Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

I Spit on Your Grave III: Vengeance Is Mine Blu-ray Movie Review

A puddle begins to form from all that spittle.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman October 17, 2015

Out there it's all predators and prey.

I Spit on Your Grave III: Vengeance Is Mine is a mostly forgettable entry in an unforgettable franchise that began way back in 1978 with the brutal rape/revenge film I Spit On Your Grave that was, decades later, remade and followed with a pedestrian, knockoff-style sequel. But that original remains a cult favorite and a "forbidden fruit" type movie, a film that delivers as promised and remains as unsettling today as it felt over 35 years ago. But the shock factor has all but evaporated, particularly with these new entries. Today's "anything goes" climate in the post Saw and Hostel eras has all but deadened the effect, as has the shiny, glossy digital texture that replaces the grittier film stock that made the shock classics of old even all the more visually troubling. Watching men brutally emasculated, sodomized, or otherwise tortured in painful ways in response to their actions still elicits that odd combination of squeamish yucks and you-go-girl, stand-up-and-cheer responses, but the emotional effect barely lingers beyond the moment, let alone stays with the viewer for a lifetime. It's become retune rather than shocking, expected rather than unexpected. The franchise feels like it's cashing in rather than saying something about modern culture, empowering victims, or even just existing to merrily plaster a particularly nasty bit of understandable eye-for-an-eye fantasy on the screen.

Come and get me.

It's been some time since Jennifer Hills (Sarah Butler) suffered a terrible rape and exacted revenge on her attackers. She's in therapy and is struggling with her daily life. She can barely function at work, snapping at anyone who tries to be in the least bit friendly towards her. She suffers from waking nightmares in which she imagines brutally killing anyone she believes may pose even the slightest threat to her safety. It's recommended that she participate in a group therapy session for recovering rape victims. There, she meets Marla (Jennifer Landon), a troubled young girl whose brash ways and preponderance to conflict, self defense, and righteous vengeance only fuels Jennifer, though Marla can be, at times, even more aggressive than Jennifer would like. But when the unthinkable happens, Jennifer takes it upon herself to relieve the world of its worst men and take matters into her own hands, all the while the police, including Detectives McDylan (Gabriel Hogan) and Boyle (Michelle Hurd), are hot on her trail.

Credit I Spit on Your Grave III: Vengeance Is Mine with at least attempting to shake up the formula. Oh, it's still as brutal as ever -- some may be unable to watch even as the "victims" get what's coming to them -- but the filmmakers have shifted around the context, a bit, examining a rape victim in a state of post-traumatic stress disorder, for lack of a better term. Jennifer Hills remains a rape victim, but not a victim living in the moment. The pains of her past experiences have dug in deep and essentially reinvented who she is. She's strong and prepared but she lives a walking nightmare in which her most brutal fantasies play out before her eyes, fantasies in which she destroys any man who dares even look at her funny, never mind touch her or, Heaven forbid, try and rape her. The film's psychological examination doesn't fall flat, but neither does it really say much of anything, either. It resonates just enough to allow the movie to show grisly violence that's sometimes a product of her vivid imagination and, sometimes, a very real punishment inflicted on very bad people. But rather than the victim, she's now something of an aggressor, seeking out trouble and living her fantasies by exacting her own brand of vigilante justice on men who have wronged others and, as an added twist, escaped punishment under the rule of law. Essentially, she's sort of like the rape victim's response to Paul Kersey.

Despite some interesting psychological underpinnings -- which come together well enough throughout the film and take a sharp turn in another direction at the end -- I Spit on Your Grave III: Vengeance Is Mine is still, at its core, a movie that exists only for its scenes of brutality that see Jennifer taking vengeance on some slimy dudes, and in ways that will make every man in the audience squirm at the very least. The film exists to relish in these highlights and, even as they're relatively few in number and take only a small fraction of the 90-some-odd-minute runtime, they dominate the experience, overshadowing the core drama and characterization that makes up the rest of the film. The cast powers through it all like champs, however, and there's a gritty darkness to the torture scenes that hearkens back to the 70s in terms of raw approach but proves a fair bit more graphic in execution. As noted earlier, the film's glossy digital overlay, while easier to work with, in a way negates part of the visceral appeal of such moments. The grit and grain and sense of unease that rougher film stock provides considerably boosts the sense of dread that's missing here, even in the dark back alleys and old warehouses where the action takes place.

I Spit on Your Grave III: Vengeance Is Mine Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

I Spit on Your Grave III: Vengeance Is Mine features a dreary, gray-dominant 1080p transfer sourced from a digital shoot. The image is clean if not a little flat, but clarity is strong and details are revealing. Facial features are nicely complex, even underneath makeup. Clothing textures are crisp and backgrounds, even in dark alleys or warehouses, are nicely revealing. Colors, as noted, favor a heavy bleak, gray push. Red blood pops but there's not much vibrance to the smattering of hues seen throughout, whether multicolored signs and banners in the room where the support group meets or tool handles in a hardware store. Black levels waver between mild crush and excess paleness, favoring the latter. Light banding and macroblocking are also evident. The upper midrange digital source and bleak color scheme don't do the movie any favors, but it looks good enough within the confines of its constraints and intended shading.

I Spit on Your Grave III: Vengeance Is Mine Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

I Spit on Your Grave III: Vengeance Is Mine features a relatively simple Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack that enjoys some highlights but mostly flies under the radar. General clarity satisfiers across all areas of concern, from dialogue to music. There's never a sense of real, full, rich, lifelike atmospherics, though light dialogue reverberation echoes nicely enough through the support group meeting scenes and basic city din, noisy apartment neighbors, and city park backgrounds are adequately dispersed through the stage. Screams are piercing and the various sounds of torture are effective in adding to the intensity. The track won't push sound systems very far, but it does a fair job of brining the listener into the movie.

I Spit on Your Grave III: Vengeance Is Mine Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of I Spit on Your Grave III: Vengeance Is Mine contains no supplemental content.

I Spit on Your Grave III: Vengeance Is Mine Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I Spit on Your Grave III: Vengeance Is Mine unquestionably delivers what fans want, but it's still a frustrating experience. On one hand is a smattering of classic Spit revenge-minded violence, but on the other is a fascinating character study that's always on the precipice of finding a real, honest depth that never quite materializes in between segments of inhuman violence. Audiences looking for some juicy graphic violence will certainly walk away pleased, but somewhat more demanding viewers might leave frustrated considering the missed potential. Still, the movie will leave audiences thinking, either about improper uses for knives and pipes or the darker side of psychological trauma. Anchor Bay's featureless Blu-ray delvers solid enough video and audio. Rent it.