Cover Art

Credits

Director: Meir Zarchi Starring: Camille Keaton, Eron Tabor, Richard Pace, Anthony Nichols and Gunter Kleemann Screenplay: Meir Zarchi Tagline:'This woman has just chopped, crippled and mutilated four men beyond recognition… But no jury in America would ever convict her!' Country: USA AKA: Day of the Woman; I Hate Your Guts; The Rape and Revenge of Jennifer Hill

The premise is simple: a young writer, Jennifer Hills (Camille Keaton), escapes from the claustrophobic environment of the city in favour of a backwoods retreat in order to write a novel. However, once there, she gains the unwanted attentions of the local miscreants who begin to plague her countryside idyll. It's not long before things go too far and they engage in a sadistic and brutal gang rape, forcing Jennifer to suffer a gruelling ordeal at their merciless hands. Once the deed is done, the retard of their number, Matthew (Richard Pace), is sent back into the house to kill her. He finds himself unable to do this, and simply wipes some of her blood onto the knife. Believing her dead, the youth's retreat back into their dysfunctional lives.

However, Jennifer recovers and heals; though she is obviously still deeply scarred by the experience. She then decides to take matters into her own hands and dispenses her own brand of murderous justice on the four men that had tormented and abused her. One is hung, another is castrated (one of the most unpleasant sequences ever committed to film, in my opinion), one is chewed up in the propellers of a motor boat and the last one is axed.

It's a deeply unsettling and unpleasant viewing experience, that's for sure - but since when was rape supposed to be entertaining? Zarchi's film is an honest one, and presents rape as it is - harsh, brutal, sickening and appalling. The film is designed to shock even the most jaded of viewers; that's the whole point. Zarchi is striving to show the viewer the full horror of rape and also shows how the 'victim' becomes so emotionally charged and changed by the abuse that she becomes the 'aggressor'. But there are no winners in this film, by the time the end credits rolled, we feel that Jennifer has lost a fair chunk of her humanity; robbed by her attackers, if you like. They unwittingly made Jennifer like them; she becomes as heartless and fixated on revenge as they were in their eagerness to have their way with her, come what may.

The film offers no comfortable resolutions - no 'happy-ever-afters'. She is raped and then gets revenge. That's it. But then again, I don't think Zarchi was trying to offer any solutions to this complex scenario, and Jennifer is certainly never presented as any kind of 'heroine'. At no point do we find ourselves cheering her on - in fact, we are deeply shocked by her actions. As terrible as the pain inflicted on her was, we somehow never find ourselves at ease with the course of action she chooses to take.

This is a complex film, and is too easily dismissed as mere exploitation. I'll grant that the film raises more questions than it does answers, but I get the feeling that this was always meant to be a film that would spark debate and engender thoughtfulness in the viewer.