I Spit on Your Grave III: Vengeance is Mine (2015)

I really didn't like the "I Spit on Your Grave" remake. At all. Not only did I never in my wildest dreams think that Meir Zarchi's 'rape/revenge' classic would be blasphemed with a 'revamp', I never, EVER would have imagined it would turn into a franchise. An incredibly shitty franchise. I guess I was naive cuz nothing is sacred. In all fairness, I haven't seen the second installment so I'm not totally 'caught up' (I could give a fuck...), but if it's any better than either of the other two I've seen, I'd be very surprised.

So the rape victim of the previous movies becomes friends with a man-hating, punk rock chick at her sexual assault survivors support group and the two decide to start striking some fear in the hearts of perverts targeting girls from the group. When her friend is suddenly murdered by her ex-boyfriend, Jennifer amps up the harshness on her perv-punishing to full-on sado-torture and murder...

Pretty dull stuff, here. This is actually more along the lines of "Ms. .45", what with it's more urban setting, just without everything that made that awesome movie so memorable. There's really no exploitation 'feel' - much like the initial remake - which makes the incessant feminist angle seem so contrived and laughable, as opposed to imperative, as it were in the original film and even the far inferior remake. As for the violence, there are a few rather 'graphic' kills, most notably a castration and a guy getting a pipe rammed up his ass with a sledgehammer, although it's nothing 'good' enough to make up for how weak and clumsy and half-assed the story is and how it has no business bearing the "I Spit on Your Grave" title. That's all I care to say. Avoid this bullshit and, while you're at it, avoid the rest of this putrid trilogy.

Midnight Blue (1979)

"Midnight Blue" is a pretty superfluous 'exploitation' flick that's basically a tamed down knock-off of another very mediocre Italian 'rape/revenge' movie, "Last House on the Beach". Actually, I feel like I would need a side-by-side comparison just to see if they're not the same fucking movie!

Three female athletes are dropped off for the weekend at a swanky villa on the beach when a trio of escaped convicts just happen to show up for a dip. The girls foolishly decide to let the guys stay there with them since "they seem nice enough" and shit only goes south when they see some mugshots in the local paper. From there, the ladies have to defend themselves for the weekend as the guys wait for their criminal head honcho to show up (kinda like a shitty "Reservoir Dogs"...)...

There's a few 'steamy' sex scenes early on, but overall, this one is pretty 'light' as far as rape material goes. The guys in this are pretty mellow for the most part, and not all that cruel to our hapless captives. So, in that token, it's not all that engrossing of an 'exploit' movie and just moved along too slow for my liking, overall. Check out "House on the Edge of the Park" or "Night Train Murders" if you're looking for some truly primo films of this rapey ilk. I'd classify "Midnight Blue" as an obscure dud...

A Gun for Jennifer (1997)

You can typically count on a strong 'air' of feminism in a given 'rape/revenge' flick. That usually coincides with the whole 'revenge' portion, obviously. However, "A Gun for Jennifer" takes the man-hating element a few steps further to the point where I couldn't help but see some legit resentment for men emerge...

A young woman flees her abusive home life in Ohio to start over in New York City where she's almost immediately assaulted by a couple street thugs. While attempting to mug and possibly rape her, a gang of armed, masked women show up to save the day. They brutally murder the attackers and offer the new girl a place to stay. Turns out, they're a gang of vigilantes who target known rapists and chauvinist pervs around the city - usually castrating them before gleefully murdering them. At the same time, they're running a strip club which offers them ample opportunity to settle the score with their drunk, grabby male patrons. There's also a couple detectives on the case - one of which is a ball-busting feminist, herself, who can't help but agree with what the alpha-babe, prick-slicing posse is doing.

"A Gun for Jennifer" is a decent enough 'exploitation' flick, undoubtedly an homage to "Rape Squad" - aka. "Act of Vengeance". Could've been a little more graphic with the dick-cutting scenes and maybe tried to condense the run-time by nixing a few of the slower scenes, but it's still a mildly entertaining and aggressive low-budget 'girl power'/punk movie, overall.

Last House on the Beach (1978)

"Last House on the Beach" is an Italian 'rape/revenge' flick that fails to deliver on pretty much every conceivable aspect of what you would want or expect out of this kinda thing. The result, obviously, is a weak-ass 'exploitation' outing.

A trio of bank robbers experience car trouble after a deadly heist and decide to hide out in a ritzy beach house while they fix it up. Unfortunately for the Catholic girls practicing Shakespeare there for the weekend, they quickly become the terrified hostages and sex objects...

Aside from one less-than-noteworthy on-screen rape, the majority of the violence is implied or just outright cut away from. Namely, a scene in which one of the guys who was earlier stabbed in the pelvis by one of the girls (though, later on his wound inexplicably travels up to his abdomen...) decides to 'get even' by driving his sharpened walking stick into her previously unsullied Catholic slit, which is almost completely off-screen! And because of this, the film's antagonists come across as very non-threatening and prosaic most of the time. So, yeah, much too 'tame' for my tastes, but on the plus side it was fairly well shot... But so what? For more superior 'rape/revenge' flicks, check out "House on the Edge of the Park", "Death Weekend" or "Demented".

