I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE 2

Directed by: Steven R. Monroe

Starring: Jemma Dallender, Joe Absolom, Yavor Baharov

Katie is an aspiring model who has recently moved to New York. Taking advice from a friend, she looks to get some new photos taken for her portfolio, which leads her to doing a shoot for photographer Ivan and his brother Georgy. When Ivan insists that she pose nude, Katie abruptly leaves but is attacked by Georgy in her apartment later that night. After beating and raping her, he calls his brother for help, which leads to more torment for Katie…will she ever survive this?

Although sharing the same director as the 2010 remake and the similar themes of rape and revenge, this is in fact a stand-alone film and a sequel in name only. As such, the film does bring some new aspects to the series overall but also suffers from many of the same problems.

The original film and its remake are both set in the remote countryside of upstate New York, where Jennifer Hills' urban sophistication was seen as an intimidation to the locals who raped her. Here, the initial setting is New York city, where Katie works as a waitress while trying to break into modelling. She is potentially surrounded by people all of the time, and yet…

The film gives us an early insight into Katie's ingenuity - she helps the handyman in her building set a rat-trap, explaining that she grew up on a farm. Such skills with wire will certainly come in handy later on…

The initial rape scene, instigated by Georgy, is different to ones we've seen before in the series. Firstly, Georgy is acting on his own, not as part of a larger group. Secondly, someone does try to come to her aid, but is brutally stabbed by Georgy and collapses on the floor in front of Katie's bound body. The last thing that he sees as the life ebbs from his helpless body is Katie being raped, while she herself can only watch him die as she is being assaulted.

Following the rape, Georgy achieves that post-climactic moment of clarity, when the haze of lust lifts from the senses and the reality of the situation starts to sink in. He desperately calls his brother, Ivan, to come and help him. Unfortunately for Katie, any hope that Ivan will try to help her situation gets dashed pretty quickly. Instead Katie finds herself drugged with ketamine and put into a crate.

Katie does manage to escape, briefly, and makes a horrific discovery which hammers home just how bad her plight is. However she is soon recaptured and subjected to an even worse assault by Ivan and Georgy's father, involving a cattle prod. While the assault itself isn't particularly hard to watch, the state of Katie's bloodied body afterwards is quite distressing.

In an interesting quirk of fate, Katie is able to get free from her captors who now believe she is dead. She initially entertains the notion of seeking formal help, but instead begins her campaign of vengeance. Utilising her home-spun skills she is able to ensnare Georgy and submit him to prolonged torture while stalking the rest of his family.

Like the remake's version of Jennifer Hills, Katie seems like an almost supernatural presence, knowing exactly how long to linger in a scene to catch the eye of the person she's stalking before disappearing from view. Her traps aren't as elaborate as those of Jennifer's, but are effective nevertheless. I was also reminded a little of American Mary in that one of her targets (I'm reluctant to call them victims) isn't allowed a swift end.

The other main difference between this and the previous film is that there are a number of male characters willing to help Katie, both before and after her ordeal. One is a police detective who realizes that he failed to help her earlier in the film and the other is a local priest who finds her scavenging and offers her some hospitality. However, neither character is able to soften her agenda or provide a real alternative.

THE VERDICT

I Spit On Your Grave 2 changes the window dressing but the main ingredient is much the same - a woman brutalised to the point of death who subsequently seeks revenge against her attackers. The locale moves from the countryside to an urban environment and the motive is less about class than it is about seeing Katie as a commodity to be exploited for financial gain. However except for those elements there is little reason for this sequel to exist.

6 out of 10 (MikeOutWest)