The inspiration of Meir Zarchi’s debut film was a real-life incident. While driving with his daughter, he came across a naked woman running from some woods. She had been raped. Shocked, he took her to the police, who then looked after her. This occurrence gave birth to Day of the Woman, a hard-hitting, disturbing, and powerful film that is in no way an easy film to watch. Its initial engagements in the US were in the drive-in market, where it didn’t make its budget back. It wasn’t until the Jerry Gross Organisation picked it up for distribution in 1980 and forced a retitling to the much more exploitative I Spit on Your Grave that it became a cause célèbre, particularly when it hit the burgeoning home video market. The story follows Jennifer Hills (Camille Keaton), a writer, who has taken herself away to a small town to work. During her stay, she is subjected to arguably the worst sexual abuse seen on the screen up to that point. While that is not something to be proud of, it does repel and disturb the audience enough to accept the third act of the movie, in which Jennifer takes her revenge on the men who raped her. It was remade in 2010, and that film spawned two sequels. A direct sequel finally arrived in 2019, with both the original director back behind the camera and Keaton back as Jennifer.
This story is from the December 2020 edition of Starburst Magazine.
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This story is from the December 2020 edition of Starburst Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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