The Seasoning House (2012, Paul Hyett)

Damn, I was pretty surprised by this one. "The Seasoning House" is an incredibly solid and harrowing 'revenge' flick about child prostitution. It's quite an unflinching and violent film, despite a few moderate flaws...

A military unit - under the sadistic orders of a ruthless commander - abduct young girls from their homes to thrust into sex slavery in a rundown old house out in the woods. One of the girls is a deaf-mute who is put in charge of cleaning, feeding and applying crude makeup on the other girls as well as shooting them up with dope before 'guests' arrive. When the commander shows up with a few of his soldiers for a 'good time', one of the girls - already with a broken pelvis from an earlier vicious rape - is brutalized by one of the men which incites retaliation from the deaf girl who is capable of crawling through the walls to gain the upper hand.

All the performances are great and the depictions of violence and rape are very nasty and realistic. The only 'flaw' I picked up on was that it started kind of feeling a bit rushed in the final act with a little too much going on, such as the whole scene of the house full of pig decor belonging to the wife of one of the soldiers. Seemed a little far-fetched and out-of-place, I thought. That said, "The Seasoning House" comes highly recommended to those who dig more unpleasant-type films. Definitely a much harsher flick than I was expecting with some effectively grim moments and some great dark and depressing atmosphere.

Defenceless: A Blood Symphony (2004, Mark Savage)

If you're looking for some sleazy 'exploitation' revenge cinema of an exceedingly offbeat distinction, than I'd say "Defenceless: A Blood Symphony" is a sufficient sampling, if there ever was one. It's a strange blend of rape/revenge and 'art film'.

Apparently, there's this gang of corporate land developers who were hoping to erect some kind of hotel within the vicinity of a family's home. It doesn't appear that the husband and wife were too willing to sign over the deed so shit gets ugly and the developers kill the husband. After that, they target wifey's lesbian lover - afterwards, sending her a snuff film and severed head. Next, she is raped and brutalized and so is her young son. After nine months, her body washes up on the beach and is, somehow, resurrected as some kind of hobbling, vengeance-fueled cannibal that sleeps under water. She ends up exacting revenge against the scummy goons that killed her family, who have seemingly moved onto violent child porn...

Like I said, "Defenceless" is an odd take on the 'rape/revenge' film. Completely dialog-free and going the total slow-burn route until the last 20 minutes or so when we get to some nicely bloody torture/murder scenes. There's a nice amount of vaginal mutilation and two exceptionally gruesome scenes of crude penis removal. So you end up getting a suitable amount of bloodshed, but, as a whole, I found "Defenceless" to be a very well made film with a pretty strong performance from the female lead and some beautiful cinematography. The entire movie seemed to have a peculiarly calming and serene element, helped along by the odd transformation of the main character and, of course, the classical score that accompanied a large portion of the film. Some parts were a little TOO drawn out and slow, I thought, but for the most part this tone worked well. So, if you happen to dig 'exploitation'-art films with sleaze AND some aesthetic substance, than you gotta check out this Australian delight.

Savage Streets (1984, Danny Steinmann)

Linda Blair, known primarily as the sweet little angelic girl; turned vessel for the demonic entity, Pazuzu, makes a nice transition into the wonderful world of rape/revenge cinema. Actually, she's pretty awkward and unconvincing as a troubled teen fueled by vengeance, but I DID learn that lil' Regan's tits float in bath water...

While strutting down the streets of Burbank, a group of snotty girls get into a little back-and-forth with a stereotypical white boy gang after they almost run over Blair's deaf and mute sister (Linnea Quigley) with their convertible. The girls wait till the dudes are off dealing some junk and take their car for a joyride before filling it with garbage and running off. It ain't fun and games no more for the guys who are looking to get even. What's the best way to get even, you ask? Obviously, you corner a deaf/mute in a gymnasium and gang-rape her into a coma. Duh! This violent assault lands Linda's sis in the hospital where she's apparently clinging to life and the other girls have no idea who was responsible. There's a lot more shit going on with the bad-boys who are constantly shaking a guy down for owed cash, getting into scraps in nightclubs and eventually throwing one of Linda's friends off a bridge. Eventually, the meek member of the gang inadvertently spills the beans that it was them who dogpiled the deaf girl so Linda sets out to kick some ass via retaliation.

My god, "Savage Streets" is just SO fucking... 80s! The whole big hair thing is out of control, as well as guys wearing dangly razor blade earrings and corny-as-hell music montages. Not to mention the typically over-the-top 'urban high school' motif. The principal telling the one kid to "Go fuck an iceberg" after the kid tells him his buddy has "the clap"... Had my sides splitting! You also got a big naked girl-fight scene in the locker room shower. There's plenty to like when it comes to "Savage Streets". If you're expecting a really 'graphic' and violent 'exploitation' film along the lines of "I Spit on Your Grave", then you'll be sorely disappointed by this one. This is about as light and 'mainstream' as you can get with a rape/revenge flick, though it still entertains like crazy. Like I said, Linda Blair is fine here and delivers a few good liners, but she didn't really break out into any kind of sexy or real "badass woman" type of charisma with this, which is what she/they seemed to be aiming for. Still, it was cool watching her shoot out a guy's knees with a crossbow. "Savage Streets" is a must for any fan of 80s films. Also, it was directed by the guy who did "Friday the 13th 5"...

