Further, the film also tackles the horrific plague of Western sexual abuse (last year, one in six American women experienced rape or attempted rape, according to U.S Department of Justice statistics), and in doing so smartly – and frightfully – grounds the narrative. Unlike most horror flicks, which often present their antagonists supernatural in either design or personality, I Spit on Your Grave posits its villains as the boys next-door, socio-economically depressed Anglo-Saxon males, who in their angst-ridden malaise latch easily onto the most identifiable target for their frustrations: an educated, seemingly financially successful urban female. I think that modern audiences will find this film much more believable.” She felt that anger and revenge would prevail in more of an angry way and not manifest in some kind of conniving, sexual, cat-like kind of game, and I completely agreed with her. I know discussion also broke out about this when we got to set, and I know that (Cinetel producer) Lisa Hansen felt very strongly that the original wasn’t believable – that a woman would be able to look at her attackers at all in that kind of a sexual way. “ I found the difference between the two kind of shocking though because I had read the (Adam Rockoff-penned) script just before watching the original film, and I found the original kind of weird. “ It appealed to me, yes,” Butler replied regarding the lofty heights of uncompromised violence to which her character ascends. And the fact that the character comes out on top and it’s kind of like a victory – and in some ways I guess you could say that ‘Jennifer’ is the heroine of the story – is truly an honor.”ĭread questioned Butler regarding her thoughts as to what is inarguably the fundamental difference between both films, from the often perceived as exploitative approach of the lead’s machinations in the original (as portrayed by actress Camille Keaton, who sexually lures her rapists in the third act in order to exact her revenge) to the character’s rather believable modus operandi in the redux. “ It’s also such an honor as an actor to portray a character that goes through so much both emotionally and physically, and who has such a huge arc, so that was very exciting, too. “ For me it was maybe the controversy that attracted me to it,” said Butler, who’s currently on a demanding press tour for the flick. Given such, we wondered what appealed to her in essaying the role in the remake? I knew I was going to see some really tough scenes, and I kind of psyched myself up for it, but even with that mental preparation I still tensed every muscle in my body watching those rape scenes, and I had to concentrate on relaxing every one of them, one by one, because that film really does get under your skin.” I think I was mentally prepared to watch it, having read our script and knowing that it followed some of the same plot lines. But after I was cast and before we went to shoot, I rented the (original) film, and I watched it. “I wasn’t aware of how infamous it was because I’m not a movie buff at all, and especially not with the horror genre. “ I didn’t see it until I was cast (in the remake),” the twenty-five-year-old actress (whose previous screen credits include the television series “I <3 Vampires”) told us of the original I Spit on Your Grave. With mainstream press having already glommed on to the more sensational aspects of the flick’s narrative, as directed by Monroe (see our extensive interview with the filmmaker here), there’s a bit more going on in the update, and at the time of this interview, the then under-the-weather Butler proved tentatively excited regarding the film’s imminent opening as well as thoughtful regarding its sub-text, the possible response by female audience members, and the impact it may have on her career, among other things. Monroe-directed I Spit on Your Grave (review here) is being releasing unrated today (October 8th) in theaters across America courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment, a ballsy move indeed! As written by screenwriter and author Adam Rockoff ( Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film), I Spit casts Butler as ‘Jennifer Hills,’ a novelist who rents a lakeside cabin in the deep South in order to concentrate on her literary pursuits and who subsequently and tragically finds herself the object of unwanted attention by a quartet of backwoods locals. Dread caught up with Sarah Butler, star of Cinetel Film’s controversial I Spit on Your Grave, a week before the film’s September 29th Hollywood premiere (see our coverage of that here) to chat with her regarding her courageous turn as the survivor of a filmic, yet altogether brutal, gang-rape and the repercussions that follow.Ī remake of the 1978 Meir Zarchi-directed film of the same name, the Steven R.
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