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Wow.........this movie was one of the hardest sits I've had to sit through. And not cause this film is bad, in fact it's actually really good and very creative with it's film making style.
I'm pretty sure everyone on this site knows about this movie I'll recap. An big city writer goes to a cabin in a rural part of the country to get away and write a novel. She gets the attention of a group of friends (if you can call them that), Johnny, Stanley, Andy and Mathew. She's suddenly kidnapped, raped, tortured and humiliated multiple times. This comes back to haunt them when Mathew can't get himself to kill her like they demand and she cleans herself up and puts herself back together. After deliberation, she decides to take things into her own hands and plots the demise of all four men.
I'll say that from seeing video reviews and the like of this film, I knew everything that was coming. And despite that......I was tensing up knowing what was about to happen. And ironically, I felt I needed to watch and I feel other people need to watch it as well, particularly men. Male privilege, sexism and misogyny are still very real problems in today's society. Honestly, harsh, no bullshit realistic depictions of sexual assault like this film shows is an honest reminder of how real these problems are. I knew this film was having that effect on me when it has several shots during and after the rape scenes of Jenifer's body, full frontal, and I didn't feel right at all seeing it.
I applaud it also for not having a score, that can be a risky move but this film makes it work. It gives extra emphasis on the harmonica scene as well, which is truly haunting. Acting is great to Ok, with no real bad performances. Props to Camillie Keaton as this is a heavy roll to take, especially with how graphic it gets. Also, it's kind of sad that this was Eron Tabor's only performance, he did damn good in this film and I would love to have seen where he could have gone. One other note, really great camera work, especially during the the graphic scenes which are done to great effect to show how gut wrenching it is for Jenifer and how horrible the men are.
The rest of the details I'll put in spoilers just in case.
Spoiler...What shocked me too is how during the revenge sequences, most of them come off as less glorified and feel just as grim. Granted, we know exactly why Jennifer is doing this, after being beaten raped (I was legit surprised to see one of them do a donkey punch on her), but the film comes off as these murders are not something to throw a party over.
Easily the one that most debate on is Mathew. He's clearly some level of mentally handicapped and is torn on 2 worlds, seeing how wrong it is to harm and humiliate a poor woman, but also wants the acceptance of his friends and wants to have his first sexual encounter. This is another thing the film that's very realistic, to almost haunting levels. As someone with Autism and has been around special needs people, I felt they truly captured the essence of a mentally challenged person who's desperate for acceptance. And I'm still unsure if Mathew should have been killed. Yeah, he did help the others rape her then eventually caved and raped her himself. Then again, he later regretted it and she would be dead if he followed Johny's orders. Then again, death might have been better. The movie really did well with this.
Then there's Johny's death. I share a complaint with many others that don't buy at all that he would gladly go with Jenifer back to her house and let his guard down in the bath, not to mention him no buying her statement of killing Mathew after she threatened him with a gun prior. Still, he got the one death that fit almost all of the (jury's still out on Mathew), getting his dick cut off. And I laughed when the camera's on Jenifer and you hear him scream "It won't stop bleeding......it won't stop bleeding!" And then, after he's dead and the mess is cleaned up, we see his wife and kids worrying sick about him being missing. While Johny had it coming, the scene of his family makes his death something that you don't want to celebrate again.
As for Stanley and Andy, there's no such sympathy for them, but really, they where very weakly built as characters. All we know is they're jobless, hang around Johny and Andy has a temper. And out of all 4 deaths, how she kills Stanley is the weakest (an axe in the back, although from a speeding boat is impressive). Andy's was more worth while, especially with the "Suck it....Bitch" line.
It'll honestly be a while before I see this again, if ever, but I feel this film accurately gets a point across about a problem that has existed for way long then it should have and still exists today. Any man who feels there is not issues with the gender balance and feels he doesn't have privilege as a man should watch this and be informed of how this is what most of the women in the world today live in fear of and many have had fears come true. If anything, watch it for that.
I give it a 8/10. Oh, and I doubt I ever bother with the remake, I hear it's more like a bunch of guys raped a female Jigsaw and simply gave her motivation to be psycho again. No thanks.
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the Remake aint no joke either
. For me this movie, along with Last House (remake included here also). Cannibal Holocaust, Maniac, All these films truly embody the True Definition of what Horror is meant for. "To Be Shocking, and Disturbing , Cause a Feeling of Disgust and Outrage " Sure these movies might be vile with their Wicked senseless acts of misogynistic Violence against woman. And no matter how badly these flicks are acted. All of them Achieved their Mission Statement by pushing the boundaries of acceptable viewing.
That being Said its the reason I own flicks like a Serbian Film,Human Centiped 2, an Shit like Martyrs. I liked to be Shocked an Disturbed, With a lil dash of disgust an out rage
Originally Posted by hacknslash
to each his own man this was my own opinion of what i think Defines Horror. Those films evoked all of those feelings . Especially for the era they were released in. I agree with sum of your wiki definition. In the fact that sum of the best Horror comes from Nightmares.