The Last House on the Left (1972, Wes Craven)

If I had to retrace my sleaze-cinema fanaticism steps, I'd safely say that "The Last House on the Left" was my introduction to the "rougher" side of horror/exploitation. I saw this film when I was in my very early teens and, because it had been built up so much as being the be-all-end-all of 'ultra-violent' motion pictures for me, based on what people had told me and all the reviews I now regret reading at the time, I was a bit let down. I was a dumb kid who was intent on destroying every last trace of my innocence with whacked out films and I take full responsibility for softening the blow for myself with "Last House" with all the research and hype I exposed myself to. Live and learn, bitch.

That being said, I've watched "Last House" every once so often throughout the years and, while I certainly admire what Wes Craven and Sean Cunningham did for 'exploitation' cinema - I still have my problems with the film.

For those unaware of the premise: Two 17 year-old girls are on their way to a concert and decide to hit up a burn-out, street urchin-looking motherfucker for some "good grass". He takes them up to the apartment where his convict father, Krug and his escaped accomplices are holed up. They rough the girls up, throw 'em in the trunk and eventually the car breaks down in the woods where they decide to hang out and degrade, cut up, rape and murder the girls for the sheer hell of it. Krug and the gang then come a'knocking on a nearby residence that just so happens to belong to the parents of one of the teens they JUST brutalized. Ma and Pa find their little girl's peace sign necklace on one of the creeps, put 2 and 2 together and avenge their daughter...

While I recognize it as an important forerunner in the 'rape/revenge' sub-genre, this wouldn't rank among my top favorites, which undoubtedly annoys a lot of people. Every time I pop this flick in, I'm always exasperated by the deluding and all-to frequent shift in tone throughout the 'harder' scenes. Some may say it was just the "style" Craven was going for with his debut flick, but I feel that breaking up the harsh depictions of humiliation and violence as much as he did - with sweet music-montages of Mari's folks prepping for her birthday party and the two cops trying to bum a ride out in the middle of nowhere - it hurt the impact of some of the "horror". We go from "Piss your pants!" to silly music as Mari's dad keeps tasting the frosting while Mom's decorating the cake. Daaaad! Two stripped girls cowering before a menacing psychopath abruptly switches over to the sheriff throwing down his hat comically while getting flipped off by a carload of hicks driving by. Dammit, Wes Craven! All this pointless disruption has detracted from the amazingly uncomfortable 'effect' these "heavy" scenes COULD have had.

Aside from that, I don't really have much to complain about. I like the look of the film. Very gritty and amateur looking, which really just makes everything all the more realistic and sorrowful at times. The violence is visceral and ugly, namely the disemboweling of Phyllis and Mari's very uncinematic, face-full of drool-rape scene, as well as her tragic demise.

David A. Hess kicked off his iconic acting career, playing Krug and performing the majority of the soundtrack for the film, which is ALL good, though, as I said before, doesn't always jibe so well with the on-screen 'action'. Still, "The Road Leads to Nowhere" is perfect and even the "Baddies Theme" is fine on it's own accord.

I guess, in closing, "The Last House on the Left" holds undeniable significance in the progression of the 'exploitation' genre and got Wes Craven's film-making career off the ground, as well as paving the way for some of my all-time favorite 'rape/revenge' works, such as "I Spit on Your Grave" and "Ms .45". Still, the 'harsher' scenes being interrupted by comedic musical interludes and flagrant slap-stick bothers me every time.

House on the Edge of the Park (1980, Ruggero Deodato)

"House on the Edge of the Park" is a pretty enjoyable 'rape/revenge' piece and a great example of the awesomeness that is David "The Psycho Rapist" Hess. He certainly carved out a nice little 'niche' back in the glory days of 'exploitation'...

Hess plays a sleazy rapist mechanic who is invited along to a party of rich kids who stopped in to have their car fixed. Shit takes a turn for the worse when Hess gets annoyed by the hot, short-haired cock-tease leading him on constantly, their condescending attitude toward his slightly retarded and sympathetic buddy and the shifty poker game they end up playing. As you would expect, people are tied up, beaten, fucked, cut up and just all-around humiliated by the gleeful creep.

Ruggero Deodato (Cannibal Holocaust, Cut & Run) made an enjoyable 'exploitation' flick here, though I feel it was a little 'light' on the rough stuff when it came to the violence. Still, you get plenty of nudity, razor-on-titty slashing, a bald black chick with surprisingly ample breasts and Hess being a fucking crazed animal with a lust for sadism and sexual torment. He's what carried this flick. Plus, his slow-motion scream at the end when he gets his twig and berries obliterated was priceless!

If you dig the 'rape/revenge' genre than "House on the Edge of the Park" is some necessary viewing, but not the strongest when it comes to the element of 'sleaze'.