Revenge (2018)

Fargeat paints the whole movie red…talk about a movie that BLEEDS. This bad boy gushes red all over the place. I will tell you what got me…the scene in the cave where Jen (Lutz, who has one hell of an arc) needs to tend to a nasty torso wound with a tree stick protruding. She took some swigs of a Mexican Beer taken from the first scumbag she knife stabbed in the face/eyes, opened up the aluminum, lit it up over an open fire, and planted the heated and opened can to her wound. That was after Jen was able to barely swallow down some strong, hallucinogenic peyote, make heated knife cuts on the flesh around the stick wound, and pull the stick from the wound. I think Fargeat was like, “Rambo III, Shmambo III. I’ll take it to the next level.” Well, she are hell did. 

I get that the opening 20 minutes will irk those who feel the camera lusts over Jen’s body, with lots of closeups that just worship her. She’s all pretty, glam, and Instagram ready. Then at like the 69 minute mark, the camera does a complete wrap around of her holding a shotgun, her hair all dirty and brown, badly wounded, with those cauterized wounds on her back and on her stomach with the beer logo eagle, showing the battle scars and desert bath Jen has considering what she goes through. So I think the opening “I Love LA” Jen, with her pink I-Phone, lollipop sucking, and ass-hugging panties is important because of that distinction later when this young woman is no longer her. Richard’s rich businessman with the lavish pad in the middle of that desert, complete with the swimming pool and this hall that seems to circle around forever seems to be like Jen’s sugar daddy or maybe just an older boyfriend…we get a couple of scenes where Richard talks to his wife about house decorations or something. Just a hunting trip with the boys is what Richard seems to have planned, but bringing along Jen eventually proves to be ill-advised. Since his scummy buddy, Stan, can’t take his eyes off her and won’t take no for an answer – Jen is nice to him and tries to keep the peace but this guy just can’t take a hint – matters take a turn for the worse. I just couldn’t watch the rape scene, but after that Jen wants to leave and Richard refuses to call the helicopter due to concerns her telling the police about her rape will bring trouble to all three of them, including Dimitri, who fails to stop Stan when in the act. So this is rape-revenge, so Stan’s scumbaggery is the catalyst in Richard trying to protect them by pushing Jen off a cliff, as she lands on a tree, impaled and appearing to be dead.

I’m the first to say that I suspended my disbelief. I realize Jen would be killed instantly the moment her body landed with a hard thud on the tree. That wound was nasty. But I just said, Fuck it. I can do that in films like this. But if you throw your hands up and just rolled your eyes, not able to swallow that, the film probably won’t work. I mean, I could see the ending, too, bringing the “This is bullshit.” Richard with this major torso wound, using Reynolds wrap around his stomach to hold in his organs, seemingly able to lose all that blood and still move with great intensity around the house while Jen follows after him (or tries to avoid him)...I can totally see a section of viewership just unable to buy that bill of goods at all. I give Fargeat a ton of credit…that ending had me gripped even as I was almost completely sure Jen was going to vanquish Richard. But the film doesn’t let Jen recover from that stick impalement without any more damage. Stan is able to use his rifle to take part of Jen’s ear off with one shot he gets off successfully. And the film sells that gunshot to the ear well, with the ringing and how she has to ingeniously use glass from her flashlight and the absurd foot gash Stan must tend to. And the hallucination of Jen’s head being exploded by Richard’s close-range shotgun blast for extra punch. Great stuff.

 4.5/5