![]() ![]() ![]() Kidnapped along with her daughter Christy (Jamie Bernadette), it’s a tense game of hunt – or be hunted – against a ruthless gang of degenerates overseen by a violently unhinged matriarch Becky (Maria Olsen). Which sees now successful writer Jennifer Hills hurtling back to where it all began, to face the wrath of the families of those she murdered. Yes, forty years after 1978’s I Spit On Your Grave shocked the world with its story of a beautiful career woman assaulted and left for dead and her notorious revenge on those responsible, cinema’s most lethal lady of vengeance, Jennifer Hills, is back in I Spit On Your Grave: Deja Vu. Mier Zarchi’s 1978 film also spawned a remake in 2010 which DID get a sequel, in fact it got two – one in 2013 and the final film in 2015… But the first film, the one that courted controversy and the one that was banned here in the UK until 2001, remained a singular, strong, and controversial example, of the rape/revenge genre. ![]() Yet despite all the furore around the film, it never spawned a sequel – after all that was not de rigueur back then, especially with indie productions – but it did inspire the film Savage Vengeance, from cult director Donald Farmer: an unofficial sequel that starred actress Camille Keaton, under a pseudonym, playing yet another “Jennifer” without ever explicitly stating is was a follow-up to Zarchi’s original. It’s not hard to underestimate how much of an impact the original I Spit on Your Grave film had on the genre – mainly thanks to the controversial way the film was marketed back in the late 70s/early 80s and its subsequent banning across several territories. Just a shame her performance wasn’t in the services of a considerably better film.Stars: Camille Keaton, Jamie Bernadette, Maria Olsen, Jim Tavaré, Jonathan Peacy, Jeremy Ferdman, Holgie Forrester, Roy Allen III, Alexandra Kenworthy, Terry Zarchi, Tammy Zarchi | Written and Directed by Mier Zarchi Bernadette deserves a great deal of credit for putting it all out there, both literally and figuratively. As a result, the whole thing collapses into sub- SNL parody.īy the time things get a bit rapey (as they inevitably do) and Christy gets a bit revengey (ditto), you’re more or less exhausted by the shrieking unhilarity of it all. The main problem is that the country folk are drooling, lurid caricatures, located somewhere between Deliverance and Larry the Cable Guy: they make the residents in 2000 Maniacs seem like genteel and intellectual aristocrats. But it’s not long before she and Christy are split up, and the movie loses its way badly thereafter. family might have worked, not least since Keaton moves well enough for someone in her late sixties when this was shot (back in 2015 it took almost three and a half years to be released). Which might not have been so bad: while clearly different from the original, the idea of pitting family vs. Turns out, they have been abducted by the pissed-off relatives of the men Jennifer killed, led by Becky (Olsen), who was the wife of Johnny, the rapist castrated in the bathtub. After a light lunch with her daughter, Christy (Peters), now a supermodel, they are bundled into a white van and driven off to the town where the incidents of the previous film took place. Keaton reprises her role as author Jennifer Hills, now riding the talk-show circuit on the success of a book about her ordeal, after having been cleared by a jury. But, hey, considering Zarchi (who makes a cameo as a priest) has not directed a film in thirty-four years, we should probably be grateful, merely for this being in colour and with sound. Certainly, better – because there’s just far too much slack, with scenes which are either too long or entirely superfluous. Unfortunately, in this case, that meant me turning to Chris midway through, and telling her, “Frankly, m’dear – I don’t give a damn.” Cut an hour out of this and you’d certainly have something…. This apparently spurred original director Zarchi into getting the band back together, re-uniting with original star Keaton for a long-delayed follow-up.Īt 148 minutes, this is pretty much the Gone With The Wind of rape-revenge films. Since then, there has not only been a remake, but the remake got two sequels – one of which is actually not bad. Waiting more than forty years after the original came out before making a sequel is kinda impressive, especially in such a quick-buck genre as horror. Star: Jamie Bernadette, Camille Keaton, Maria Olsen, Jonathan Peacy ![]()
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