The Question of the Woman-Made Rape-Revenge Film

Over the past few years, a great deal of my studies and research have centered around the theories of sexual violence, victim experiences and services, policy solutions or responses to gender-based violence, and the failures of the criminal justice system in addressing it on all levels. This background, combined with my current senior thesis research on the use of restorative justice in cases of sexual violence would almost certainly seem to put me directly at odds with such a historically-reviled film genre. Yet after hearing Karen Lam speak about the positive reception that her film received from survivors in domestic violence shelters, I found myself left with a number of questions. How do survivors themselves feel about these films? Are women filmmakers writing and directing these films? And if they are, how are they telling these stories differently? What impact are they having on the genre? This is where my research began.

Introduction & Background

In the second edition of her influential work, Rape-Revenge Films: A Critical Study, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas defines the rape-revenge film as “one whereby a rape that is central to the narrative is punished by an act of vengeance, either by the victim themselves or by an agent (a lawyer, policeman, or, most commonly, a loved one or family member [such as a father, partner, mother, or sibling])”.

These films are often broken down into two categories – films in which revenge is taken by a man who loses his wife or daughter to rape or murder, and films in which revenge is taken by a woman who faced rape herself. The latter of these two films are often considered to be more progressive and feminist in nature, as films in which men avenge violence against their loved ones are often understood as being an outgrowth of the legal and cultural definition of rape as a property crime that dishonored the father or husband of a woman. Instead of focusing on the pain and trauma of the women, and allowing them to respond to harm perpetrated against them, these male-centric rape-revenge films focus on the violence of men.

Further, these films are by no means limited to a single genre. Rape revenge is often thought of as being a sub-genre of horror, specifically as being synonymous with the American sexploitation film of the 1970s (ex. I Spit on Your Grave, Last House on the Left), however, these films reach across multiple genres (ex. horror, action, drama, and western), spans throughout history, and exists across national borders.

Ultimately, it is important to note that sexual violence is filmed, represented, and addressed in vastly different ways across films that fall within this category – which makes examining this issue extremely complex, contradictory, and contentious. As Heller-Nicholas writes, “diverse notions exist contemporaneously”, meaning essentially, that multiple things can be true at the same time. Two rape-revenge films from the same time period may be vastly different. Two interpretations of the same rape-revenge film might be vastly different. There can be good and bad that exist within the confines of these films. It is not just black and white. Many people are extremely quick to cast aside this entire grouping of films as wholly misogynistic and exploitative. I argue, however, that it is important that we not do so, that we employ a critical yet open-minded lens in analyzing these films.

Criticisms of the Rape Revenge

There are a number of valid criticisms that are made by horror fans, film critics, and scholars alike. While not a comprehensive list by any means, these are some of the criticisms. Rape-revenge films:

• Focus on the rage, vengeance, and violence of men, rather than the pain of the woman directly harmed
  
  
• Sexualize, cheapen, and glorify a brutal, violent crime – women are being harmed and tortured for the viewer’s pleasure and entertainment, particularly for the male gaze

This can absolutely be true, especially in the case of older films made by men. I Spit on Your Grave has around 25 minutes of gang rape which makes up about ⅓ of the film, the purpose of which is….questionable.

With this, it is important to question why so many male directors are choosing to make a film about the sexual victimization of women? Why not a film about the revenge of male victims of sexual violence? (which are far less common)

Suggest that women can only be “evil”, have character development, or garner sympathy if they are assaulted – diminishes women to solely being victims who only have value and meaning following something that men did to them.

Carol Clover’s chapter of Men, Women, and Chainsaws about rape-revenge suggests that these films can allow for cross-gender identification by men with female victims. But can men really only empathize with female victims when they see them brutalized for painfully long rape sequences suggest that cold-blooded, violent revenge enacted by women following their assault reduces them and makes them just as “bad” and violent as their assaulters or abuser sends the message that women “become monsters” after being assaulted and replicates women’s trauma and profits off of it – trope/device is tired and overused (150+ films)

Value of the Rape Revenge

And yet, I think it’s important that we interrogate and question why we continue to make these films. Why do we resurrect the same woman again and again for remakes of the same torture and trauma? While there are many answers to this question, perhaps one of them is because it remains disturbingly socially and culturally relevant, because both women and men continue to experience sexual violence at unprecedented rates. These statistics speak to a very painful reality that continues to be grappled with across cultural sites like the rape-revenge film:

