Verdict
Summary
Revenge is brutal stuff and a tough watch but it’s remarkably stylish with some satisfying kills so it’s worth at least a rental. I probably wouldn’t eat anything while watching though…
Plot: The story sees three wealthy, middle-aged CEOs – all married family men – get together for their annual hunting game in a desert canyon. It’s a way for them to let off steam and affirm their manhood with guns. But this time, one of them has come along with his young mistress, a sexy Lolita who quickly arouses the interest of the two others – Things get out of hand – Left for dead in the middle of this arid hell, the young woman comes back to life, and the hunting game turns into a ruthless manhunt.
Review: I’m not normally a fan of Rape/Revenge movies as they are generally pretty unpleasant to sit through but I’ve been hearing interesting things about Revenge and thought I would check it out.
Storywise it is mostly what you’d expect; the man guy Stan brings his mistress to a hunting trip and she tends to be a bit of a flirt so one of his friends gets a little too frisky and rapes her. Thankfully you don’t see the rape scene but you hear her scream which is nasty enough to get the point across. Once you get that out of the way the film gets a little trippy and I imagine it would be really entertaining if you were on a lot of drugs while watching.
Revenge is unsurprisingly brutal with lots and lots of blood, graphic violence and brutal kills so it isn’t for the faint of heart. It has oodles of style with some nice camerawork and a funky 80’s-style/Europop score.
Matilda Lutz is the poor victim Jen who is left for dead when Stan finds out one of his friends had his way with her and figures she is a liability who will tell the police what had happened. Jen doesn’t go down without a fight however, and despite everything she drags herself up and takes bloody revenge (thus the title) on the men for their crime. Lutz gives a compelling and sympathetic performance and you don’t feel remotely bad for what she does to each of the men.
We find out early on that Stan (Vincent Colombe) is a bit of scumbag as he is on this trip with his mistress Jen and in-between sex with her he calls his wife and has cute conversations with her.
I like to think I am pretty hard to shock after all the crap I’ve watched over the years but I’ll put my hand up and say even I found a few scenes a little tough to watch namely one of the guys taking shards of glass out of his foot in graphic close-up.
Between the violent moments I found a few scenes went on a little too long and it could have sliced a few minutes just for pacing but even then there is a constant threat of violence so you are always on edge.
Like I said it’s nothing we haven’t seen before in exploitation flicks like I Spit on your Grave but the sheer visual flare and sense of style makes it worth a watch.
Overall, Revenge is one of the most stylish rape/revenge movies you’ll see and despite not being something I am likely to sit through ever again it is worth checking out and director Coralie Fargeat has a bright future ahead of her.