I Spit on Your Grave. 1978. USA. Written and directed by Meir Zarchi. With Camille Keaton, Eron Tabor, Richard Pace, Anthony Nichols. 4K restoration courtesy of Ronin Flix. 102 min.
Jennifer, a young writer from New York City, travels to a secluded upstate summer home to work, where she is brutally attacked by a gang of local men. The unforgiving nature of her bloody revenge proves her a resourceful, physically capable foe, and more than a match for these despicable criminals. The film (originally titled Day of the Woman, before its exploitation-minded distributor decided otherwise) counts among its leading champions the scholar Carol Clover, who, in her book Men, Women and Chain Saws, credits its “perverse simplicity” with the extreme experience it presents to viewers. A key work in both the “victim-hero” subgenre and the body horror canon, Clover argues convincingly that its demanding perspective on male violence “makes Jennifers of us all,” female and male alike.