Review: Revenge

Directed by: Coralie Fargeat

Written by: Coralie Fargeat

Starring: Matilda Lutz, Kevin Janssens, Vincent Colombe, Guillaume Bouchède

Rating: [4/5]

Having the fear of sexual assault for a woman, unfortunately, remains a reality that informs conversations a woman has with any strange man they may encounter. The fear of the act and what can actually be done about it makes any altercation of this sort such a terrible ordeal. Revenge provides just the antidote in a story seeking to provide a level of catharsis very much necessary for a story as grueling as this one and this feature captures it all exceptionally well.

Spending a night with the married Richard (Kevin Janssens), Jen (Matilda Lutz) meets his friends who arrive earlier than expected for a hunting trip. Following one of Richard’s friends raping her she threatens to expose them all, which makes Richard push her off a cliff. Surviving the ordeal, Jen awakens and sets out to get her revenge and take out each of them as they come hunting for her. 

Straightforward in its narrative structure, Revenge finds its greatness in the artistic style it implements in its story. Something so incredibly brutal initially done to her and then paid right back to these terrible men making for quite the journey and something sexual assault survivors can watch to get a level of satisfaction the real world cannot provide. The film does have its fun with the gore involved with the circumstance, which may prove too much for some but makes for a wild ride worth taking. 

The terrible rape done to Jen in this story demonstrates the evil of these men on multiple levels, which derives the ultimate satisfaction of what occurs later in the film with her revenge. The fault lies not only with Stan (Vincent Colombe) who physically raped her but also with Dimitri (Guillaume Bouchède) who witnessed it and said nothing along with Richard himself in not having the appropriate reaction when finding out what has occurred. All active perpetrators of a rape culture that would allow something like that to transpire. Whatever reconciliation could possibly occur following the event completely goes out the window when they go and try to hunt her down to silence this entire ordeal. 

With a secluded vacation home located in a desert operating as the setting for this feature, it allows for quite the battleground for these characters. The cliff Jen gets pushed off of ends up with her being impaled by a tree, which certainly hurt. But her survival allows the elements to play a significant role in hunting down these men and making them pay for what they have done to her. Not only the heat constantly brimming on their faces but also the long treeless spaces allow for clear shots and a lack of cover where everyone carrying a sniper could take one another out. The vastness allows Jen to force them to split up and take them on one-by-one in order to feasibly take them out. As much as these men believe they’re hunting her, they soon realize the role’s completely reversed. 

The violence on display in this feature will certainly make many queasy and have to look away because of its depiction and how gruesome it gets. From the beginning, Jen gets freaking impaled by a tree and somehow survives, which truly sets the tone for what level of blood and violence the rest of the feature has in store. With each altercation Jen has with these men out in the wild, things get quite tense and brutal with plenty of harm being done at her hands in some satisfyingly gruesome ways. Plenty of blood gets shed, like a lot, and every pint of it gets utilized spectacularly well to get the right effect in the story. 

Coralie Fargeat, the writer/director of the feature creates something quite unforgettable here. Not only through the ways she captures the violence on display but the visual style she employs in displaying it all. With the desert background having this consistently brown background, it allows for colors to pop making Jen stand out visually amongst the rest of the dreck. The element most making its mark comes from her star earring, which instantly serves as the calling card and the image I initially think about whenever this feature comes to mind. It receives a highlight on the poster and truly sums up just how confidently Fargeat pieces everything of this feature together. She takes something so difficult to watch at moments, especially the rape scene in a non-gratuitous manner but makes the revenge that much more graphic. 

A complete knockout by all stretches, Revenge serves as one of those films you will not forget you have watched because of pretty much everything transpiring in the movie. It captures the brutality of revenge in a necessarily cathartic manner to really drive home the anger of this movie towards all purveyors of rape culture including those who sit on the sidelines and do nothing. A fantastic debut feature by Coralie Fargeat and a forceful performance by Matilda Lutz channeling all of the anger of this character.