I Spit on Your Grave 2

A uniformly unpleasant cinematic experience, I Spit on Your Grave 2 follows aspiring model Katie Carter (Jemma Dallender) as she arrives at a sketchy location to shoot some photos for her less-than-impressive portfolio – with the too-good-to-be-true scenario (ie the session is being provided free of charge) taking a decidedly shady turn after the photographer asks to take nude pictures of Katie. Later that night, Katie is visited and raped by one of said photographer’s abusive siblings – which sets off a chain reaction that eventually finds Katie sold into sexual slavery in Bulgaria. (It’s not a spoiler to reveal that Katie eventually manages to turn the tables on her captors.) Despite a surprisingly charming performance by Dallender, I Spit on Your Grave 2 remains an intolerable experience for the duration of its disastrously padded-out 106 minute running time – as filmmaker Steven R. Monroe delivers a narrative that seems to reveal in cruel and distasteful elements (which one expects out of this series, admittedly, but perhaps not quite to this extent). The off-putting atmosphere ensures that the vengeance-fueled antics of the picture’s second half are unable to make the visceral, agreeable impact one might’ve anticipated, and it is, in the end, impossible to label I Spit on Your Grave 2 as anything less than a mostly unwatchable misfire that makes one long for the comparative subtlety and restraint of its predecessor.

no stars out of ****