• ¼ women & ⅙ men will experience rape in their lifetime (RAINN)
• More than ⅔ of sexual assaults go unreported (RAINN)
• Less than 1% of reported rape cases end in conviction (RAINN)
• 90% of women in prison for killing men were abused/assaulted by those men (ACLU)

With this, here is a list of the value that can be found in these films from not just horror fans, film critics, and scholars but also from victim-survivors themselves:

• Forces us to confront the uncomfortable, the unspeakable by depicting rape realistically – provides a window into just how brutal, dehumanizing, and violating it is in real life
  
  
• Acts as a “cultural key that can help reveal and interrogate the meanings of rape and the political, ethical, and affective responses to it (on both individual and social levels)”
  
  
• Harshly critiques the ways in which male culture and male peer support groups enable violence, specifically violence against women
  
  
• Horror films, in particular, as a vehicle for realizing one of the biggest fears that women face on a daily basis
  
  
• Depicts the trauma that survivors experience after being assaulted and provides validation for survivors of the horrors that they have experienced, especially if their reality is being denied
  
  
• Provides a space for survivors to deal with complex emotions and reactions to trauma, to feel some catharsis in a world where they are told how they should feel as victims and when they are shown that attaining justice is often not realistic
  
  
• Confronts the fact that retribution and revenge often don’t equate to healing and are extremely unrealistic for “real” women
  
  

Many of these films end with the avenging woman dying, going to jail, or realizing that what they did was cathartic but did not heal them. As someone who does work and research in the area of victim services and sexual violence prevention/response, I was particularly interested in the ways that victim-survivors think and feel about these films. While not indicative of all survivors, these are two quotes that really struck me in the research process as evidence of the value that many survivors find within them.

“In the last ten years, I haven't talked to many people about the academic nuances of genre theory, but I have talked to a hell of a lot of people about their experiences of rape. Without any question, talking to survivors about rape-revenge film especially was the most important thing that came from writing this book; it opened my eyes to the diver sity of experience more than anything I'd ever read. Every time I speak publicly on this topic-while certainly not indicative of every rape survivor, of course-I have at least one person approach me as if to ask for my permission to find these films cathartic; "I am a rape survivor and these films have helped me so much--does that make me a freak?" is a question I have heard more than once, from both women and men. To hear filmmakers who are rape survivors themselves go on the record about their own experiences feels like an extension of this, a public acknowledgment of why their work matters to them and why they have the unquestionable right to represent rape on their own terms and in their own way based on their own experiences.” - Alexandra Heller Nicholas

“Power fantasies are most appealing to the powerless, and at the core of the rape-revenge movie is not an oppressor’s desire to maintain power but a fantasy about what life would be like if survivors had options outside of impotent suffering. Revenge fantasies are pain, wrapped in gore and razor blades, made to look ferocious so that no one recognizes the acute and agonized vulnerability at their core. Most of these movies admit in the end how impossible the fantasized revenge is. Two-thirds of the movies I’ve listed here end with the heroine being killed. It’s easy to pull back from survivors’ violent rage, to call it cruel or selfish, or to extol abstract concepts like mercy rather than deal with survivors’ very concrete need to make their pain go away. Yet victims would not need revenge if they were getting justice. They would not feel angry and powerless and ready to lash out if our response were adequate to restore their dignity and make them feel safe. All these murder fantasies are demands to have the pain of rape witnessed and taken seriously. If we honored that pain, the anger itself might be unnecessary. People who are already being heard don’t have to scream.” - Jude Ellison Doyle

The Woman-Made Rape-Revenge Film

So, how is the woman-made rape-revenge different and why is it important?

(**Disclaimer that not all rape-revenge movies made by women are inherently progressive or feminist, there are most definitely examples that prove otherwise)

• How the assault scene is filmed – much shorter, more close-up shots, more focused on victim’s face, trauma, pain

• Portrays rape trauma in a more complex/nuanced way, portrays broader systemic sexism/objectification/gender-based violence, male culture, and other systems of oppression

• Allows the survivor to be a complex individual outside of their assault

• Less formulaic, explores more complex/relevant forms of sexual violence – contemporary fears of women

With this, it is often assumed that women have only started making rape-revenge films in the #Me-Too era. This is absolutely not the case. Much like many of the other areas that we’ve spoken about where women in film and women in horror, in particular, are concerned – just because we don’t see women doesn’t mean they aren’t there. The historical presence of women in this film category has been largely forgotten, ignored, and erased.

