Magazine writer Jennifer Hill (Camille Keaton) travels from her home in New York to a secluded cabin in the woods in order to try her hand at writing her first novel. Upon arriving she encounters a mentally retarded delivery boy by the name of Matthew (Richard Pace). Upon encountering her he then returns to a group of three men that might by described at best as Southern Good ol’ Boys that treat him as something of a mascot. Upon being given a somewhat exaggerated account of her feminine wiles they decode to pay her a visit, which is where all the trouble starts.

It seems Matthew is still a virgin so they put it upon themselves to orchestrate his coming out. It doesn’t take much of a leap of faith to assume Jennifer wants no part of this so the four men engage in a fairly brutal gang rape. She escapes for a time but in the end is raped and beaten two more times before being left alone in her cabin while all but Matthew believe she is dead. As for the films remaining third that is where the revenge part of the Rape/Revenge genre comes in.

I Spit on Your Grave, or Day of the Woman which was its original release title which is preferred by its director, was theatrically released in 1979 to a firestorm of controversy surrounding its abrasive subject mater. Based partially, or perhaps more accurately said to be inspired by an actual incident that the films Director Meir Zarchi encountered the aftermath of. It seems he and his young daughter and a family friend were driving along when they were confronted by a woman who had recently been brutalized and raped. After taking her to the authorities and finding them impassive and totally ineffective he later decided to use this subject matter for his first film. At first being an independent production dealing with what many found to be unappealing subject matter he shopped it around for a year and was somehow was even able to screen it at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival. Finally in 1979 he was able to find distribution for the film under the condition that he change its title to I Spit on Your Grave, which he reportedly thought of as a horrible change. It turned out that this was only the beginning of Zarchi’s troubles. Do to the outcry of various high profile critics most notably Roger Ebert who strongly advocated that the film should receive an outright ban. In the end this notoriety helped push the film into cult status, but in the days before home video this did much to hurt the chances of it becoming anything of a financial success. But with the rise of home video years later the film surpassed all expectations for sale when first released in 1981 which only goes to show that there is indeed a strong audience for this film. Its what that audience sees in or takes away from it that has caused much of the controversy.