Editors Note: Reviews from Danny Price will be referring to the Region 4 DVD and the DVD in your region may not have all the special features available in this review. Like 'em? Get a Region-Free DVD player. Worth it!

I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE aka Day of the Woman

Special Edition (R4)

Directed by: Meir Zarchi

One of exploitation cinemas greatest achievements, I Spit on your Grave is a disturbing and unrelenting tale of rape, brutality and bloody revenge.

I Spit on your Grave is the story of Jenifer Hill an aspiring writer working on her first novel.

She soon comes to the attention of four sick motherfuckers repeatedly gang raping her, beating her into a bloody pulp and leave her to die, but she doesn’t die, she strikes back, and one by one she gets her revenge.

Despite the endless controversy that surrounds this movie it’s not a bad movie, god knows its damned effective, I don’t think I’ve ever felt so dirty after watching a movie. The rape is gritty and realistic to the point of almost being rape porn or the rape equivalent of snuff.

Exploitation cinema has been getting a shit load of attention in recent years, previously uber-rare movies have found their way to the mainstream thanks to the magic of DVD, Cannibal Holocaust, Thriller: A Cruel Picture, fuck even the Guinea Pig movies have been re-released on DVD.

Until recently I Spit on your Grave was banned in Australia for over 17 years, the lifting of its ban could only mean one thing…a special edition release baby.

Completely uncut? Hmmm…I dunno about that, sure the movie shows some of the most graphic rapes that I’ve ever seen but I’ve seen copies labeled 105 minutes long, and this one only has a 97 minute run time so I’m not sure the advertising bastards behind this one have their cappuccinos made just right.

This ‘Special Edition’ features a magnificent transfer of the film, it’s so clean it’s hard to imagine what it used to look like.

On top of a clean and crisp transfer we get the original Dolby soundtrack and also a new 5.1 channel soundtrack, which kind of seems pointless for a movie that doesn’t have a score and doesn’t have need for surround sound but hey, I’m not complaining.

First up we get two audio commentaries, the first is with the man responsible for this sick piece of sadistic joy, Meir Zarchi, who manages to keep what could have been a dry 97 minutes, interesting, he’s informative and sometimes very amusing despite being hard to understand sometimes (damn you foreign filmmakers).

The second commentary is manned by none other then Joe Bob Briggs, who defends the movie like it’s his own child, not only does he put up a good fight but he’s funny as fuck to listen to.

Next is a slew of advertisement material; three theatrical trailers, three TV spots and three radio spots, some of which are from when the movie was titled Day of the Woman. A poster art and VHS covers gallery is also included, it shows off some of the cool looking cover art from back in the video nasty days and some rare foreign art.

Also included are a number of extremely interesting articles and reviews from back when it was originally released, they’re split into two ‘US & UK Reviews and Articles’ and ‘Australian & NZ Reviews and Articles’, most of the stuff is about the controversy which surround it.

Rounding the disc off is a set of filmographies for the actors (most of whom didn’t work again), there’s also a photo gallery which is made up of mostly production stills but there are one or two behind the scenes pictures, nothing to get too excited about and lastly is an interesting something from Meir Zarchi calls ‘Who is this kid?’ which is about a picture of Meir with an ANZAC soldier (that Australian-New Zealand Army Corps) when he was 4.

And I quote: “…these folk from Downunder were the friendliest and most warm-hearted people that ever walked the face of the earth.”

*Sniff* I think my Aussie pride meter just rose a bit higher.

MOVIE: 4 out of 5

DVD: 3.5 out of 5

-Danny Price

BUY IT ON AMAZON.COM!