I Spit on Your Grave III: Vengeance Is Mine

.... and pretty much falls flat on its face.

Which is a pity, since as a reviewer who has been watching theatrical releases since the 1970s, up to this point the ISOYG franchise was one of the "purest" of the 70s style releases left on the planet.

Notice that I am not saying whether or not this is a good thing - whether this style of visceral horror is "your cup of tea" is really up to the viewer. The point is that ISOYG entries 1 and 2 were true to the formula and, for purists, they delivered.

This entry is strange. If you check the IMDb credits, star Sarah Butler, who pretty much has been carrying this series on her back, gets a "misc" credit at the end of the IMDb roll. Whattsup with that? This entry takes a sharp right turn from the formula -- never a great way to start a movie -- and relies instead on a lot of scholarly dialog and flashbacks to the earlier entries just to maintain a pretence of dramatic tension.

Pa-leeze! The "4" rating may be a bit high, but Butler does have her fans and she deserves credit for holding screen interest.

At the beginning of the movie I got excited to know that Jennifer Hills is back as Angela via pseudonym and story gonna carry forward the 2010 part, which was surely a great comeback after 1978 one with brutally violence. But soon after the story progressed my excitement had taken nosedive and just watched it as a regular movie watcher. Honestly this movie is not bad ; actually it's above average for sure. Brutality is still fresh in it. N*dity is totally negligible except those flashback scenes of first part at the beginning of the movie. That's it.

Acting performance of leading female character was damn excellent here as well. We can simply feel her satisfaction level right from her facial expressions after each vengeance. Other female character was also totally badass here and played her little part impactfully. BGM was good according to the situations and editing as well as screenplay was quite tight and gripping for sure. The main issue of this part was that it felt repetitive unlike the last 2013 part which had some major twist happened in the middle of the movie which was totally unexpected. Last part's survival and planning of vengeance was damn good, whereas here in this part the leading character just went for the vengeance and did it for ease after luring counterparty or giving the target a little bait. They showcased her as a fully professional killer but it was not the case according to the storyline.

Overall not a family friendly movie and I'm going with 5 Out of 10 Stars for it.. Movie deserves an one time watch if you want to finish this franchise like me unless you can simply skip it.

This film acts as a direct sequel to the first film, and it was great to see Jennifer Hills back as Sarah Butler.

Still haunted by what happened, we find her now living in a cheap downtown apartment and attending a weekly rape counseling meeting with other victims.

At the meeting, she soon befriends the feisty Maria, and is inspired to find a new confidence in herself.

Maria encourages Sarah to be more feisty too - but Sarah is seemingly more restrained.

When Maria mentions that she believes that revenge is the best way to serve justice on the rape crimes that the police and courts fail to do, just how far will she go and will it stir up latent feelings in Sarah?

The first hour of this film was great, and I have to say I was surprised at how good it actually was.

I liked the idea of Sarah getting back on with her life with a new office job, and attending the meetings with other victims.

As it went on, I kind of had my own conclusion to the film mapped out in my head - but, unfortunately in the final half hour, that's where it all goes horribly wrong and the film goes off the rails.

Without wanting to give spoilers, let's just say that the central premise is total to overplayed and exploited to the point of stupidity. In the first film, Sarah was stealthy, clever and totally in control of her actions - but here she is totally out of character and out of control, and the silly ending will leave you feeling cheated.

7 out of 10 for the first hour - zero for the rest!

Jennifer Hills (Sarah Butler) is still haunted by her rape and is living under the new name Angela. She has a therapist and attends a support group. She fantasizes about vigilante violence. When a friend in the group is murdered, she turns into a real vigilante.

This is a direct sequel to the first movie. It's a continuation of the story rather than a repeat. It's more akin to Death Wish. This works to that extend. There isn't much else. The cops are heartless idiots. The world is full of lecherous males. Even when they aren't, she says that they are. I do appreciate a direct sequel but it's the least imaginative way forward. There is limited tension and limited story advancement.

The first two entries in this remade series have been absolutely brilliant. So when I found out the director of the first two Steven R. Monroe wasn't going to be returning I was very disappointed. Wow what a difference a director can make. R.D. Braunstein takes over the helm for the third installment and things just completely fall apart. Admittedly he's been handed an absolute dud of a script by first time screenwriter Daniel Gilboy, but still a better effort than this would have been nice.

I was glad to see Sarah Butler returning to her role because she was absolutely perfect in the first one. I suspect she didn't read the script though (or agreed before it was even written), because all this one did was completely ruin the character originally created. The format is completely changed, which is not necessarily a bad thing, a third one done exactly the same might have been pushing it, but if this was the best alternative they could come up with then things should have just been left as they were after two.

The dialogue is terrible, especially from the police officers. At one point a female officer walks into a rape support group and starts deliberately teasing a man about the pronouncement of his name. This was absolutely shudder-worthy and unfortunately only one of many instances like it in the film. Every character is unbelievably annoying (yes even 'Jennifer Hills') and consequently where the first two films did such a good job of creating sympathy for the lead character and utter despise of the villains, that's non-existent this time around. An absolute misfire that should never have been made.