Delayed Reaction: Revenge

Premise: After being assaulted and left for dead, a woman turns the tables on her abusers and gets bloody revenge.

 

This is a movie I've been looking for to a while and it doesn't make a lot of sense why. I really hate the I Spit on Your Grave movies. Revenge is the same basic structure. I don't have a good reason other than, for whatever reason, I assumed Revenge wouldn't be quite as exploitative. I was mostly right in the sense that the movie doesn't force the audience to watch the rape with leering fascination. It's not a pretty scene, but the movie does pull away before I begin to question the filmmaker's motivation for shooting a rape scene. That's not to say the film is without exploitation. Early on, the film is very much about how attractive Matilda Lutz is. The director - who is female - loves Lutz's ass and come up with any excuse to get a shot of it.

 

After the assault, the move does turn into a pretty satisfying revenge movie. Lutz turns into a desert badass. It doesn't explain how she's so good at survival. That's not really the point. The movie is a bit of a fantasy in that way. Lutz survives losing her weight in blood, getting impaled, getting shot, and heat stroke with little water. Her badass-ery is probably why this has been dubbed a "feminist revenge flick"...I mean, sure, I guess. Call it that, I guess. That sort of feels like people are trying too hard to explain how they could enjoy an exploitation movie: intellectualizing it.

 

In reality, it's just fun to see how director Caralie Fargeat and company shoot the movie. It's stylish. The revenge scenarios have a nice variety. The final fight in the house at the end is a bloody mess.

 

My only issue with the movie is a common one. It's too long. There are only three men she's getting revenge on. This movie should be a tight 90 minutes. Instead, it's 108 and drags by the end. There is a point in a thriller where going on too long dulls the effect. Like, in the house at the end, how many laps did they make around the circle in the floorplan? I hit a "just get to it" point of irritation watching that. The slovenlier henchman could've used a little more shading too. When he starts revealing that he's a master hunter to Lutz when she went after him, that came out of nowhere. Until that point, I assumed he was more of a dunce character.

 

These are small gripes though. Overall, the movie delivered exactly the thrills that I wanted without being so exploitative that I felt like a bad person for liking it.

 

Verdict: Strongly Recommend