A highly underrated b-rate horror flick from the '70s, directed by Meir Zarchi. The film stars Camille Keaton (grand-niece of Buster Keaton) as a young NYC writer who decides to take a brief hiatus in the woodland (in this film, the woodland is a small
Connecticut town) to
concentrate on her first novel. While working on her novel, she is surrounded by a group of stereotypical rednecks who rape her repeatedly (for about 21 minutes; one of the longest rape scenes in history), leaving her to perish. The gang convinces one of its retarded members (Matthew) to do the dirty work and kill the young girl, but he never kills her, and instead lies to the gang, telling them he stabbed her to death. Naturally pissed off beyond belief, the woman gets herself together, collects her thoughts, and exacts a series of revengeful acts on each member of the gang -- she hangs one man, castrates another (
one of the most chilling murder scenes in horror movie history), chops another
in the back, and butchers
the last one with the blades from a speedboat engine. Upon release, the movie was higly criticized as being nothing more than a glorification of rape and masochism, but upon closer viewing, one can clearly see that the movie in no way glorifies rape. The film does, however, provide a brutally honest, vivid account of rape, as well as a chilling account of revenge. The movie received an X rating upon its release, and was banned in many countries. It is currently available on DVD.
