REVENGE (2018)

Written & Directed By: Coralie Fargeat 
Cinematography By: Robrecht Hayveart 
Editor: Jerome Eltabet, Bruno Safar & Coralie Fargeat 


Cast: Matilda Lutz, Kevin Janssens, Vincent Colombe, Guillaume Bouchede 


Never take your mistress on an annual guys' getaway, especially one devoted to hunting - a violent lesson for three wealthy married men.


This is a film. It for the lighthearted it is a brutal film that strangely is a breath of fresh air. The film stays small scale with only a few cast members but still feels epic.

The film is a strong debut of a filmmaker who has something to say about challenging what we are used to seeing and striking back against the male patriarchy by showcasing a woman fighting back. Not because she is an action hero but more out of survival showing that she is capable of more than she thought. As she’s tougher than any of these so-called warriors.

A rape revenge thriller that is seen and presented more as high art rather then exploitive. That takes on new relevance in this #Metoo, #Timesup movement and times.

There is a beauty in the brutal action on display. It’s oversaturation and desert milieu bringing out the desperation and the colors that seem to winter and bake. Just as the situation gets hotter and seek. we don’t see the vicious crime that begins the downward spiral basically for all the characters survives and victims, but we get to see all the violence it causes and the revenge In all of it’s gory glory.

The film makes more the male characters stereotypical, but beyond depraved to an extent. As they are obviously the hunters more and in this situation the prey starts striking back and hunting the hunters

What is remarkable are some of the little details like how half the time me she uses a gun she is missing critical shots. It actually wounding them which makes them more torturous. Just as the delivery of drugs seems like it there for a nefarious reason and actually is an aid eventually to the protagonist. Just as the detail of losing hearing after a gun blast close to you or in close quarters can mess with a person’s constitution and equilibrium.

This is a film where you generally know where it is going and what it’s destination Is. it just seems that how we will arrive there will be the part that interests us and try to throw detours.

The film seems to be more graphic in the violence then is necessary but it also helps to see the pain of the villains and kind of pay for their crimes before we get what we want to see them gone and justice be served.

The film comes off as more exploitive as the film continues the shots seem more and more graphic but as stylized as can be with plenty of premonitions as we can sense that something bad is coming. That initially makes us uneasy so that when it does happen it’s shocking but not as much as the film expects it is effective but in certain scenes it also feels like overkill especially when she starts visualizing characters as animals and she was once the prey and now is the hunter hunting the hunter who are now prey.

The film seems to take particular fascination in watching characters pulling obstructions out of their wounds through their guys or open wounds.

Just as films like I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE before them were more exploitive and seemed to revel in not only the violence but also the graphic rape scenes. Here the film has no problem showcasing the violence. Yet luckily when it comes to more the sex and rape scenes they are more suggestive but no less terrifying

The film just comes off as troubled from the start as it immediately comes off feeling more not only a genre film but also more like a horror film then a thriller. Especially by the end where there is more blood than anything splattered all over and full Male Frontal nudity.

Nice to see a film of this type more from a female point of view for once rather than just sensitive to the female protagonist but seen the through a more male gaze. So that it feels less exploitive to the female characters and cheapen it.

She is seen as prey and more of a kind of product. As she is purely seen mostly sexual and a plaything to the men. Who while watching television always seem to be watching commercials or shopping channels where all they see can be acquired.

As the film goes along the men become victims, but also the film makes the degeneration symbolic as the one who witnessed the rape and just left to go eat. Loses his eyes, therapist who penetrated the heroine. Has to penetrate himself to get rid of the bullet. The most smooth character her lover who tries initially to kill her and is the leader and most sadistic slowly and eventually comes unhinged and almost feral dirty covered in blood as he hunts her.

The film also allows her to be symbolic as when she is left for dead she is impaled and left spread a kind of penetration that she rises and releases herself like a phoenix as she is now in ages and around constant desert heat. It also shows in when she has to close up her wounds she burns them closed with a heated beer can that also leaves Phoenix like symbol.

This is definitely a film that is a good calling card for director Coralie Fargeat who will have a bright future especially within the realm Of genre films. One would wish for some some restraint in the film but the style seems to be over the top balls to the wall type action that has a pace and knows how to set up tension and still be gluttonous with the violence.

No matter what it can’t seem to get that grime off. In fact it seems to revel in it.

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Grade: B-