocused as it spirals out of control with its anti-hero.(End spoilers.)
What began as one of the year’s best surprises quickly transcends into a tedious, frustrating and pointless slasher.
Yet, even though the downward trajectory continues to a silent thud, the first half warrants heavy recommendation, many of the reasons mentioned above (in case you’re skimming, Jennifer Landon, Jennifer Landon, and Jennifer Landon).
The biggest reasons horror fans will want to see this, though, is for the multiple “holy shit” moments, one of which will go down in history as one of the most brutal death scenes in cinematic history. Vengeance is Mine is, first and foremost, a slasher and delivers on that aspect. It’s just unfortunate that most of the exposition/story that takes place between the violence is tedious if not completely void of a point.
Vengeance is Mine feels like a cathartic story written by a victim of rape, only I couldn’t figure out what they were trying to say. By the end of the film I started to think that maybe Gilboy was trying to pigeonhole meaning into a story arc he was asked to deliver by the producers? Like, “Hey, we want to see Jennifer Hills back and getting revenge.” The problem is, who is she getting revenge on? This problem becomes strongly illuminated by the finale that’s endlessly frustrating.
I’m still scratching my head trying to figure out what happened. It’s as if I Spit on Your Grave: Vengeance is Mine is two different movies cobbled together in the editing bay. I can’t recall the last film to have me so excited, and so on board with everything it was doing, only to have me throwing stones at it by the finale.
While I wish Vengeance is Mine was purposeful, it feels more like a mind-numbing popcorn film with a few jump out of your seat moments.
*Unless Daniel Gilboy is a rape victim, which I hope he is not, I find it extraordinarily uncomfortable to see him write from the perspective of multiple female rape victims. This leads to a tone-deaf and possibly misogynistic I Spit on Your Grave sequel.
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