It was distributed by CineTel, and produced by the company's president and CEO Paul Hertzberg. Lisa Hansen, Jeff Klein, Alan Ostroff, Gary Needle, and Meir Zarchi (director of the original) served as executive producers. Principal photography began on November 2, 2009, with location filming taking place in Louisiana.
I Spit on Your Grave had its premiere on Texas Frightmare Weekend on May 1, 2010, and was theatrically released in the United States on October 8, 2010, by Anchor Bay. The film received negative reviews from critics and grossed $572,809 on a $2 million budget.
Novelist Jennifer Hills travels from New York City to Louisiana to work on her next book in privacy. The gas station attendant, Johnny Miller, gives her directions to her rented cabin when she gets lost. He embarrasses himself by trying to flirt with her. When the cabin's plumbing becomes clogged, it is fixed by Matthew Duncan, a stuttering plumber with an intellectual disability. She rewards him with an abrupt kiss of gratitude. Matthew tells Johnny and his friends Andy Chirensky and Stanley Woods about what happened with Jennifer. Johnny, whose ego was bruised after the gas station incident, decides that Jennifer is “snobbish” and needs to be taught a lesson.
That night, the four men sneak into the cabin to taunt and assault her, although Matthew refuses to participate. She escapes into the woods and bumps into the local sheriff, Storch, and Earl, the owner of the cabin. Storch takes Jennifer back to the cabin, but when he finds her drugs and alcohol, he casts doubts on her story. After Johnny, Matthew, Andy, and Stanley return, all five men gang rape her, including an initially reluctant Matthew, who thus loses his virginity; Stanley records everything with his video camera. Afterward, just as Storch is about to shoot her dead, a naked and degraded Jennifer falls into the river to escape.
Jennifer begins to stalk her rapists in order to learn details of their lives. Stanley tells Andy and Johnny that his camera has been stolen, along with the videotape of their assault. Storch intercepts a videotape sent to his wife and confronts the men to find out who sent it. Johnny and Andy suspect Matthew. When they go hunting, Storch shoots and kills Earl fearing that he may have suspicions about the perpetrators of the rapes.
Matthew returns to the cabin and meets Jennifer, who, despite his apology, strangles him unconscious. She captures Stanley in a bear trap, ties him to a tree, smears fish guts on his face and then leaves his camera to record crows pecking out his eyes, which she pinned open with fish hooks. She then drowns Andy and burns his face off in a lye bathtub. Next, she ties Johnny to the rafters of an abandoned house and uses pliers to pull out his teeth and a pair of pruning shears to emasculate him, leaving him to bleed to death. While torturing them, she repeats the taunts all of the men had used on her.
Jennifer visits Storch's wife, posing as their daughter Chastity's new teacher. She takes the daughter to the park and, when Storch tracks her there, she knocks him unconscious. When he wakes up, Jennifer stuffs his shotgun into his anus and reminds him that she was just as innocent as his own daughter. She attaches one end of a string to the trigger and the other end to the wrist of the still unconscious Matthew, who is seated in front of Storch, and leaves the premises. When Matthew wakes up, he sees the bound sheriff and tries to move, triggering the shotgun, which fires a round through Storch's anus and mouth before hitting Matthew in the chest, killing both men. Sitting outside on a branch, Jennifer hears the gunshot and smiles.
Principal photography began on November 2, 2009, under Steven R. Monroe's direction.[15] The film was distributed by CineTel, and produced by the company's president and CEO Paul Hertzberg.[16] Lisa Hansen, Jeff Klein, Alan Ostroff, Gary Needle, and Meir Zarchi (director of the original) served as executive producers.[17] Location filming took place in Louisiana.[18] The film was written by Stuart Morse, based on Zarchi's screenplay.
