Seeking the Bloodiest Revenge… A Rape-Revenge Feminine
If you’ve ever heard the term “written by a woman”, this movie is exactly that. Protagonist Jen, is enjoying her time spent with her wealthy boyfriend on vacation, when two friends of her boyfriend show up unannounced for a hunting trip. Tension rises as the friends create intensifying conflict and Jen is put in a life threatening situation left to die. She survives and seeks revenge on her boyfriend and his two friends.
Director and writer Coralie Fargeat does a remarkable job with setting up the film in a somewhat stereotypical way, only to fully switch around and introduce a new style of horror film. She starts by introducing the main character Jen, in a primarily “male-gazey” type of way and being the only female in the film, she is also shot in a sexual way that reveals more of her body rather than her face. Jen is shown as just a young and carefree mistress of a CEO taking a fun vacation together, further making it seem as though there is no hope for her character as she doesn’t have many lines, so we can only assume based off of stereotypes. Coralie Fargeat does a great job with introducing the characters in a swift way given the small time in the film before the action happens. In the beginning, we immediately understand what is going on, despite the few lines the characters have.
Jen will also be later introduced to the male guests thinking that her body language is an invitation… which is never true. The way she deals with being raped is disturbing as it is, but even more “male-gazey” as she doesn’t seem to fight it, she is just left traumatized after the fact. The beginning of this movie is crafted this way intentionally as the plot will fully turn around and take a bloody back stab at the three opposite sex, villains. This is why the term, “written by a woman” is quite literally the perfect description for this film. This is because it pleases the male-gaze audience in the beginning, watching her fail and shown as weak and incapable, but as time goes on, the movie switches around as Jen will no longer be depicted in this sexual way. Jen will be shown surprisingly strong and extremely independent as she seeks full revenge on these three men, then proceeds to succeed in causing the death of all three of them. This kind of plot wouldn’t normally be seen literally written by a man, so the phrase works in this sense.
What I love about this movie is that it will always have you on the victims side, (which is how it should always be) even though there are times where we see the male characters in a human-like condition making us see them in a non-victim sense. There are also times where we see this play out in the real world. In real life rape cases, the male figure always will make their excuses. For example, the common excuses will be: she was wearing revealing clothing, she was asking for it, she was so hard to resist, etc. We actually see these excuses verbally played out in the film as the boyfriend Richard says, “You’re so damn beautiful, it’s hard to resist you!” he says this as he was making an excuse for Stan (the man who actually raped her), in an argument with Jen who just wanted to leave. Watching this film as a woman, the beginning is very hard to watch as Jen is being portrayed as someone who can not stand up for herself. However, I do appreciate the set up before the rape scene. Fargeat sends the audience clear messages before any violence happens as she will soon be a victim. I also appreciate the extreme revenge she ends up getting on all of the men which can only be imagined and hoped to happen to our rapists, in real life.
However, this film did have realistic issues in my opinion. The way that Jen falls off the extremely large cliff onto a branch that impales her; she somehow survives and gets on her feet to start fighting back. Another example is when we see her after the whole day has gone by after bleeding out and the stick that impaled her, still being inside of her and loses gallons of blood, she manages to find a cave and make a fire to stay warm. In this scene, she also is somehow able to pull the stick out herself and close the wound by burning it shut, after no human necessities were given to her. Watching these parts made me pull back from the movie and think about how unrealistic this is. Moments like these take away from enjoying the movie because it's the sense of realism that's missing and making the film unrealistic. It’s in these moments where I try to remind myself to appreciate what the movie is doing and the message it is giving and just to continue on with enjoying the film.
Although this film definitely has its' unrealistic actions, I personally loved the story and how it really kept my attention throughout, even though it seemed like such a simple storyline. Throughout the entirety of the film, there really was little to no dialogue given to the characters and no character development. These properties are usually what brings the story to life and keeps it moving forward, but without these aspects, the movie still kept my attention throughout the whole movie. The film had only two total locations, four characters, and a simple story line. The director did a wonderful job as she brought the story to life and put in the action and horror that it needed to succeed.
This horror film includes not only a huge amount of gore and action, but it also includes suspense and jump scares. In the beginning before all of the action, we see a huge amount of suspense before the indigos rape scene. We see the two characters on the bed with dialogue letting us know that something bad is going to happen. Then, right before Stan partakes in sexual action with Jen, we see his friend open the door and stand there, creating suspense for the audience whether or not he is going to do something to stop it. We then get a slow motion shot of him taking a bite of a piece of candy as the two are still standing there, the shot is grossly extended out creating huge suspense and prolonging the rape scene to actually happen.
