I Spit on Your Grave III: Vengeance is Mine

A vast improvement over its bottom-of-the-barrel immediate predecessor, 2013’s I Spit on Your Grave 2, I Spit on Your Grave III: Vengeance is Mine follows Sarah Butler’s Jennifer Hills, the protagonist of 2010’s I Spit on Your Grave, as her ongoing efforts at moving on with her life are eventually stymied by a newfound friendship with a fellow victim of sexual abuse (Jennifer Landon’s Marla) – as the two begin enacting violent revenge on men responsible for tormenting women. There’s little doubt, ultimately, that I Spit on Your Grave III: Vengeance is Mine fares best in its refreshingly low-key opening stretch, as filmmaker R.D. Braunstein, working from a screenplay by Daniel Gilboy, explores the subdued exploits of Butler’s likeable protagonist and her attempts at recovering from the first film’s vicious happenings – with the character-study-like vibe certainly an agreeable change of pace for an otherwise relentlessly grim franchise. The deliberate pace does, however, prevent one from wholeheartedly connecting to the material, and it’s clear, certainly, that the picture’s mid-movie switch into the series’ predictably violent territory isn’t as seamless as one might’ve hoped – with the erratic atmosphere ensuring that I Spit on Your Grave III: Vengeance is Mine slowly-but-surely peters out long before arriving at its less-than-compelling final stretch.

** out of ****

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