I Spit on Your Grave: Vengeance is Mine drops us back into the world of Jennifer Hills (Butler), who is in recovery after surviving the events in the first film. She’s speaking to a therapist about how she’s dealing with trauma from that day, which segues into Hills joining a group for rape survivors. There, she meets Maria (Jennifer Landon), who is sick of being the victim. The two of them fantasize strength and control, and verbally begin their evolution into a duo of powerful women. The first act plays out like a sort of superhero horror movie in which the duo snipe at sexual predators, and eventually get physical with the father of a girl in their group. It’s empowering stuff that’s surprisingly fun, with all of the energy feeding off the Landon’s wicked performance.

(Spoilers.) Just as Hills begins to find confidence in herself, she learns that Maria was murdered by her ex-boyfriend. This is the tipping point that sends her off into a violent frenzy of full-blown revenge. With the loss of Landon’s character, Vengeance is Mine becomes dark, mean-spirited and unfocused as it spirals out of control with its anti-hero.(End spoilers.)

What began as one of the year’s best surprises quickly transcends into a tedious, frustrating and pointless slasher.

Yet, even though the downward trajectory continues to a silent thud, the first half warrants heavy recommendation, many of the reasons mentioned above (in case you’re skimming, Jennifer Landon, Jennifer Landon, and Jennifer Landon).

The biggest reasons horror fans will want to see this, though, is for the multiple “holy shit” moments, one of which will go down in history as one of the most brutal death scenes in cinematic history. Vengeance is Mine is, first and foremost, a slasher and delivers on that aspect. It’s just unfortunate that most of the exposition/story that takes place between the violence is tedious if not completely void of a point.

Vengeance is Mine feels like a cathartic story written by a victim of rape, only I couldn’t figure out what they were trying to say. By the end of the film I started to think that maybe Gilboy was trying to pigeonhole meaning into a story arc he was asked to deliver by the producers? Like, “Hey, we want to see Jennifer Hills back and getting revenge.” The problem is, who is she getting revenge on? This problem becomes strongly illuminated by the finale that’s endlessly frustrating.

I’m still scratching my head trying to figure out what happened. It’s as if I Spit on Your Grave: Vengeance is Mine is two different movies cobbled together in the editing bay. I can’t recall the last film to have me so excited, and so on board with everything it was doing, only to have me throwing stones at it by the finale.

While I wish Vengeance is Mine was purposeful, it feels more like a mind-numbing popcorn film with a few jump out of your seat moments.

*Unless Daniel Gilboy is a rape victim, which I hope he is not, I find it extraordinarily uncomfortable to see him write from the perspective of multiple female rape victims. This leads to a tone-deaf and possibly misogynistic I Spit on Your Grave sequel.

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Directed by R.D. Braunstein, the third installment of the controversial cult series will be released in select theaters October 9, 2015 before heading to DVD, Blu-ray and Video On Demand October 20, 2015.

“Jennifer Hills (Sarah Butler) is still tormented by the brutal sexual assault she endured years ago (I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE 2010). She’s changed identities and cities, reluctantly joining a support group where she begins to piece together a new life. But when her new friend’s murderer goes free and the tales of serial rapists haunt her, Jennifer will hunt down the men responsible and do what the system won’t – make them pay for their crimes in the most horrific ways imaginable. Only this time, no jury may be able to save her.

Jennifer Landon (“The Young and the Restless”), Doug McKeon and Gabriel Hogan (“Heartland”) co-star in this unforgiving, unmerciful and uncut new chapter of one of the most notorious franchises in movie history.”

Anchor Bay Entertainment released I Spit on Your Grave in 2010 and I Spit On Your Grave 2 in 2013 to critical acclaim. Based on Meir Zarchi’s 1978 version, the franchise has gained the respect of both mainstream and genre critics. This latest installment is a continuation of the 2010 film’s storyline.

Image source: Jason Lester Media.

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While CineTel Films had yet to hire a writer or director, they had committed to a third round of rape-reveng. The third film, our sources told us, will focus on a serial killer that uses a crisis hotline to target rapists. One of the counselor’s has a dark past, which sends Detectives sniffing in her direction — but is she the killer they’re looking for?

But now Dread Central is reporting that Camille Keaton, who played Jennifer in Meir Zarchi’s 1978 cult classic I Spit on Your Grave (Day of the Woman), will be starring in the next film titled I Spit on Your Grave – Deja-vu.

In more interesting news, it is an actual sequel written by Zarchi that shares characters as well as continuity with his original 1978 cult classic. Chad Ferrin and Terry Zarchi are producing with Meir once again directing.

Here’s the official plot crunch:

Following her rape, Jennifer Hills wrote a best-selling account of her ordeal and of the controversial trial in which she was accused of taking the law into her own hands and brutally killing her assailants. In the small town where the rape and revenge took place, the relatives of the four rapists she killed are furious that the court declared her not guilty and resolve to take justice into their own hands.

The 2010 Steven R. Monroe-directed I Spit on Your Grave was a shockingly good remake of the 1978 classic. Monroe rushed out a sequel last year that was a huge disappointment.

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At the time of this writing, CineTel Films has yet to hire a writer or director, but have committed to a third round of rape-revenge.

The third film, our sources tell us, will focus on a serial killer that uses a crisis hotline to target rapists. One of the counselor’s has a dark past, which sends Detectives sniffing in her direction — but is she the killer they’re looking for?

The 2010 Steven R. Monroe-directed I Spit on Your Grave was a shockingly good remake of the 1978 classic. Monroe rushed out a sequel last year that was a huge disappointment. I think tonally, horror fans don’t want hardcore torture right now. They’d be smart to play the third film tongue-in-cheek, like Nurse.

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