good back-story, and good acting

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Blistering performances.

Steven R. Monroe is a hack. He has gone on to direct some Hallmark-style Christmas TV movies in recent years, but before then he helmed the first two I Spit on Your Grave remake films. While the first is slightly better due to a tighter script with more compelling villains, the sequel stills manages to slam home the awfulness of sexual assault and rape. While many may consider the films rapesploitation, I would argue that the film doesn't flinch from the violent and sexual rape scenes as to sober the viewer and hammer in how awful and disgusting rape truly is. What makes the second film even scarier than the first is the topic of human-traffiking and how this woman is sedated in New York and wakes up in Bulgaria, not knowing how she got there. It felt like the rape and inciting kidnapping/captivity scenes take up more of the film than the first film's rape scenes did, as long as even they were. And while the terror and confusion and depravity are captivating and stomach-turning, the film's final act, where they victim is given all the power to get her vengeance, just doesn't hit as hard as it did in the first movie. All the genital torture and gory justice is here, it's just not as compelling. While the actress in Part 1 was convincing in her desperation and vindictiveness, the actress in Grave 2 only convinces in the agony of the first 2/3 of the movie. She is VERY convincing, even Oscar worthy. But she just doesn't convince as a revenge-seeking fatale. Overall, the movie is definitely worth a watch, especially for fans of the franchise, or this kind of movie. Just approach with caution if you're triggered by sexual assault or rape, and don't watch with a full stomach. I wish Steven R. Monroe would use his directing talent for more projects like this, not Christmas TV films. He would do well to do a VOD Hostel sequel or a Saw film.

In the 70s, there was a small film culture surrounding the exploitation of rape victims. Two movies which come to mind are "The Last House on the Left" and "I Spit On Your Grave". The first was pretty straight forward and to the point; it was not a pleasant experience to watch. "I Spit On Your Grave", sometimes known as "The Day of Woman", involves a rape victim that gets back at her tormentors. One scene which sticks out in my mind from that film is the fact she seduces one of the former assailants, and while he is in the bathtub, takes a knife after his genitals; all while opera music (or some such) is playing in the meantime. This is pretty intense, and considering it was a film from the 70s; it really was ahead of its time.I am not saying that I agree with the content depicted in the film; rather it chose to venture into something risky and seems to have gained some popularity as a result. The popularity seems to have worked, because a directory picked up the mantle to create a sequel. This movie has nothing to do with the original and is more of a spiritual successor.The movie starts out with a young model that does her own modeling work; one such hire is not interested in her work and wants to see something different. She recommends the model hire someone that does professional photography to spice up her agenda. So she does just this and the photographer towards the end of the shoot suggests that if she starts with some more 'revealing' work, that she might get her photography for free. The model is wise to his goals about selling her photographs on the Internet. She turns around and walks out from the shoot without paying and without her intended work. One of the assistants with the photographer shows up at her doorstep and returns the photos to her. He is the definition of creepy and she can't get rid of him. He shows up later in a mood and rapes her; not before her boyfriend comes over and he kills him. Things go awry and the photographers show up; turns out they are from another country and take her along for the ride. She is sold as pleasure slave in Bolivia and either raped or tortured depending on the client. She is eventually buried to meet her fate ala "Kill Bill".Much like Kill Bill, she gets out of her coffin and goes off on a rampage torturing and killing those that would violated her. Before she would even set foot at the American Embassy, she takes out each and every last one of her violators in a revenge scheme.The movie is very, very powerful – this kind of thing doesn't normally happen, and is not normally depicted in movies. Being the sequel to the forerunner, this movie had a lot to live up to and has well surpassed it. I do recommend the movie, as it shows the rare event of a woman turning on her attackers and gaining the upper hand; it is just too bad it has to be done in such a violent genre.Originally posted to Orion Age (http://www.orionphysics.com/? p=8449).

This follows the standard thread. A young woman is captured, tortured and raped by some real scum bags. They leave her for dead but she somehow escapes then comes back dealing out justice.That is OK. It is what I expected. Jemma Dallender gives a great performance with a very demanding role that includes being naked, attacked, in distress and a lot of screaming and crying - she is a very tenacious actress. The first half of the movie is engaging and gruelling.Once the deamonising of the attackers is done and we get on to the revenge section the film takes a serious dive.Although this is a horror and shouldn't be taken too serious, the story becomes too loose with reality, cheapening the events of what came before.Our heroine pops up all over the place dispatching bad guys like a Terminator. The dialogue becomes stilted and painfully literal. She fires her tormentors words back at them but with some awful pun - like a bad Arnie pastiche - before killing them in some pointlessly complicated way.The second half is so boring and stupid it made me regret watching the first half.

The brutality to a lady in this movie is very gruesome, but, has some reality to some real life atrocities that you find on documentaries.The whole story had me very engaged and almost in total shock and tears until we got to the revenge part. I was really expecting something very brilliant on her part, something along the lines of Heath Ledger's joker, considering that she was very intelligent. It was more of a "return evil for evil; eye for an eye, hand for a hand" type of justice: anything they did to her, she did twice as bad to them.I just don't understand how those guys can be so stupid!!! If you find some girl that you just buried six feet under come back with the angriest demonic look, what do most people do??? All five of her victims just retardedly followed a girl they murdered down into a sewer just to run into the most obvious revenge trap; very unrealistic! For the chick: how do you walk into your house, find a break in, hear somebody downstairs and just go do down there??? No scream, no police even though you're in cahoots with them...Small mistakes in the murders. The guy with the infection had boyels of the black plague but no fever??? How did she pick up guys twice her size and chain them standing up, a fat guy on top of a bed, drag a lady to the other side of the sewer.I'm going on a rant, but, this movie could've been so much better.