I Spit on Your Grave

An aspiring writer is repeatedly gang-raped, humiliated, and left for dead by four men whom she later systematically hunts down to seek revenge. This is the canonical work of the rape and revenge genre, Meir Zarchi’s uncompromising I Spit on Your Grave. Roger Ebert called it the worst film ever made. It has been banned in several countries. And it still makes people angry, disturbed and depressed. Of course it does. The director made the movie as an exacerbated reaction to his personal experience when he helped a bruised, battered woman who had just been raped. The camera just stares, refusing to editorialize or to put a stylistic barrier between you and the cruelty. You are there, and you’re not doing anything to stop it.