When I was eighteen, a friend of mine showed me a copy of the 1978 rape revenge thriller “I Spit on Your Grave.” It was a movie with a stained aura, famous for its scenes of brutal violence and sex. This was before Internet video, so pertaining access to such taboo products came with a sense of awe and reverence. Years later, I got to know one of the producers of the film and he gave me some behind-the-scenes stories.
1985 Naked Vengeance was clearly inspired by “… Grave.” It too features a woman who is harassed, then brutalized by several men. Left for dead, she rises from the ashes of her immolated life and seeks justice.
It’s a weird little film. On one hand, the themes are clearly feminist. There’s basically no redeemable man aside from the Sheriff, though even he downplays the protagonist Carla’s complaints at first. But there’s also something exploitative at work. The title alone promises nudity, and indeed the camera leers at Carla’s body during a lot of the scenes. (If “male gaze” was an actual camera setting, I assure you it was on during the entirety of this film.)
This conflict between titillation and violence is at the heart of a lot of these revenge thrillers. On one hand, they have to deliver graphic sexual abuse (as Naked Vengeance does) but also payback for the lead character’s suffering (which it also does.) It’s an unsettling dichotomy.
Now, in many ways, it’s a terrible film. A lot of these 80s action films feel like a CHiPs episode with boobs and blood. “Naked Vengeance” has the flat camerawork and maudlin score of a television movie. There is a great cheeseball eighties rock ballad used as Carla’s leitmotif.
The acting was actually pretty good, in particular, Kaz Garas, as the lead antagonist. (On the other hand, at one point, an actor playing a dead character is clearly breathing.)
The revenge scenes are as sweet as you’d imagine, though one is clearly sliced right from “I Spit on Your Grave.” (And I say deliberately use “sliced” as the scene involves something being sliced off—I bet you can guess what.) Other scenes involve burning, crushing, and death by a weird ice machine.
If you’ve read my reviews before, you know I always up-rank a film for an exploding head. Well, “Naked Vengeance” has one, but it’s such a quick cutaway, it only takes it from a B minus to a B.
Still, it’s better than *no* exploding head.