The first woman-made rape-revenge film was released in 1950. Ida Lupino’s Outrage tells the story of Ann Walton, who is a victim of sexual assault by a stranger. While this film 1.) has its flaws as a product of its time and 2.) is not a rape-revenge in the way that we understand it today, it does an impressive job at depicting her trauma in the aftermath of her assault. We see Ann deal with night terrors, fear of intimacy, and desire for isolation as she is expected by those around her to just move on, re-traumatized by the police, and stigmatized by her community.

The 1960s and 70s saw the creation of grassroots anti-rape movements, second-wave feminist sexual politics, and the loosening of censorship in film. These social and political factors are heavily reflected in the era’s cultural response of the rape-revenge film, both woman-made and otherwise. While films like The Last House on the Left and I Spit on Your Grave were the most visible, films like Doris Wishman’s Good Girls Go to Hell (1965) were also being made. Again, this film is a sexploitation film and certainly has its flaws, especially in its depiction of the assault. After being raped by the handyman in her apartment complex and killing him, Meg tries desperately to escape from both the trauma and the legal consequences that she knows are to come. The end of the film leads us to believe that it was just a horrible dream, only to realize that she is stuck in a loop, reliving her assault and its aftermath. Through this, the film very astutely touches on the cyclical nature of reliving the trauma of rape.

 

The 1980s and 90s saw an even greater push for reform in the legal handling of sexual violence cases, which was mirrored in a number of courtroom drama and thriller rape-revenge films. This resulted in films like Janet Greek’s 1986 The Ladies’ Club, in which the main character, Joan, who is gang-raped by a group of young male intruders is failed by nearly every system and person she comes into contact with – social worker, her partner, and the legal system that acquits her rapists. It is only when she comes together with a group of women survivors and co-victims who get together to enact revenge on their perpetrators so that they can no longer harm others by way of castration, that she gains the support and solidarity that she so desperately needs.

As our cultural and legal understanding of sexual violence began to grow and become more inclusive and complex in the 2000s and 2010s, so too have the filmic depictions of it. This gave us films like Karyn Kusama’s Jennifer’s Body (2009) and Karen Lam’s Evangeline (2013), both of which involve killing men and protecting other women from harm following their assaults, as monstrous and supernatural creatures. It also gave us films like the Soska Sisters’ American Mary (2012) and Talia Lugacy’s Descent (2007) which depict brutal torture to exact revenge upon their rapists. These films are unique in that they are some of the first films to also present the ways in which other systems of oppression can impact victimization and the decision of the survivor to begin her string of revenge (i.e. capitalism, racism). Descent, in particular, speaks to the notion that even rape-revenge films made by women can be extremely fraught with contradiction. While this film is incredibly important as it depicts a Black woman’s experience with sexual violence in a canon that largely centers white women as victims, it also has highly problematic elements – most notably the concluding scene in which the revenge enacted upon her rapist involves his 10+ minute sexual assault.

In 2017, the conversation started by activist Tarana Burke gained footing within Hollywood as Harvey Weinstein’s widespread sexual abuse of women within the film industry was exposed. This moment spread outwards in a really significant way, creating the #MeToo Movement and encouraging survivors of all identities to share their stories, call out institutional failures, and hold their perpetrators accountable. While not entirely responsible for the rape-revenge films that were created during this time, it is impossible to ignore its impact in creating what are arguably some of the most diverse and impactful rape-revenge films thus far from filmmakers across national borders.

Revenge (2017) was directed by French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat, and portrays the story of Jennifer, who is raped by the friend of the wealthy man she is dating. This film is fast-paced, violent, and satisfying while simultaneously touching very carefully on the ways in which the female form is objectified (via camera shots that mimic this objectification) and the ways in which men feel entitled to women’s bodies. This film also speaks directly to the issue of male complicity in rape/sexual assault, even when they are not the perpetrator. Fargeat does this by having another male friend walk in on the assault right before it happens, leaving us to question whether he will intervene – but he proceeds to walk out, close the door, and turn the volume of the TV all the way up so as not to hear Jennifer’s screams.

M.F.A. (2017) was directed by Brazilian filmmaker Natalia Leite. Leite, herself, is a survivor and in many ways, this film was a way for her to speak to her own experience of being assaulted while in art school. This film provides a really profound attack on the rape culture that exists on college campuses and the ways in which the institution fails to hold rapists accountable. It deals with the rape trauma expertly and shows Noelle searching for power and control following her assault by attempting to protect herself and others from being victimized by known perpetrators who have been able to walk free without consequence. And it shows just how dangerous it can be to decide for other victims what they want and need in the aftermath of their assault.

