Revenge (Review)
Can You Guess What Revenge is About?
Personally, I think no one does revenge movies like the Koreans. However, the French certainly gave it one hell of a shot with this dark and twisted film called, well, Revenge. There are a lot of things that this movie manages to get right, but it feels like a tale that’s been told one too many times and doesn’t feel like it brings enough originality to make it really stand out. Still, as blood-soaked horror movies go, Revenge is a pretty damn good one.
Director Coralie Fargeat brings us a brutal film about a woman’s struggle to survive against three predatory men. At the center of the story is Matilda Lutz as Jen, a seemingly professional mistress working for a wealthy Frenchman taking a holiday with some of his buddies. From the beginning, it’s clear that Jen is nothing more than an object to her disgusting male counterparts (Vincent Colombe, Guillaume Bouchède, and Kevin Janssens), something that she doesn’t object to at first, but things slowly start to go too far. When Jen finally stands her ground against one of the hairy upright pigs they do what any typical misogynist would do and leave her for dead in the desert. The problem is that leaving people for dead in movies often comes back to bite you on the ass…
Ever since Kill Bill, there’s been an obsession with drenching beautiful women in blood and battering them to make them seem strong and powerful on the big screen. It’s certainly worked for a few films like The Descent, You’re Next, and Atomic Blonde, and to a certain extent it works for Revenge. However, it seems excessive and almost gratuitous at certain parts. It’s understandable that Jen is meant to be a force of nature turning back on those who wronged her, but at a certain point, blood loss becomes a serious concern. There are even rumors are that the production crew used so much fake blood that they would often run out of it on set. Needless to say, Revenge is definitely a gory, revenge-driven horror film that ensures the heroes victims suffer much more than she does.
I have to give some serious credit to Matilda Lutz who turns in a jaw-dropping performance. She sells the idea that she has an indomitable spirit with every fiber of her being, which is a complete 180 from how she starts the film out. The sequences where she performance field surgery on herself in order to survive will make audiences absolutely cringe even though it doesn’t show anything too disturbing. Instead, Coralie Fargeat relies on Lutz’s reactions, screams, and wails of pain to really sell the sequences. This only makes it all the more convincing as she pursues her attackers across a desolate desert landscape.
Revenge is very much a movie about survival. On both sides of this fight are people doing everything they possibly can to save their lives. While Jen’s life is quite literally on the line, the attackers are metaphorically dead if she does make it out alive. After all, they do attempt to rape her and murder her while on vacation. Of course, it’s easy to pick a side in this fight from the get-go, but the fact that this is a down and dirty fight for survival makes it all the more enthralling to watch it unfold. Especially since Jen has an almost supernatural drive to finish what they started. In that regards, Revenge is about as hardcore and brutal as they come.
It’s always been such a disturbing notion to me that men with power feel the need for even more power. It’s as though their entitled to it. Revenge makes this very clear by the fact that these incredibly wealthy scumbags, who can buy anything they want, feel the need to assert even more power over Jen. In a way, she’s there because they are men with power, but these men turn out to be psychopaths in the making with a need to control everything around them. When they can’t, things go wrong very quickly for everyone. With that in mind, I have to warn audiences that these men are gut-wrenching to watch. As bloody and gruesome as Revenge is, it’s the men who are the most revolting part of the entire movie.
Honestly, I think Revenge is very much the new High Tension and I can not wait to see what Coralie Fargeat. It’s a tremendous film with a strong woman at the center of it that will shock everyone with how powerful her will to survive is. Personally, I would have rolled over and died in the first ten minutes of what she endures. While it does take things a little too far at times, it never really feels like it’s done for shock value. It’s definitely not for the faint of heart though and if you’re sensitive to scenes of violence against women then you will not want to see this. Horror fans and people who want to see some disgusting men get what they deserve though will love Revenge.
