Line #2 YMMV/ISpitOnYourGrave


1	* AlternateCharacterInterpretation:
2	** Jennifer:
3	*** Is her [[spoiler:murder of Matthew]] a KickTheDog moment, or has she truly crossed the MoralEventHorizon? While he saved her life, he ''did'' still participate in raping Jennifer, and her life was ruined by the act. Was he attempting to atone (and did she callously ignore it), or was it a pathetic attempt to make up for what he'd done (and did Jennifer only give him what he deserved)? Given how she lures him in - to a situation where he would ''have'' to [[spoiler: sleep with her to get the noose around his neck]] - it's possible Jennifer was offering him a SecretTestOfCharacter; if he [[spoiler: didn't go to her, she'd let him live, but since he still took advantage of her, she killed him]].
4	*** [[spoiler: By the end of the third film, it's pretty clear that she has become mentally unstable. But that last night she snuck out and got caught, she knew she was being watched by the police, yet she was wearing a clearly visible red dress and tried to kill at least two more people, one of them in front of a Detective no less. Did she really go insane that night or was it a deliberate ploy to allow her to plead insanity and dodge any serious punishment? Or was it attempted suicide by cop?]]
5	*** [[spoiler: In fact, given that in the third film we see that she suffers from hallucinations, did she actually kill anyone at all? There should have been other witnesses and surveillance video at the bar where Marla's ex-boyfriend was and at the storefront where she picked up the step-father. The only two confirmed times she actually tries to kill someone, she was easily overpowered and the police were there. So, was she fantasizing about killing the men in the films and someone else (Matthew, Oscar) did it? If so, then Oscar killing himself after learning about Jennifer wasn't to protect her, but a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment that leads him to confess and kill himself to stop her from going down the same road.]]
6	** Matthew: [[spoiler: did his own guilt lead to him to snap and kill his "friends"? Bolton mentions that the Louisiana authorities ruled their deaths a murder-suicide, but there should have been a lot of evidence to the contrary. Also, Jennifer kidnapped Chastity. At the very least, there should have been a warrant out for her arrest. All that's ever said is that Jennifer was someone they wanted to talk to, not arrest or detain. It may be that during the investigation the authorities uncovered evidence of the truth and wanted to question Jennifer about it but couldn't find her.]]
7	* AmericansHateTingle: Bulgarian viewers have a love-hate relationship with the second movie's portrayal of Bulgaria as a crime-ridden pit, considering their own [[MyCountryTisOfTheeThatISting self-irony]] about such matters.
8	* BaseBreakingCharacter: Matthew. Some people find him sympathetic, since he is mentally disabled and initially refused to violate Jennifer. Others think that his sympathetic qualities make his actions more disturbing. After all, he did nothing to assist her, didn't go for help, made no real attempt to stop his friends, and did give in to peer pressure. By the time he took his turn, it was unlikely Jennifer was feeling significantly less raped.
9	* BileFascination: David Churchill argues that [[http://www.criticsatlarge.ca/2011/03/when-criticism-backfires-i-spit-on-your.html the remake never would have happened if Ebert's infamous review of the first film hadn't ripped into it so bad]], making audiences curious about its vileness.
10	* BrokenBase: The infamous 20-minute rape sequence. On the first release, it was condemned for exploiting rape for the sake of entertainment; Roger Ebert in particular noting that the scenes seemed to be titillating the audience at a screening he went to. Others however argue that the scene's length and brutality puts more emphasis on how horrific it is for Jennifer, and the audience is clearly intended to sympathise with her.
11	* CaptainObviousAesop: Hey, did you know rape is bad? Of course, at the time the film was released (1978), this was AnAesop that was not often portrayed. Notably the first Hollywood film to really examine rape as its main theme was ''Film/TheAccused'' - which came out a good ten years after this.
12	* CatharsisFactor: The reason the original film exists. The director wanted to make a feminist movie that empowered rape victims through Jennifer's rampage. Julie Bindel (one of the original protesters) later wrote a retraction, saying that the film's depiction of the revenge might not be realistic but it definitely was cathartic.
13	--> "If rape remains as easy to get away with as it is at present, films in which women get even through the legal system will become as unrealistic as ''ISOYG''. But I know which one will give me, and many other women, the most comfort."
14	* CultClassic: When it came out, it was a critical and commercial flop, being seen as nothing more than a "[[Creator/RogerEbert vile bag of garbage]]" that glorified rape-culture and did not gain any commercial traction until it hit home-video. As the years went on, its infamous spot in cinema history gathered more and more viewers and people began to remember it as an underrated gem in horror-cinema. Some critics -- from Julie Bindel[[note]]who famously picketed the film upon its release, [[https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/jan/19/wrong-about-spit-on-your-grave only to formally apologize later on]][[/note]] to Creator/CountJackula -- even view it as a lost Feminist masterpiece.
15	* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: All those extended rape sequences, just to say that rape is bad? Creator/RogerEbert noted to his horror that some of the audience members at the screening he attended actually cheered on the rapists.
16	* DontShootTheMessage: The film's detractors argue that while the message is certainly an important one, the execution is flawed; it's been argued that apart from Jennifer's gang-rape being presented in an excessively graphic and downright voyeuristic manner, the film doesn't actually have much else to say on the subject apart from "AndThatsTerrible," and at times even seems to villainize her for fighting back (most notably via the tagline on the poster) while also reveling in the same cruelty [[BrokenAesop it tries to condemn]].