Culture Shock (2019) was directed by Gigi Saul Guerrero, a Mexican-Canadian filmmaker who has spoken about her love for the rape-revenge genre and the fact that it has influenced many of her projects. While rape-revenge is not the main storyline of the film, it directly addresses the unique ways and contexts in which non-white women experience sexual assault– in Marisol’s case– as an immigrant woman who is simultaneously dealing with the horrors of the US immigration system and carrying the child of her abuser.

Promising Young Woman (2020) was directed by English filmmaker Emerald Fennell in which Cassie avenges the rape of her best friend Nina by pretending to be drunk and teaching men a poignant, satisfying, and disturbing lesson when they attempt to have sex with her. She then goes on to use similar tactics in confronting all those who were involved in enabling, perpetrating, and covering up Nina’s assault. Much like M.F.A., this film is an indictment of the rape culture that runs rampant within college campuses and institutions. It speaks to the way that the life of the victim and their loved ones is torn apart after an assault and in many ways, the life of the offender still goes on like normal. And it comments on the ways in which men are complicit in upholding rape culture and protecting their friends, which Fennell does expertly by casting male actors that are typically seen as the good guy or nice guy in their roles. Promising Young Woman is unique in that Cassie is searching for redemption rather than retribution – she gives each person she “tests” a chance to prove that they have learned from their mistakes and only punishes those who have not.

Violation (2020) was created by Candian filmmakers Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli, both of whom themselves, are survivors. In this film, Miriam is assaulted by her brother-in-law and we watch her as she goes on to exact her revenge. The violence in this film is gut-wrenching, painful, and nauseating and Miriam herself derives very little pleasure from it. The film conveys the pain of not being believed by those closest to you and confronts the notion of what happens when you have to confront and be around your rapist at every family gathering. And it portrays the rape in a very powerful way by juxtaposing the differing memory of events by both rapist and survivor. By not telling the story in a chronological or linear fashion, the directors astutely depict the fracturing of memory that can occur with trauma and it feels like a survivor is really telling their story in all of its messiness.

Where do we go from here?

Shattering the perfect or ideal victim narrative – The vast majority of the films within this category depict white, straight, conventionally attractive women as the sole victims of sexual violence. This needs to change and we need to amplify and carefully depict the stories and experiences of non-white women, queer women, and those who exist at the intersections of these groups. We know that they are disproportionately vulnerable to sexual violence and the rape-revenge canon simply does not reflect that.

Authorship – We need further collaboration between men and women in these films. Women survivors know their experiences with sexual violence best and men, unfortunately, know the horrors and evils of male culture best. We have seen some really great rape-revenge films come out of these collaborations.

“Write what you know” – We need to ensure that victim-survivors continue to tell their stories in a way that makes sense to them, and to question why those who are not survivors themselves, especially men, continue to tell these stories.

We need to allow other versions of rape trauma horror to be shared. Not all victims feel validated by and see themselves in films that depict violent revenge and retribution in the way that the vast majority of the films within this canon do.

And we need to continue to develop female horror villains, monsters, and antagonists that are not made through sexual violence. Women are not solely defined by their experiences with sexual violence. We are much more than that and we deserve to be evil for other reasons or for no reason at all.

References:

Alexandra Heller Nicholas: Rape Revenge Films: A Critical Study 2nd. Ed. (2020)

Carol Clover: Men, Women, and Chainsaws (1992)

https://gen.medium.com/do-we-still-have-a-place-for-rape-revenge-fantasies-33ef84f6657e

https://www.cinespeak.org/2020/10/30/150-films-too-many-rape-revenge-horror-is-as-exhausted-as-womxn-are/

https://slate.com/culture/2018/05/revenge-and-the-case-against-rape-revenge-films.html

https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3586210/eyes-history-rape-revenge-films-importance-female-directors/

https://www.vice.com/en/article/ezjw3e/making-sense-of-senselessness-the-bloody-history-of-rape-revenge-films

https://www.rainn.org/statistics/victims-sexual-violence

https://www.domesticshelters.org/articles/in-the-news/women-serve-longer-prison-sentences-after-killing-abusers

https://www.domesticshelters.org/articles/in-the-news/women-serve-longer-prison-sentences-after-killing-abusers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXcyFaHWu3k&list=WL&index=4
Presentation Slides