Late night, double feature, picture show!

Today's review features a double bill! A match to the death between the 1978 cult classic I Spit on your Grave (aka The Day of the Woman) and the 2010 remake. The original was banned by the censors for being too brutal and graphic but has since been revived and elevated to cult status. These days remakes are rife, and oh-so-easy to mess up. Who will come out on tops? Will the remake outshine the original? Or will the 1978 classic come up trumps?

Title(s): I Spit on your Grave (aka Day of the Woman) / I spit on your grave

Dates of release : 1978 and 2010 respectively

Genre: Gore/horror

Synopsis: Jennifer Hills is a writer on her way from the big city to a quiet cabin in the woods to work on her writing. Along the way she meets four rednecks who she makes the mistake of shunning. They come back to extract their brutal revenge, leaving her for dead. But Jennifer Hills is not dead, and all she has on her mind is revenge. The 2010 remake sticks fairly rigidly to the same plot line which lends itself successfully.

The first thing you'll notice about the 1978 version it its total lack of backing music. There is also very little use of sound effects at all. In Hitchcock-esque style, the tension builds using silence and the occasional haunting music of the mouth organ (something that is reflected in the new version, offering just as much eeriness and a sign of what's to come), and the red necks jeering and yelling as they hunt their victim. This isn't the case in the 2010 version where tension building music is introduced to us from the beginning as well as a couple of early jumpy bits.

For me the 1978 version is far less annoying in that our protagonist doesn't make all the mistakes of the annoying American in the remake. Hanging up her phone to investigate a strange noise, alone in the dark is the first sign that she is going to make several stupid, and stereotypical moves that will land her in trouble. Shortly followed by her, yep you guessed it; dropping the phone down the toilet. Oh these new fanged technological thingies, they're supposed to be there to save your lives you know!

The 1978 version sees a slightly older woman playing Jennifer, which makes her more believeable than her 2010 counterpart who barely looks a day over 20. Also the male actors in both films are almost identical, a ring leader, 2 lackeys and one with mental issues. I'm not sure why they choose to add in the unfortunate character, as in both versions they end up goading him into raping Jennifer, which is disturbing to say the least. The main difference being that in the 2010 version, one of the lackeys likes to videotape everything, somewhat reminiscent of Ricky Fitts. But fatter and with one of those faces you will swear you've seen before in something else.

While both films centre around Jennifer's revenge, I find that the modern version is by far the goriest and she extracts her revenge with a cold, callous and carefully calculated method (wow that alliteration left me gasping for air - just as you might be if you're one of Jennifer's victims in the remake!) And while the original Jennifer opts for more swift forms of execution, the new and improved Jenny enjoys nothing more than intricate torture. Leaving the ringleader for last she takes a pair of shears to a place no man will enjoy! Still not to be out-done 1978 Jenny opts for a single thrust with a long blade after she tempted her ringleader into a hot soapy bath. Really guys? You'll happily brutalize a woman, beat her and leave her for dead but at the offer of a bath with her you'll merrily pretend nothing happened? Ah well pleasures of the flesh and all that.

The tagline on the DVD reads: 'this woman just chopped, crippled, and mutilated four men beyond recognition...but no jury in America would ever convict her!' Well I severely doubt that but I sure as heck wouldn't wanna mess with her! And as for the winner, who can call it? I call it a draw. I'd give them both a strong 8/10 plenty of suspense, gore and what better than seeing a strong woman come back from the brink and kick ass so spectacularly. A must see for any gore fan!

Until next time, film fans.

p.s. Bonus points to the person who can tell me the influence for the title of this review!

Love thy Neighbour....

Welcome to my film review blog. Before I get this wonderful review under way, a little background. I'm addicted to film, I spend hours engrossed in this form of escapism, at the cinema, on my laptop and even on archaic TV. I will watch (almost) anything. I'm not pretending to be this uber amazing film buff, but I do love watching them, and I do love giving my opinion, so what better way to spend a boring afternoon than finding one to watch and then bashing or bigging it up.

So, with that in mind, let me introduce you to my first review.

Title: Neighbour
Date of Release : 2010
Genre : Horror

Synopsis : A mysterious woman turns up in your average American suburban town and wreaks havoc on nice guy Don Carpenter and his unsuspecting band member-friends and girlfriend. Will Don survive? And if so, how much of him will be left?

This film is fairly slow to start, and even more difficult to follow! The storyline itself is simple enough, crazy girl is eating cereal in the kitchen. The camera man follows her ass upstairs and we are shown two people duct taped to office chairs (everyone in this town must shop at one office supplies store as EVERYONE has the same office chairs in this film!). Needless to say, one of them is already dead, and after having a tap fitting rammed into his heart cavity, the poor bloke opposite shortly joins his pal in blissful death. Cue the opening credits credits.

Don Carpenter, unassuming and personality-less musician-about-town is our 'hero' although frankly, I imagine a common house-brick would have more personality than this 'actor'. He enjoys juice, beer, music and staring at women in bars. This is where we first see 'the girl' (this is how she's credited in the titles and so we never learn her real name - how original!!) she's pretty, slim and utterly insane. Now this is where Neighbour differs from most other female-torturess films, there is NO REASON for her desire to torture and kill people. She does it for the sheer fun of it, and I spent the entire film hoping someone would come and wipe the pretty smile off her over-acting face. Luckily for me, one of Don's friends Sam obliges with a bottle of acid (cue terrible 'pain' noises). Sadly this only turns out to be part of Don's hallucinations/agony induced passed out dreams (I've not figured this out, as I mentioned slightly confusing plot line).

Gore fans will be happy at the amount of fake blood and gory prosthetics used in the film, and kudos to the producers for not using crappy CGI, but I feel them to be a little fake looking. One scene shows our crazy killer pinning open Don's eyes, yet you can clearly see his lashes and a couple of sneaky blinks after her handy work. In another scene, our CK takes an everyday saw and saws open Don's girlfriends's mouth; Ichi the Killer style and yet in the very next shot we can clearly see the corners of her lips amidst the gore.

Between Don's underacting skills and 'the girls' penchant for rolling her eyes/head and obvious ADD issues (she couldn't even manage to feed her neighbour's cat without getting distracted). I'd say the casting person needs firing. Still you can't fault 'the girl's' ingenuity, she can sew her own clothes. make food (which she always wastes - no wonder she's so skinny) and has an amazing talent of finding people's fake knee caps; with a pizza cutter. Overall I'd give this film a 5/10, great if you like gory needless killing and if you're gullible enough to drink toxic-looking blue drinks from strangers then you'll love it.

Until next time, film fans.

Gemma Jones, photographer and movie addict.