This movie is set up in a way where the audience expects the woman protagonist, Jen, who is being targeted to lose immediately but, we of course see her succeed and get the revenge she deserves on these men. The horrible actions that she receives from these men are so gory and disturbing that we need to see her succeed and not fail. This is where Coralie Fargeat’s inventive technique comes into play making this film the success that it is.
List of Women Who Helped Create this Film:
Cast:
Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz (as Jen)
Co-Producers:
Carole Baraton
Yannick Bossenmeyer
Nadia Chamlichi
Pierre Mazars
Alexis Perrin
Music By:
Robin Courdert
Editing:
Coraline Fargeat
Costume Design:
Elizabeth Bornaut
Makeup:
Pierre Emmanuel Kass
Ghislaine Nejjar
Laetitia Quillery
Production Management:
Severine Barre
Sound:
Pierre Simion
Cristinel Sirli
Helene Thabouret
Adria Mateu
Stunts:
Melissa Humler
Marion Lavalausser
What I love about this movie is that it will always have you on the victims side, (which is how it should always be) even though there are times where we see the male characters in a human-like condition making us see them in a non-victim sense. There are also times where we see this play out in the real world. In real life rape cases, the male figure always will make their excuses. For example, the common excuses will be: she was wearing revealing clothing, she was asking for it, she was so hard to resist, etc. We actually see these excuses verbally played out in the film as the boyfriend Richard says, “You’re so damn beautiful, it’s hard to resist you!” he says this as he was making an excuse for Stan (the man who actually raped her), in an argument with Jen who just wanted to leave. Watching this film as a woman, the beginning is very hard to watch as Jen is being portrayed as someone who can not stand up for herself. However, I do appreciate the set up before the rape scene. Fargeat sends the audience clear messages before any violence happens as she will soon be a victim. I also appreciate the extreme revenge she ends up getting on all of the men which can only be imagined and hoped to happen to our rapists, in real life.
However, this film did have realistic issues in my opinion. The way that Jen falls off the extremely large cliff onto a branch that impales her; she somehow survives and gets on her feet to start fighting back. Another example is when we see her after the whole day has gone by after bleeding out and the stick that impaled her, still being inside of her and loses gallons of blood, she manages to find a cave and make a fire to stay warm. In this scene, she also is somehow able to pull the stick out herself and close the wound by burning it shut, after no human necessities were given to her. Watching these parts made me pull back from the movie and think about how unrealistic this is. Moments like these take away from enjoying the movie because it's the sense of realism that's missing and making the film unrealistic. It’s in these moments where I try to remind myself to appreciate what the movie is doing and the message it is giving and just to continue on with enjoying the film.
Although this film definitely has its' unrealistic actions, I personally loved the story and how it really kept my attention throughout, even though it seemed like such a simple storyline. Throughout the entirety of the film, there really was little to no dialogue given to the characters and no character development. These properties are usually what brings the story to life and keeps it moving forward, but without these aspects, the movie still kept my attention throughout the whole movie. The film had only two total locations, four characters, and a simple story line. The director did a wonderful job as she brought the story to life and put in the action and horror that it needed to succeed.
This horror film includes not only a huge amount of gore and action, but it also includes suspense and jump scares. In the beginning before all of the action, we see a huge amount of suspense before the indigos rape scene. We see the two characters on the bed with dialogue letting us know that something bad is going to happen. Then, right before Stan partakes in sexual action with Jen, we see his friend open the door and stand there, creating suspense for the audience whether or not he is going to do something to stop it. We then get a slow motion shot of him taking a bite of a piece of candy as the two are still standing there, the shot is grossly extended out creating huge suspense and prolonging the rape scene to actually happen.
This movie is set up in a way where the audience expects the woman protagonist, Jen, who is being targeted to lose immediately but, we of course see her succeed and get the revenge she deserves on these men. The horrible actions that she receives from these men are so gory and disturbing that we need to see her succeed and not fail. This is where Coralie Fargeat’s inventive technique comes into play making this film the success that it is.
List of Women Who Helped Create this Film:
Cast:
Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz (as Jen)
Co-Producers:
Carole Baraton
Yannick Bossenmeyer
Nadia Chamlichi
Pierre Mazars
Alexis Perrin
Music By:
Robin Courdert
Editing:
Coraline Fargeat
Costume Design:
Elizabeth Bornaut
Makeup:
Pierre Emmanuel Kass
Ghislaine Nejjar
Laetitia Quillery
Production Management:
Severine Barre
Sound:
Pierre Simion
Cristinel Sirli
Helene Thabouret
Adria Mateu
Stunts:
Melissa Humler
Marion Lavalausser
TRAILER:
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