I Spit On Your Grave: Millennium Edition
Elite Entertainment
1978

reviews by Julian James

When Elite Entertainment first brought I Spit On Your Grave (AKA Day of the Woman) to DVD, it left a lot to be desired. Containing only a theatrical trailer as extra material, Elite left fans of the film hungry for more. After quite a long wait, almost 4 years, Elite finally brings us the long awaited Millennium Edition for one of the most controversial films in their library. This time packed with 2 commentaries, trailers galore, a section containing some of the films past reviews, a couple of photo galleries and an improved audio/video presentation, Elite is looking to push this DVD over the top. Do they succeed? Let's take a look....

Jennifer Hill (Camille Keaton), a women's magazine author, decides to get out of the hustle and bustle of New York City and take a summer trip to the woods. While vacationing, she plans on completing her first novel. When stopping for gas along the way, she is eyed by a few country bumpkins and we are briefly introduced to Johnny, (Eron Tabor) Stanley (Anthony Nichols) and Andy (Gunther Kleeman). Later, Jennifer encounters Matthew (Richard Pace), a mentally disabled grocery delivery boy who instantly becomes attracted to her.

We later learn that Matthew hangs around with Johnny, Stanley and Andy and that he is really only there for the others twisted amusement. In the spirit of this, the three guys think it would be a brilliant idea if they abduct Jennifer and hold her down so that Matthew can loose his virginity to her. When it comes time to carry out the dirty deed, Matthew decides that he would rather not take part in these awful doings. Disturbingly, the others are fine with it and decide to carry on without Matthew. This is just the beginning of one of the most disturbing and excruciatingly long (a whole 25 minutes) rape scenes ever put on celluloid.

Later, when the men are finished, Johnny tries to convince Matthew to kill Jennifer by stabbing her in the heart. But suddenly stung by the morality bug, Matthew decides to fake it and just wipes blood on the knife. This proves to be a bad move, because once Jennifer recovers from her horrific experience, she decides to seek revenge (and not through the legal system). Soon the hunters become the hunted, and Jennifer begins her pursuit for the ultimate vengeance.
Don't be fooled by it's simplistic plot, I Spit On Your Grave is a disturbing romp on the more realistic side of what a horror movie can be. Plain and simple, this movie is hard to watch and by the end of it, expect to be emotionally drained. The malicious brutality of the rape scenes in this movie are both intense and graphic and are completely void of any kind of glorification or eroticism. Because of this, Meir Zarchi is able to rally the audience into rooting for the deaths of the four attackers, something that can often be quite difficult in these 'realistic' horror movies. And when it comes down to it, this film accomplishes what it sets out to do: convey the horrors of rape in a realistic and startling way.

Now we get to what you've all been waiting for. Let's talk about the wonderful special features on this disc. Elite delivers what we've come to expect from a Millennium Edition release. That is, an awesome audio/video presentation and a whole slew of special of special features. Lets start with the Audio and Video. In terms of video quality, this edition is a step up from the the previous one that Elite released. We now have a fully anamorphic transfer and it looks great. While it is true that from time to time there is a bit of grain, it's not all that bad and is very rarely noticeable. Now, who would have thunk that one day this film would get a THX approved DTS track? Considering this movie was filmed using a mono track (also included in the DVD), it's pretty damn surprising. Yet, as cool as this is, due to the absence of music in the film, don't expect this disc to give your speakers much of a workout.

The two commentaries provided are really the shining points on this disc. The first is from the man himself, Meir Zarchi. This is an extremely important commentary in which he discusses everything from content to distribution. Zarchi even responds to the many negative reviews surrounding his film and surprisingly enough invites Roger Ebert to record his own commentary for the film. This really is required listening for anyone that even remotely considers themselves a fan of I Spit on Your Grave. The second commentary is from the one and only Joe Bob Briggs and it is absolutely hilarious. Joe Bob mixes his knowledge of the rape/revenge genre in with his own brand of humor. This mixture proves extremely successful and creates one of the most entertaining commentary tracks ever.

Remaining on this DVD is a slew of theatrical trailers, TV and Radio spots, a poster art gallery, some reviews for the film and a photo gallery. If trailers are your thing, you should be in hog heaven. Elite included a wide variety of trailers and TV spots that should leave you more than satisfied. Both the poster and photo galleries are rather short and don't really offer anything extremely interesting. The reviews section is mildly interesting. If you want to read the negative reviews that are mentioned in the commentaries, this is the place to do it.

Overall, this is an outstanding DVD from Elite and an excellent entry into the ever improving Millennium series. The much improved audio/visual presentation and the two strongest commentaries out on the DVD market today make this a must buy for any horror or DVD fan.

Official Website:
http://www.elitedisc.com