Cult Movie Challenge 2018 | 27/52 | Bad Movie
The apartment porter helps Jennifer load her luggage into the back of her Cadillac before she hits the road from NYC to Kent, Connecticut. She stops for gas and asks the gas station manager, Johnny, for directions to Parkhill Lane. She notices a couple of men playing in the grass, Stanley and Andy. Then, she arrives at the cottage she has rented for the summer near the Housatonic River. As soon as she arrives, she strips down and takes a dip in the river.
Back inside, she puts her clothes away in the dresser and finds a handgun in one of the top drawers. A knock on the door brings her downstairs—Matthew, a man with mild developmental disabilities, delivers the groceries she ordered. When he learns that she comes from New York City, he tells her that she comes from “an evil place.” Jennifer tells Matthew about Mary, a character in the novel she’s working on.
Returning, Matthew bikes past the gas station to tell Johnny, Stanley, and Andy that he saw Jennifer’s breasts (he didn’t). That night, the four of them go fishing on the Housatonic. Andy ponders aloud if beautiful women have to defecate, too. They talk about helping Matthew lose his virginity, but he says he’ll only lose it to someone special, like Jennifer. The following day, Jennifer writes down passages that come to her. She sees Stanley and Andy motorboat pass, calling out to her. They turn around, cruising back and forth. At night, they whistle and catcall outside her place.
Then, one day, they accost her while she is on her boat, seize it, and drag it to their place. I’m pretty sure you know what happens from here.
You wanna be a man, don't ya? […] I've done it a lot of times. You get used to it.
Rather than ramble about this movie, I’ll instead suggest Carol J. Clover’s Men, Women, and Chainsaws. Among many other points, she argues that the filmmakers intend for the audience to watch the film from Jennifer’s point of view and to identify with her—her pain, her trauma, and her catharsis through revenge becomes ours.
Julie Bidel, who picketed the movie at the time of its release, has since come around and considers it a feminist film, if for no other reason than it depicts a more likely and satisfying form of justice than the US judicial system offers most women in rape cases.
Of course, that doesn’t make this some underrated classic. In fact, I would say most folks should probably not watch it. After all, this movie is still an exploitation flick. But it is a movie that got bundled in with a bunch of other movies of the time that weren’t its peers. And wow, does it make an impact.
Further Reading
- Clover, Carol J. Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. Princeton University Press, 1992.
- Bidel, Julie. I was wrong about I Spit On Your Grave. The Guardian, 19 January 2011, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/jan/19/wrong-about-spit-on-your-grave. Accessed 8 November 2025.
Tags
tubicmccmc2018home-invasionrape-and-revengehicksploitationextremevideo-nastiesfrightfest-guide-to-exploitation-movies
