Thorough it may be that the making of ISOYG was for the most part hassle-free and therefore lacking in any juicy on-set horror stories for sensation seeking viewers, for the more discerning film nerd such as myself it is still a fascinating look at the making of an economical piece of film-making that made quite the splash and it isn’t without its’ noteworthy anecdotes. We then dive into the production of the film which is dissected into several chapters. Meir discusses the ‘fateful’ day he and his daughter Tammy happened upon a bloodied and naked rape victim who emerged from the park that Meir’s children would frequent – and the subsequent difficulty in resolving the incident with the police as his prime inspiration to make the film. It is interesting to learn of his start in the industry as scriptwriter on Israeli films before his move to America which would see him gear up to direct his notorious debut.
He would walk out of the theatre after seeing such classics as Bicycle Thieves (1948) and Sunset Boulevard (1950) and vow that his future was in filmmaking.Īs a child he saved up to buy a Bolex, shot home movies with friends and ran strips of 16mm film through a magic lantern. Meir’s is the classic story of the little kid who was enchanted by going to the movies. He approaches it from a personal, family perspective: He details his old man’s upbringing in Israel. Meir’s son Terry Zarchi is at the helm of this retrospective celebration of the original film and its legacy. Growing Up With I Spit On Your Grave (2019)
It’s the latter two titles we’ll be focusing on here seeing as both features make their UK debut with the release of the Kaleidoscope boxset. Which brings us to the good folks at Kaleidoscope Entertainment’s spanking new Blu-ray boxset I Spit On Your Grave: The Complete Collection which not only includes the original 1978 cinematic pariah but also the 2010 remake of the same name, its two sequels I Spit On Your Grave 2 (2013) and I Spit On Your Grave III: Vengeance is Mine (2015), Zarchi’s own direct sequel to his original I Spit On Your Grave: Déjà Vu (2019) and recent official feature length documentary Growing Up With I Spit On Your Grave (2019) courtesy of Zarchi’s son Terry Zarchi. Its notoriety has also kept director Zarchi’s hat in the ring so to speak – as, apart from the half decent gritty street drama Don’t Mess With My Sister (1985) he has managed to sustain a career in ‘the biz’ with the film’s many re-releases, remakes, remake sequels and ultimately his own sequel to the original.
Look at it however you want, even if calling it ‘entertainment’ is pushing it, you can’t deny the power the film yields and the lasting divisiveness it has achieved through the decades. One of the most notorious titles on the famous early 1980s DPP list of ‘video nasties’ was Meir Zarchi’s 1978 grubby rape-and-revenge shocker I Spit on Your Grave (aka Day of the Woman) a film so controversial in its extensive portrayal of a gang of country ‘bumpkins’ taking it in turns to rape city girl Jennifer Hills (Buster Keaton’s grand-daughter Camille Keaton), and her subsequent gruesome revenge, that it still repulses audiences to this day.Īdding to its infamy are the continuing, subsequent debates over the film’s merits and reappraisals from reviewers, scholars and its creator defending it as a feminist picture, with its torrents of sexual violence and objectification of the film’s female lead serving as an unbearable build up to a satisfying catharsis of violence and emasculation towards Keaton’s male attackers. “More blackly comical and self-aware than the original, ‘I Spit On Your Grave: Déjà vu’ is a non-stop rollercoaster ride into the backwoods of hell… a gnarly, well-constructed romper that sits nicely alongside the original’s own remakes” ❉ We cover two new features making their UK debut in ‘I Spit On Your Grave: The Complete Collection’.
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