The DVD was banned in New Zealand just before its April release.[27]
Critical reception
Critical reaction to the film has been generally negative, with a 31% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 62 reviews with the consensus simply labeling it as a "Well shot exploitation that has less purpose and utility than in 1978".[28] On Metacritic the film was assigned a rating of 27, based on 14 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[29]
Roger Ebert gave the film a zero star rating, as he did the original, and described it as the "despicable remake of the despicable 1978 film." He stated that it added "a phony sense of moral equivalency... If I rape you, I have committed a crime. If you kill me, you have committed another one. The ideal outcome would be two people unharmed in the first place." While he allowed that the movie was made "professionally", as opposed to the original version that was devoid of skill and artistry, he considered this largely in the service of the truly offensive material, the rape scenes. He summarized, "this [version] is more offensive, because it lingers lovingly and at greater length on realistic verbal, psychological and physical violence against the woman, and then reduces her 'revenge' to cartoonish horror-flick impossibilities."[30][31]
Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote, "In addition to all the obvious things that are disgusting about this movie, I Spit on Your Grave is trying to get us to hate each other. Hate it instead. It makes more sense and the hatred is much more deserved."[32] Critic Andrew O'Hehir also denounced the notion that the film has a message, writing that it "just piles imaginary atrocities on top of real ones, and then halfheartedly claims that it means something. Well, it doesn't."[33]
Some support for the film in mainstream press came from The New York Times, whose reviewer wrote, "Female-empowerment fantasy or just plain prurience, Grave is extremely efficient grindhouse."[34] V.A. Musetto, from the New York Post, also offered some support for the film, stating, "If you can handle it, see it."[35]
Like the original, the film did find cult support. Fangoria magazine wrote that I Spit on Your Grave "...is just as raw and upsetting in its onscreen brutality as the original. Perhaps more so, since the acting is significantly better this time around."[36]
Sequels
A sequel titled I Spit on Your Grave 2 directed by Steven R. Monroe, was produced, and had a limited theatrical release on September 20, 2013. The film does not feature Sarah Butler. The film's plot concerns a young aspiring model named Katie (Jemma Dallender) who accepts an offer to have photos taken for her modeling portfolio. The events turn into a nightmare of torture, rape, and kidnapping, with a revenge plot similar to the first film.
Jennifer Grey is an American actress. She made her acting debut with the film Reckless (1984), and had her breakthrough with the teen comedy film Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986). She subsequently earned worldwide fame for starring as Frances "Baby" Houseman in the romantic drama film Dirty Dancing (1987), which earned her a Golden Globe Award nomination. Her other feature films include Red Dawn (1984), The Cotton Club (1984), Bloodhounds of Broadway (1989), Bounce (2000), Redbelt (2008), The Wind Rises (2013), In Your Eyes (2014), Duck Duck Goose (2018), Bittersweet Symphony (2019), and A Real Pain (2024).
I Spit on Your Grave is a 1978 American rape and revenge film written and directed by Meir Zarchi. The film tells the story of Jennifer Hills, a fiction writer based in New York City who exacts revenge on her four tormentors who gang rape and leave her for dead.
Meir Zarchi is an Israeli-American film director, screenwriter and producer.
Camille Keaton is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Jennifer Hills in the controversial 1978 film I Spit on Your Grave. She began her career in Italy, making her film debut as Solange Beauregard in the giallo film What Have You Done to Solange? (1972), and starred in several other Italian horror films through the early 1970s. In 2015, Keaton reprised her role as Jennifer Hills for the film, I Spit on Your Grave: Deja Vu, which was released in 2019.
Rape and revenge, or rape-revenge, is a horror film subgenre characterized by an individual enacting revenge for rape or other sexual acts committed against them or others. Rape and revenge films are also commonly thrillers or vigilante films.
Savage Vengeance is a 1993 American rape and revenge film written and directed by Donald Farmer. It stars Camille Keaton as Jennifer, a reference to Keaton's earlier role as Jennifer Hills in I Spit on Your Grave. For this reason the film is often considered an unofficial sequel to that film. The film was also published with the titles I Will Dance on Your Grave, I Will Dance on Your Grave: Savage Vengeance, and I Spit on Your Grave 2: Savage Vengeance.
And Soon the Darkness, also known as Prisioneras de la oscuridad, is a 2010 American-Argentine mystery horror film directed by Marcos Efron and starring Karl Urban, Amber Heard and Odette Annable. It is a remake of the British film And Soon the Darkness (1970). The screenplay was written by Jennifer Derwingson and Marcos Efron.
Sarah Elizabeth Butler is an American actress. She is best known for playing the role of Jennifer Hills in the I Spit on Your Grave film series.
