I Spit On Your Corpse, I Piss On Your Grave

With a title like that, this film is sure to divide potential audiences into those avoiding it fearing a lot of amateur backwoods ripping off of classic exploitation motifs - and those salivating at the prospect of a film creaming with sex and gore.

Okay, it is with no pride that I stand before you and admit ... I fall into the latter category.

Plotwise, Sandy (Emily Haack from the more hard-hitting SCRAPBOOK) recants the tale of her derailing into vengeful murder and psychosis

...

After an introductory scene that disturbingly involves a young boy stumbling across the naked corpse of a rape victim (though there is a disclaimer at the close of play insisting that the boy at no time came into contact with said - very convincing - cadaver), we catch up with the story proper - a love story, of sorts, between Sandy and her psychotic boyfriend Kevin (Scot Spookytooth - actually writer/director Eric Stanze [SCRAPBOOK] performing under a lousy psuedonym).

Kevin is an escaped convict who meets up with his former girfriend in a graveyard, and wastes no time in abducting her, taking her to a house she faintly recognises.

Her surroundings become clearer after a brief (though very stylish) sex scene, as Kevin leads his weary partner down to the cellar where three drugged victims sit shackled, awaiting their murder at his hands. It is the house of one of the kidnapees - who also happens to be one of Sandy's former lovers.

Kevin announces his plans to kill all four of them, Sandy first. But she has different ideas.

Having despatched of her abusive would-be murderer boyfriend, Sandy becomes the focal character of the film and sets about doling her imaginative style of retribution on the three prisoners - all of which have previously abused her.

After a slow start then, it's nice to see a film degenerate into full-on hard sleaze in the time-honoured tradition of I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE etc ...

What follows is well-shot sequences of dementia in the form of forced defecation at gun-point; axe disembowellment; hardcore broom-fucking footage; a gunshot to the penis; some nasty facial/penile cigarette-stubbing ... all in all, a typical day at the office for the Sub Rosa Extreme folk!

As digital productions go, this certainly is a cut above the average. The camera-work is strong - stylish in the linking scenes, hand-held when it wants to get up-close and intimidating - and the performances are uniformly strong. The use of coloured filter lights in some interior scenes adds an air of sub-Argento visual sheen to proceedings too!

Back to the performances: Haack gives a better performance here than in SCRAPBOOK. It's equally uncompromising, but that transition mid-film from victim to victimiser is a role she accepts with particular relish. Her excursion to the shower, which marks a dramatic break in tension, gives way to a wonderful momentary hint of sadness in Haack's telling face.

This is a competent production filled with good things to reccommend it. The occasional metal soundtrack by Crypt 33 should, if anything, have been used to better effect. Visually and atmospherically, this seemed to me to be like watching a Jim Van Beber movie that had been shot on digital - and that's a good thing!

On the down side - there are too many lingering shots of graves, tombs and churches. BORING! In fact, there's a lot of scenes that seem to overstay their welcome and would have benefited greatly from a bit of unprejudiced cutting! Little surprise then to find that the editor of I SPIT is actually ... Eric Stanze!

Yeah, talented director for sure. But I think the man needs to get an outsider to come in and scrap the stuff he obviously finds too painful to throw to the cutting floor - it'll make for a dramatic improvement in future projects!

The bulk of the incidental music is awful - really bad synth mixed with slowed, distorted noises (voices reversed then slowed down to an incomprehensible groan) that every micro-budget film-maker of the last decade seems to have used. Don't these people have an imagination in this department?! This dirge only serves to make the lengthy filler scenes of graveyards and washing lines(!) even moreso tedious. The grinding metal of Crypt 33 is refreshing when it features.

The film is presented full-frame (original aspect), uncut and in mono - the sound has noticeable hiss in some scenes. Picture quality is without flaw. The disc has 10 chapters, and it's keepcase packaging comes minus an inlay booklet.

But whatever reservations I may raise, this is still a great addition to the digital forum and should definitely not be overlooked. Where else are you going to find a movie that offers so much seedy violence, albeit filmed professionally and with a wealth of useful extras to hand?

Extras include the 25 minute Behind The Scenes featurette which offers great insight into not only the film's most extreme moments, but also - almost apologetically - the excess material that filled the running time. It was a business obligation apparently, pacifying the European financers. By all accounts, a running time had been specified ...

There's also a 15 minute featurette entitled THE DUMPSTER INCIDENT which amusingly addresses the time Stanze was spotted by a neighbour dumping bloody props from the film into his trashcan - only to be implicated in a nationwide Serial Killer hunt!

The commentary by Stanze and Haack is refreshingly honest and engaging for that fact, though they seem to take the film very seriously at times - going to great lengths to justify the more contentious scenes. Why bother - they're not that extreme?!

I SPIT's trailer is unambitious and features here as a filler. There's also trailers for INSANIAC (soon to enjoy an uncut UK DVD release!) and THE CHRISTMAS SEASON MASSACRE. INSANIAC positively appears to be the better (though less gory) of the two.

In closing, this is a well-scripted, well-shot movie with incredible performances for the most part. The linking scenes go on too long (it would have played better at 50 mins) but overall this is a film many will want to watch again and again - if only for the incredibly high sleaze factor!

The extras are great too. And you must admire Sub Rosa Extreme for their logo alone: Hollywood Is A Disease ... Meet The Cure (not to mention the Earth-shattering 80 second salvo of the opening gore/nudity montage that bombards the viewer prior to reaching the disc's menu page!).

The kind of sleaze you won't find elsewhere at present - on a very decent disc. A worthy addition to your collection, but as riveting as it's torture scenes may be, if you don't already own SCRAPBOOK then you need to buy that first.

Review by Stuart Willis