Notice: No need to be wary of spoilers if you haven't seen all three. If you're aware of the premise of the film, you'll find no spoilers here. What you should be wary of is the fact that this post concerns some of the most intense and gruesome movies ever made.
The "rape and revenge" genre of exploitation cinema, of which I Spit On Your Grave is the most famous and infamous entry, is a genre steeped in controversy and argument. Do movies like this provide sadistic individuals with a validation for, or even a sexualization of, their misogynistic torture fetish? Or does this story of revenge empower victims to assert their autonomy? Do they perpetuate gender roles or subvert them? Do these films promote misogyny, or shine a spotlight on it in a condemnatory manner?
I could wax philosophic on this very sensitive issue for hours, and believe me, I have. But ultimately this is a question for greater minds than mine. Do movies like this really inspire violence? I'd need the opinions of criminal pathologists to decipher that. Do movies like this actually empower women, or is the audience for these films overwhelmingly male? To understand that I'd need viewership statistics and a very wide sample of opinions from women. Ultimately I believe that these films can be interpreted in any number of ways, and that what the meaning is depends on what you bring to it.
My interest in the series is far more pedantic. I like revenge movies, and vigilante justice. Taken, The Horseman, The Brave One. I like to imagine that somewhere there's a parallel universe where all rapists and sex traffickers receive their due punishment. I'm also a huge fan of horror movies, and while torture and serial killer films are on the complete opposite side of the spectrum from the horror movies I like the most, I'm a big enough horror fan that I have room for some of them in my viewing schedule. The I Spit on Your Grave movies are incredibly disturbing, harrowing, and terrifying. So even if they're not necessarily good movies, as a film fan I have to admire any movie with so much power to affect.
I Spit On Your Grave (1978)
Due to its simple premise, the differences between the three films are pretty direct and easy to note. The original 1978 film is the most disturbing, and arguably the most gritty (likely due more to its stark 70s style than to its content). It also probably has the most nudity, which either serves to despicably sexualize the rape, or serves the realism of the film (depending on your perspective). The rape portion was excruciating and almost impossible to watch, and the revenge portion wasn't anywhere near brutal enough to give me any sort of catharsis afterward. Plus the fact that she uses her sexuality to get her attackers in a vulnerable state before enacting revenge, just seems to me like adding insult to injury after what she's been through. (Though, I'm sure somebody would argue that she's using their misogyny against them and that it is a positive portrayal of a woman controlling her sexuality...) I respect the film for being the original and for being a noticeably well-made low budget movie, but it's a film that I can't imagine myself ever rewatching. One thing I can say for it, I found it more effective than The Last House on the Left. And if you're looking for a horrifying horror movie, this is the best film of the bunch. But it's a bit too horrifying for me.
I Spit On Your Grave (2010)
Now, if you're going to remake a legendarily controversial film, there are a lot of things I would have done that the filmmakers did not do. In the decades since I Spit On Your Grave was originally released, the ardent denouncement of the film as a misogynist wet dream has shifted somewhat, and there are now those who see it as a feminist movie. A smart way to capitalize on this while making a new version that could actually offer something new to the franchise, would have been to do the remake with a female director and feminist writers. Another easy way to make this remake memorable would have been to tell the same story but with a man in the role of the victim, and you'd open up a whole new host of difficult social and philosophical questions (especially when you get to observe how peoples' feelings may differ between the two versions).
That being said, there are actually a lot of things about this remake that I like more than the original. For one thing, the rape is less brutal. In fact they gloss over much of it, and you only have to stomach seeing a couple of the men rape her. It's still extremely sadistic and makes me want to guzzle a bottle of corrosive acid. But it's merciful compared to the original, and then the good part starts. While the 1978 version gave Jennifer a very mild and unsatisfying revenge, the 2010 version gives her the extreme revenge she rightly deserves, complete with creative tortures and psychological torment. For that reason I came away from this film much more satisfied than I did after the original.
The one thing I didn't like about this version was the middle segment where she sort of haunted her attackers. I get that it was probably meant as a form of taunting or mental torture, but it played out like any cliche', dime-a-dozen thriller. I felt it undermined the unique nature of the film by erring too closely to everyday entertainment, which rape and revenge fantasy probably shouldn't be included in.
I Spit On Your Grave 2 (2013)
No, this isn't a continuation of the story from the 2010 film. You won't find Jennifer, instead we have another girl who is unfortunately destined to experience a similar fate. The concept is the same, a pretty young girl runs afoul of some horrible people, and you know what happens next. Surprisingly, I Spit On Your Grave 2 (2013) is by far the best of the series. It's not even close, it's a much better movie than the original and the 2010 remake. Now there are definitely things I didn't especially like about it. It's easily the grossest of the three, relying perhaps a bit too much on gross-out content. And it certainly is a movie you could put under the "torture porn" category, which is a genre I try to avoid.
But what it also is, is a more complex film than the other two. And while that certainly wasn't hard to do, considering how simple the first two films are, it was still a welcome evolution. Here there are more characters than just the victim and the sadistic misogynists who attack her. Don't expect a whole lot of daring new ideas here (there aren't many), but do expect a better written and more nuanced storyline. It also manages to be better as a horror film, with certain unsettling scenes included that don't have anything to do with the rape and torture.
This film downplays the actual rape itself more than any of the others. Personally, I find this an agreeable and merciful change, as I'm watching these films for the revenge. But while it downplays the rape itself, it's more brutal than the 2010 movie. Overtly sexual violence is largely (though not exclusively) exchanged for monstrous torture of a more traditional nature. And the revenge portion is even more intense. I can't say I enjoyed all of it, as it did seem a bit "torture porn" for my taste. But I give them props for definitely one-upping the castration scene of the original 1978 movie and creating what is probably the most extreme and best revenge scene from any of the three movies.