I Spit on Your Graves is a 1946 roman noir by French writer Boris Vian, initially published by Éditions du Scorpion under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan. The story is set in the United States and it follows Lee Anderson, a black man whose white complexion allows him to cross racial barriers, and who swears revenge against the citizens of a small Southern town, in repayment for the death of his brother, who was lynched by an all white mob.
Megan Is Missing is a 2011 American found footage psychological horror film written, directed, edited, and co-produced by Michael Goi. The film revolves around the days leading up to the disappearance of Megan Stewart, a popular high school student in North Hollywood who decided to meet up with a boy she was interacting with online, and the subsequent investigation launched by her best friend Amy Herman. Goi based the film on a series of real-life cases of child abduction. Marc Klaas, the founder of KlaasKids Foundation, notably endorsed the film.
I Spit on Your Grave 2 is a 2013 American rape and revenge horror film directed by Steven R. Monroe. It is a sequel to the 2010 film I Spit on Your Grave, also directed by Monroe, which in turn was based on Meir Zarchi's 1978 film of the same name. The film stars Jemma Dallender, Joe Absolom, Yavor Baharoff, Aleksander Aleksiev and Mary Stockley.
Jessicka Rabid is a 2010 American horror film directed by Matthew Reel about an inbred, intellectually disabled girl who contracts rabies from a dog bite after years of being treated like a dog by her abusive, incestuous white trash family. A sequel, titled Jessicka Rabid 2: Infected, was slated for a 2014 release, but was later cancelled.
Naked Vengeance is a 1985 exploitation rape-revenge film directed by Cirio Santiago. The film features Deborah Tranelli as its protagonist, actress-turned-vigilante Carla Harris. The film has since received a cult following and is often mentioned in works discussing films of the rape and revenge genre.
Julia is a 2014 American neo-noir horror thriller film written and directed by Matthew A. Brown in his feature directorial debut. The film stars Ashley C. Williams as a woman who seeks revenge for her brutal rape. It had its world premiere at the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival on July 19, 2014, and was given a limited theatrical release in the United States on October 23, 2015, by Archstone Distribution.
Martyrs is a 2015 American horror film directed by Kevin and Michael Goetz, and written by Mark L. Smith. The film stars Troian Bellisario, Bailey Noble and Kate Burton. A remake of Pascal Laugier's 2008 film of the same name, the story sees a woman who, after having been kidnapped and tortured as a child, goes to kill her supposed captors, and with her friend discovers the dark truth behind the torture.
I Spit on Your Grave III: Vengeance Is Mine is a 2015 American rape and revenge film, directed by Richard Schenkman from a screenplay by Daniel Gilboy. It is the third film of the remake trilogy and the fourth overall installment in the series. The film stars Sarah Butler, Jennifer Landon, Doug McKeon and Harley Jane Kozak. Butler reprises her role as Jennifer Hills from the 2010 film I Spit on Your Grave.
I Spit on Your Grave: Deja Vu is a 2019 American rape and revenge horror film written and directed by Meir Zarchi. It stars Camille Keaton and Jamie Bernadette, and is a direct sequel to the 1978 film I Spit on Your Grave.
Jennifer Hills is a fictional character in the I Spit on Your Grave horror film series, portrayed by Camille Keaton in the original film and by Sarah Butler in the remake films. She appears in four out of the five I Spit on Your Grave films. She is a vigilante in the 1978 original, its 2019 sequel Deja Vu, the 2010 remake, and the sequel to the 2010 film, I Spit on Your Grave III: Vengeance Is Mine. In the films, she seeks vengeance against her rapists and other sexual predators.
Her Vengeance is a 1988 Hong Kong film directed by Lam Nai-Choi and starring Pauline Wong. It is a remake of the 1973 rape and revenge film Kiss of Death with elements taken from the 1978 American film I Spit On Your Grave.
I Spit on Your Grave is an American rape and revenge film series that comprises two films written and directed by Meir Zarchi and three remake films, each installment following a woman who exacts revenge on each of her tormentors after four men gang rape and leave her for dead. The original 1978 film has gained a large cult following. Jennifer Hills is the only character to appear in every film, with the exception of the 2013 film I Spit on Your Grave 2.
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