Technically speaking, I Spit On Your Grave 3 is probably a better movie than its predecessors and I’ll give the filmmakers some credit for trying something different, going away from the formula; yet at the same time it makes for a pretty bland flick and the only highlight is certainly not with the writing but the performance from Sarah Butler wasn’t half bad.
I Spit on Your Grave III: Vengeance is Mine
(2015)
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller, Horror, Drama
Anchor Bay | NR – 91 min. – $26.99 | October 20, 2015
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MOVIE INFO: Directed by: RD Braunstein Writer(s): Meir Zarchi (Motion Picture Day of the Woman); Daniel Gilboy (screenplay) Cast: Sarah Butler, Jennifer Landon, Doug McKeon, Gabriel Hogan, Michelle HurdDISC INFO: Features: None Digital Copy: No Number of Discs: 1Audio: English (Dolby TrueHD 5.1) Video: 1080p/Widescreen 2.40 Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish Disc Size: 20.3 GB Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Region(s): A |
** Click Here to Purchase I Spit on Your Grave 3 on Blu-ray from Amazon.com **
THE MOVIE – 2.5/5
I wasn’t the biggest fan of the original, thought the remake was merely “OK” and hated the “sequel” (in name only). Now we get I Spit On Your Grave III a true sequel to the remake and while I appreciate they didn’t retell the story and went away from the formula, the end result was often messy in combination with stilted dialogue and so-so performances.
Jennifer (SARAH BUTLER) is back going under a new name, Angela, working a dead end job inputting numbers and seeing a therapist while reliving the appalling events years earlier. Not surprisingly, and understandably, she’s soured on society and general human contact to the point she’s incredibly rude and cruel to a workmate whom she assumes only wants to be get in her pants.
Upon the suggestion of the therapist, she attends a support group for victims of rape where she meets and makes quick friends with Marla (JENNIFER LANDON), who is un-PC as they come and shares her views on the so-called justice system which more or less aligns with Angela and soon enough the pair attempt to exact revenge, and street justice, against a step-father who is abusing a young woman. They accost the man and warn him to top the abuse with Marla almost loses it, nearly killing the man with Angela stopping her.
With that success, and having a good friend, Angela perhaps has turned a corner but her happiness is short lived when, off-screen, Marla was “assaulted” and murdered likely at the hands of her abusive ex-boyfriend, at least Angela as well as Detective McDylan (GABRIEL HOGAN), believe so. However, this ex is released due to lack of evidence at which point Angela experiences a psychological break. After unleashing her anger on McDylan, she goes after Marla’s ex, in one of the two gruesome scenes (not counting the fantasy sequences…), before taking on the abusive step-father in the other brutal and bloody sequence.
First, I will give the filmmakers some credit for taking a different route with this sequel. I Spit On Your Grave 3 is more of a psychological drama, examining the ramifications on Jennifer’s actions in the first film (remake) yet while this sounds good in theory, and there are some good acting done by Sarah Butler, in practice it really makes for a slow and messy plot with the first 30-minutes being set-up introducing viewers to Marla and developing the friendship between the pair thus giving us reason to root for or at least follow Jennifer/Angela’s exploits for vengeance as the title suggests/promises. But by the same notion, fans of these exploitation flicks will be sorely disappointed and I doubt gore-hounds will find much outside of a scene or two.
For myself, I thought it was fine just nothing noteworthy and frankly, all in all forgettable. As much as I loathed the original, tolerated the remake and hated the sequel, each one at least were memorable in their own ways, this third entry will be a footnote in my book. That said, it’s not just using the blueprint from the previous entries and as I mentioned before, Sarah Butler turns in a fine performance and for her brief role, Jennifer Landon is decent enough as well.
I Spit on Your Grave III: Vengeance is Mine was helmed by RD Braunstein marking only his third feature that began with the 2012 Asylum flick, Abducted. His direction here is competent enough while the job of writing this poor screenplay went to Daniel Gilboy who served as a co-producer on the first two Grave movies. Again, credit goes to him and others for trying something different but in doing so, it doesn’t exactly appeal to really anyone:
Fans of the series won’t like because it’s not exploitive enough and there’s not enough blood to satisfy the gore crowd leaving a film that will likely be overlooked or downright forgotten. In part, and even though I didn’t entirely like it, is kind of unfortunate because there are elements to be appreciated.
SPECIAL FEATURES – 0/5
No features were included.
VIDEO – 3.5/5
Anchor Bay releases I Spit On Your Grave 3 onto Blu-ray shown with a 2.40 widescreen aspect ratio and given a 1080p high-definition transfer. I was a bit surprised to find the transfer wasn’t entirely impressive; detail levels were a bit soft while colors are generally drab, though that was probably on purpose in keeping with the film’s tone. It’s not a brilliantly looking picture but rather standard.
AUDIO – 4.0/5
The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track is, for the most part, strong especially in the opening. Depth is on the more limited side where the LFE channel rarely kicks in and the breadth of the audio relegates with the generic score making use of the front channels and ambient/off-screen sounds from the rear speakers. Dialogue at least was mostly clear so it’s a fine track but like the video, hardly noteworthy.
OVERALL – 2.0/5
Overall, technically speaking, I Spit On Your Grave 3 is probably a better movie than its predecessors and I’ll give the filmmakers some credit for trying something different, going away from the formula; yet at the same time it makes for a pretty bland flick and the only highlight is certainly not with the writing but the performance from Sarah Butler wasn’t half bad. However, if you enjoyed the previous recent entries, this probably will be disappointing. The Blu-ray released by Anchor Bay is void of any bonus material while the video and audio transfers are merely OK.
The Movieman
Published: 10/05/2015