Trigger warning: discussions of sexual assault. Revenge is a rape-revenge movie, and I discuss the genre and its tropes, as well as discuss some of the details from the movie.

Also some light spoilers.

I cannot stand rape/revenge movies. Even the so-called “good ones” or the genre classics. Rape is always trotted out by male writers when they need “the worst thing” to happen to a woman so that she can be properly motivated to kill some menfolk. It’s a genre marred by simple-thinking from men — that any violence, no matter how graphic or horrible perpetrated on a woman is justified as long as the woman gets to gruesomely kill her rapist(s) in the end.

I don’t want to speak on the genre’s place in horror, nor women’s association with the genre. It’s a complicated topic, and not one that I think I should have any say in. Some women find the genre repugnant — understandably upsetting and triggering. Some find it empowering, or at least cathartic — helping them process their own real-life traumas. For my own mileage, it’s not a genre that I watch. Too many movies include rape as it is, and a movie where the entire plot hinges on the rape leads to it being, weirdly, the feature of the movie. I’ve only seen a few movies in this genre, and I found the rapes overly long, unnecessarily graphic, nearly pornographic.

So why did I watch this?

I was only convinced to watch this movie by the incredibly incisive discussion of the genre and the film by the women from The Faculty of Horror (I’m fairly certain there’s an episode where they discuss the film a bit more as well as a film called MFA, but I can’t figure out which episode it was). They were very impressed with the movie, and although I am extremely reluctant to watch anything from the genre, they made it sound like it was worth an examination. I decided to give it a shot, but even with forewarning and their stamps of approval, it still took me two years to build up the nerve to watch it. And they were right. It’s incredible.

The film’s cinematography is nothing short of amazing. The lead, Jen, enters the film like she’s in an 80s music video. The camera clings to her ass, her chest, her legs. It gleefully drags along her body, rarely showing her face. She is an object, one to be used by her lover, but not loved.

When the rape occurs, however, its not filmed with the same gratuitous camera work. Rather than clinging to her body and further objectifying her, or trying to show graphic detail to drive home the horror of what’s happening, the camera breaks off of her and we follow one of the rapist’s friends as he turns a blind eye, letting events play out in the other room undisturbed. It’s uncomfortable and horrible to watch such callous indifference, and its made even worse when he turns on the TV to drown out the sound. The movie, in a way, makes us as the audience guilty in a sense as well. Because the camera is our POV, we, too, were leering at her body, and we too abandon her in her time of need.

When Jen’s lover, Richard, returns from an errand, he’s at first furious at his friend for what he’s done. The movie does not let us believe that he’s any different for long. Men stick together, and soon he tries to offer her money and a job for her silence. When she demands to leave, he insists that she’s overreacting and she should just let it go. When she flees, Richard chases her across the desert, cornering her on a cliff side. He feigns compassion long enough to draw her in before shoving her off the cliff.

There is no true remorse from any of these men. When the rapist, Stan, talks to Richard later when they get their first taste of Jen’s revenge, he says, “If only you hadn’t thrown her from that cliff,” blatantly ignoring his own actions and how he is just as much to blame for the situation they’re in — hunted by a woman scorned.

The transformation that Jen undergoes is stunning. She starts a perhaps naive, love struck young woman sleeping with a man she knows is married. She’s then, terrified, brutalized, and left for dead — a fall from a cliff, as you might imagine, does not leave her at her physical peak. From there, she is burned, branded, and rises from the ashes like a phoenix, an image the movie uses repeatedly and to truly amazing effect.

The finale is a blood soaked cat and mouse chase, and whether the film’s ending is triumphant or not will depend on the viewer, I think. As you might imagine, there’s only so much happiness that can be won from this type of narrative, but the final shot is also a breathtaking, arresting image.

The performances are amazing, the effects are visceral, the score is great, and the cinematography is next level. This did not make me a fan of this genre, but it made me a fan of this director. If you can stomach it, I would say it’s definitely worth your attention. I can’t wait to see what comes next for both the director and the lead actress.