Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
A young, beautiful career woman rents a backwoods cabin to write her first novel. Attacked by a group of local lowlifes and left for dead, she devises a horrific plan to inflict revenge.
Day of the Woman (aka I Spit on Your Grave) is a raw, controversial rape-revenge film that earns its place in cult horror history largely through its unflinching, protracted revenge sequences. The plot is minimal and deliberate — thin on narrative sophistication but structurally committed to its brutal premise. Acting is uneven, with Camille Keaton delivering a committed physical performance while the male cast ranges from serviceable to amateurish. Cinematography is functional at best, shot with a low-budget indie aesthetic that occasionally works in its favor through gritty realism but lacks true craft. Novelty is moderate — the rape-revenge subgenre existed before, but the film's extreme length and unflinching female-gaze revenge stance gave it a singular, polarizing identity that influenced the genre. The ending is genuinely exceptional — methodical, drawn-out, and cathartic in a deeply uncomfortable way, it remains one of the most discussed finales in exploitation cinema and is the film's clearest artistic achievement.