Anchor Bay Entertainment"A vile bag of garbage [...] without a shred of artistic distinction [...] Attending it was one of the most depressing experiences of my life." So said Roger Ebert about I Spit on Your Grave, the legendary exploitation film that divided audience opinions and birthed a new era of rape revenge cinema. Released in 1978, the low-budget tale of a young woman who goes on a bloody mission of vengeance against the men who assaulted her remains controversial. Many viewed it as a shameless exercise in sexualizing violence against women, but some consider it a feminist masterpiece of catharsis that gave power back to the oppressed. It speaks to the film’s potency that these conversations are ongoing almost 50 years since its release. The same cannot be said about its remake, which hit theaters 15 years ago today.The 2000s and 2010s saw an uptick in remakes of horror classics. All of the genre’s hallowed favorites were given slick and largely unimaginative rewrites too derivative to be offensive. The lion's share of this crop has been forgotten — Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Amityville Horror — although a couple, like Dawn of the Dead, carved out their own niches. These remakes were typically made for teen audiences, which neutered much of their original appeal and made the decision to remake I Spit on Your Grave in 2010 all the odder. Why choose to redo such a controversial film at a time when conversations surrounding sexism and rape in pop culture had grown louder?There is nothing PG-13 about this story. Jennifer Hills is a writer who travels to the countryside to work on her latest project, where she’s targeted by four local men and gangraped. Her revenge is calculated, agonizing, and satisfying, including perhaps the most infamous castration scene in movie history. The low-budget production and wobbly performances only add to the verisimilitude of a narrative that’s lean, mean, and pointed in its simplicity.Exploitation films aren’t meant to be subtle or easily digestible. Directors have delved into the sensationalist from the industry’s earliest days, often spitting in the faces of censors to revel in their portrayals of sex, gore, and the taboo. Many subgenres helped reclaim oft-overlooked or derided narratives, such as Blaxploitation's impact on non-stereotypical Black screen representation, while others, like Italy’s giallo films, experimented with style and mood in ways that mainstream studios never would. Rape revenge films were a product of the '70s, when women's rights were on the rise, but they weren't wholly feminist endeavors (most were still made by, and for, men). You can debate whether the exploitation has purpose, but it’s retained its power for a reason.Not the kind of image you see during a good time at the movies. | Anchor Bay EntertainmentNone of that is present in the remake. The story is essentially the same, as are the ensemble’s bare-bones characteristics (the decision to include a mentally disabled predator among the rapists is part of the original film’s trickier legacy, and the remake doesn’t improve upon it). The film seems to have decided that its big upgrade would be nastier kills of the abusers. A classic, improbably bloody slasher death can certainly be fun, especially when the victim deserves it. But it’s lacking in, well, execution. Aesthetic matters, as visual choices shape the audience’s view of a narrative. I Spit on Your Grave’s cheap, homemade quality is in line with its exploitation roots. Switching to a glossy sheen, identical to that of this era’s other bland horror remakes, inevitably makes the violence less horrific. The film isn’t quite as grey and soggy as many of its remake contemporaries, but slicker camera work doesn’t improve upon its many errors. The remake wanted to be both a fresh take on a classic and an easy sell to a wide audience. It didn’t work. It was a box office flop, and critics liked it even less than the original, although it somehow led to two sequels that received even more damning reviews. An update could have worked; while the original I Spit on Your Grave is a product of its time, violence against women has, unfortunately, never gone out of style. But you can’t separate this story from its exploitation roots. More recent films in the rape revenge genre, like Coralie Fargeat’s Revenge, work because they remain faithful to those disreputable roots, but find nuance in portraying women and their traumas. But not every story can be made palatable for the masses. Hollywood may love its remakes, but sometimes it’s best to just let the originals be.