I Spit on Your Grave: Deja Vu Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

I Spit on Your Grave: Deja Vu Blu-ray Movie Review

I spit...and then stand around...and spit some more...and linger...and spit...maybe scream...show some blood...and spit...and eventually I might spit again.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 25, 2019

1978's trashy, nasty, and unforgettably gruesome I Spit On Your Grave stands as one of the undeniable classics of the exploitation genre and to this day defines the rape-revenge picture. It has been remade (with sequels!) but it's taken four decades for Director Meir Zarchi and Star Camille Keaton to reunite for the next chapter in the original Jennifer Hills saga. However, the sequel cannot touch the original; it's a much lesser film (even if there's far more of it) that does dare to push the franchise in an unexpected direction that ultimately leads to a very familiar story. The film works on some levels, epically fails at others, and succeeds only at sparking debate, just like it predecessor, but mostly for all the wrong reasons.

Jennifer Hills (Keaton), four decades removed from a horrific ordeal in which she killed all of her rapists in gruesome fashion, has become a successful author whose new book recounting her experience is the hot topic on everyone's lips. The book is moving and Jennifer is a celebrity. She's become a mother in those decades; her daughter Christy (Jamie Bernadette) is the world’s foremost and highest paid model. One day, after sharing lunch together, both Jennifer and Christy are kidnapped in broad daylight outside of a posh restaurant. Turns out the kidnappers are several family members related to the men Jennifer killed decades ago. They are out for revenge, and bloodthirsty they are. Christy, it seems, was taken by accident -- wrong place at the wrong time -- and arrangements are made to return her to New York City. But when she is taken separately by one of the perps, she manages to escape in hopes of finding her mother before Jennifer's captors can do the unspeakable to her, again, and perhaps finish what their relatives could not.

The original I Spit On Your Grave was, and remains, a terribly difficult film to watch. It's rough, raw, and unpleasant, not unlike this film. While Deja Vu is rough, raw, and unpleasant under the narrative construction and execution of its own rape and revenge scenes -- which are a two-way street in the film -- the movie's most commanding feel for unpleasantness can be summarized in a single word: "pacing." While there is much wrong with the film beyond its gargantuan and immediately obvious sloth-like runtime, the editing makes the film an insufferable experience. The runtime approaches 2.5 hours, a full 45 minutes longer than the original. Runtime in and of itself is obviously not a problem if there's enough filmmaking mettle and storytelling value to be found, but that is not the case here. Writer/Director Meir Zarchi and his son and Editor Terry Zarchi indulge far too much in the mundane, obviously hoping to dig deeply into the characters' psyches by doing so. Unfortunately the movie is a simple two-sided street that doesn't need so much meandering "depth." The Hills are out to survive and the villains are out to rape and kill and exact revenge. The killers' motives are easy to read, and the heroes survival instincts are clear enough. There's no need to draw the film out so long, particularly when so much of it is absolutely valueless to anything but the runtime count. Scenes linger, the pacing stalls, mundane dialogue grates, and scenes of characters performing menial tasks appear in far too many scenes.

Zarchi does make a bold move partway through the movie -- which comprises that extra 45 minute runtime -- that is sure to divide the longstanding fanbase. It also sets the movie on the track of essentially becoming a remake of the original at that point, following a rape victim and her attackers on a quest for blood and revenge. Motives are a bit different, faces are new, and despite the advance of several decades in time the film remains grounded in the essentials. The movie all but enters a stasis at that point and reverts to something closely resembling the original in terms of the uneasiness and violence unleashed on all characters. Of course there's not much more the movie can do. The genre by definition is stringent in its constraints and necessarily must follow a prescribed path. Zarchi handles those essentials well enough, scraping out the obligatory feel of unease and the customary brutality that eventually comes the rapists' way, though again the film's desperate need for severe trims are evident in practically every scene.

The cast is not a bright spot, either. Acting from just about every source beyond Jamie Bernadette, playing Jennifer Hills' daughter, ranges from middling to miserable. The "country bumpkins" out for blood are the most troubled characters. The script gives them little to go on beyond the base motivation and a certain aesthetic. The film tries to define them beyond; one of the characters is an amateur botanist of sorts who can identify every flower in the area, but it's a throwaway bit that only serves to needlessly lengthen the already painfully long experience. The film lacks the feel of intimacy and grit and nastiness and genuine horror of the original, partly because it's simply inferior and partly because the digital craftsmanship robs it of the supporting visual texture.

I Spit on Your Grave: Deja Vu Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

I Spit on Your Grave: Deja Vu was digitally photographed, which does rob the film of the densely grainy, rough, and raw look that was such a boon for the original. This one is comparatively clean, not inorganic, but certainly wanting for more filmic texture. Essential details are strong, however, showcasing various examples of facial features and hair, clothes, terrain, and support elements -- gravestones, rusty gas pumps, hunks of meat -- with impressive definition and stability. Shot clarity is maintained throughout, and the picture holds a firm, tight focus even to the corners. Colors are natural. Red bloods gush off the screen, natural greens shine, blacks are stable, and skin tones appear appropriate to actor complexion. The image shows no signs of encode flaw and source elements like noise are never visible to excess.

I Spit on Your Grave: Deja Vu Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

I Spit on Your Grave: Deja Vu features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. There's not a lot to the track. It's fairly basic. The presentation does deliver good quality woodland ambience which sets the scene in various outdoor locales. Surrounds are used to help immerse the listener into the world to good, balanced effect. There is a lot of screaming in the movie. It's well detailed at the high end. A few gunshots and other action-type effects hold steady but lack real volume, depth, and punch. Basic dialogue is well prioritized, detailed, and holds firm in the front-center channel.

Note that the packaging advertises "English C.C." subtitles on the rear but they are in fact missing from the disc.

I Spit on Your Grave: Deja Vu Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of I Spit on Your Grave: Deja Vu contains no supplemental features. The main menu screen offers a repeating loop of dull film clips set to music. The only button is "Play Movie." No DVD or digital copies are included. This release does not ship with a slipcover. The case is slightly thicker than the standard single disc variants.

I Spit on Your Grave: Deja Vu Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I Spit on Your Grave: Deja Vu will divide longtime fans for its content but unify them in jeering the picture for horrific editing, empty characters, and a final two-thirds that is basically a regurgitation of the original, though the genre by definition allows for little wiggle room in that regard. Now at five pictures "strong," the franchise should probably be retired; nothing has come close to recapturing the horrors the original revealed, and this attempt at continuing the story is just too long, empty, and repetitive to bear. The featureless Blu-ray, which appears to be published by "Deja Vu LLC" on a burned disc, does offer solid video and audio presentations. Genre fans and those who admire the original will want to check it out. Others, particularly those who have not seen the original, should veer far away.