17	* FirstInstallmentWins: The 1978 original has far more defenders for its bold statements that few mainstream films were willing to portray - as well as Camille Keaton's performance as Jennifer. The 2010 remake - ironically the first of the two to get sequels - is not as remembered and considered a bit derivative of the 2000s TorturePorn.
18	* FridgeLogic: In the original, [[spoiler: Johnny]] gets his penis sliced off while in the tub with Jennifer, and didn't realize it until ''after'' he noticed he was bleeding. Unless she didn't cut it off completely and just stabbed him down there.
19	* HilariousInHindsight: Five years later, [[Film/SuddenImpact another woman named Jennifer]] would also get revenge on a brutal gang of deviants who raped her, this time with the help of Film/DirtyHarry.
20	* IntendedAudienceReaction: Some of the criticisms hurled at the film were that Johnny was justifying Jennifer's rape with how much skin she'd showed beforehand - even when the narrative itself frames such statements as clearly in the wrong.
21	* {{Narm}}: Johnny's screaming from the bathroom in the original: "It won't stop bleeding! IT WON'T STOP ''BLEEEEEDIIIIINNNGGG''!!!"
22	* NauseaFuel:
23	** [[spoiler: Johnny]] is implied to get his penis either mutilated or cut off completely, and bleeds to death in the bath.
24	** In the second film, Katie kills Nicolay by drowning him in unflushed club toilets. He can be seen spitting out solid chunks of feces.
25	* NightmareFuel:
26	** The rape scene in the original, and the rapists' death scenes in the remake. Especially [[spoiler:Storch and Matthew's]].
27	** Katie's entire ordeal in the first half of the second film. All of it.
28	** [[spoiler: Everything Katie does to her rapists in the last half of the film. All of it.]]
29	** The [[spoiler:stepfather's]] death in the third film. [[spoiler: Raped anally by a pipe and then having it driven in with a sledgehammer.]] Ouch.
30	* OlderThanTheyThink: This film tackles gang rape in a serious and brutal way ten years before ''Film/TheAccused''.
31	* OvershadowedByControversy: When the movie first came out it was slammed by critics for how it glorifies a RoaringRampageOfRevenge for rape as "empowering." Nowadays that is what a lot of people know the film for.
32	* PeripheryDemographic: ''Bloody Disgusting'''s articles about the 2020 Blu-Ray release uncovered a small demographic of sexual assault survivors who enjoyed the film for CatharsisFactor reasons.
33	* SpecialEffectFailure: The crows that killed [[spoiler:Stanley]] in the remake are poorly CGI-rendered.
34	* TearJerker:
35	** In the first film
36	*** What happened to Jennifer. Particularly when she crawls back into her house, is about to call the police for help, and the phone is then kicked away.
37	*** [[spoiler: Matthew's guilt from what he had done.]]
38	** In the second film
39	*** What happened to Katie.
40	** In the third film
41	*** How Jennifer is doing when we catch up with her. [[spoiler: Short answer: not good. She's living alone, working a "shitty job" and still has nightmares and flashbacks from her rapes years earlier.]]
42	*** [[spoiler: Marla's death. She was the first friend that Jennifer had in years.]]
43	*** [[spoiler: One scene really illustrates just how far gone she now is. While burning the clothing she used after her second murder and looking into the fire. Jennifer: "Forgive me Father, for I don't give a shit."]]
44	*** [[spoiler: Jennifer changing her name to Angela because "she didn't want to be Jennifer Hills anymore." Even Bolton is momentarily put off by her matter-of-fact reply.]]
45	*** [[spoiler: Oscar's death. He was a good man who had lost his daughter to suicide. Said suicide was due to her rapist being acquitted. After learning his daughter's rapist was killed and who was found with him, he quickly put two-and-two together and killed himself while taking the blame.]]
46	*** [[spoiler: Jennifer's anguished "No!" upon seeing Oscar bleed out on the floor in front of her.]]
47	*** [[spoiler: Jennifer's final slip into insanity, culminating in her encounter with Chief in the park and her being shot.]]
48	*** [[spoiler: Despite getting court-ordered therapy, Jennifer has no interest in getting help. From her last fantasy, she looks quite eager to continue killing people.]]
49	*** [[spoiler: In general, we get to see more of the collateral damage that ensues from Jennifer's killing. Not that she really cares.]]
50	** In ''Deja Vu''
51	*** [[spoiler:Jennifer’s death, and later Christy’s reaction to finding her mother’s decapitated corpse.]]
52	* TookTheBadFilmSeriously: Whether or not it truly counts as a "bad" film is a matter of opinion, but Camille Keaton received near unanimous praise for her acting in the role of Jennifer.
53	* ValuesResonance: The film's portrayal of rape still resonates in a post 'Me Too' world; including Johnny justifying his actions with many defences still exploited by lawyers in rape trials today (ImAManICantHelpIt, the victim being skimpily dressed, the NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalization). The film's sympathy is entirely with Jennifer, and the narrative refuses to justify the actions of the mildly sympathetic Matthew. The fact that Jennifer is not portrayed as a [[GoodVictimsBadVictims 'perfect victim']] and the rapists being established to have respectable lives (Johnny has a wife and two children) only makes the story still very relevant to the present day.
54	* VindicatedByHistory: In a sense. Panned by critics and picketed by feminists and MoralGuardians when it first came out, it still enjoys a controversial reception today. However, there are more defenders who point to its messages and feminist themes. In fact, Julie Bindel was one of the ones who initially protested, but later changed her mind and said she did consider it a feminist film (and in fact called it more feminist than ''Film/TheAccused'').

Context YMMV / ISpitOnYourGrave