The first time I sat down to watch I Spit on Your Grave 3: Vengeance is Mine, I expected more of the same. You know the drill. High-octane gore, a standard "eye for an eye" narrative, and the kind of grinding nihilism that defines the exploitation genre. But this 2015 installment, directed by R.D. Braunstein, pulls a bit of a bait-and-switch. It isn't just a carbon copy of the 2010 remake or the 1978 original. It’s actually a direct sequel to the 2010 film, bringing Sarah Butler back as Jennifer Hills, which was a huge deal for fans who felt the second movie—set in Bulgaria with an entirely different cast—was a bit of a detour.
Honestly, the way this movie handles trauma is surprisingly messy. Not messy in a "bad filmmaking" way, but messy in a "life is complicated" way. Most rape-revenge films end when the last villain dies. The credits roll, the survivor walks into the sunset, and we assume they’re "healed" because the bad guys are gone. I Spit on Your Grave 3 says that's total nonsense. It picks up with Jennifer living in Los Angeles under the alias Angela, attending support groups, and trying to navigate a world that feels fundamentally broken.
What happened to Jennifer Hills?
The movie doesn't waste time pretending Jennifer is okay. She's working a dead-end job at a crisis hotline. Imagine that. Every day, she listens to the worst moments of people's lives, which is a brutal irony considering her own history. She meets a girl named Marla at her support group. Marla is everything Jennifer isn't—loud, confrontational, and fed up with a legal system that treats victims like an afterthought.
Their friendship is the heartbeat of the first act. It’s also where the movie starts to shift from a personal survival story into something closer to vigilante justice. When Marla is murdered by an abusive ex, Jennifer snaps. But it’s not just about her anymore. She starts hunting down the abusers of the women in her support group. It’s a Robin Hood approach to extreme violence. It’s dark. It’s grimy. It’s also deeply cynical about the police and the courts.
Most people don't realize how much this film leans into the "slasher" aesthetic compared to its predecessors. While the 2010 remake was a grueling exercise in endurance, the third one feels more like a psychological thriller that occasionally explodes into practical effects. The kills are creative, sure, but they’re fueled by a different kind of rage. It’s a collective rage.
Why the critics were so divided
If you look at the reviews from 2015, they were all over the place. Some critics from outlets like Variety or The Hollywood Reporter found the shift in tone jarring. They were used to the isolated cabin-in-the-woods setting. Moving the action to the urban decay of Los Angeles changed the stakes. It made the violence feel more systemic.
The budget was clearly tighter than the 2010 film, but Braunstein makes it work by focusing on Sarah Butler’s performance. She’s hollowed out. There’s a scene where she’s just sitting in her apartment, and you can see the weight of what she’s done—and what’s been done to her—in her eyes. It’s a performance that deserves more credit than "exploitation actress" usually gets.
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Is it a masterpiece? No. There are moments where the dialogue feels a bit "on the nose," and some of the side characters are caricatures of villainy. But as a study of what happens after the revenge is over, it’s far more interesting than it has any right to be. It asks a terrifying question: can you ever really stop being a killer once you've started?
The controversy of the "Vigilante" pivot
In I Spit on Your Grave 3, the transition from victim to vigilante is treated with a sort of grim inevitability. This is where the movie gets controversial. By having Jennifer seek out people who didn't even hurt her personally, the film moves into the territory of Death Wish.
- It challenges the idea of the "Perfect Victim." Jennifer isn't sweet or forgiving. She's terrifying.
- It highlights the failures of the 21st-century legal system. The film explicitly mentions how restraining orders are often just pieces of paper.
- It subverts the male gaze. Unlike many films in this subgenre, the camera doesn't feel like it's leering as much as it is documenting a breakdown.
The gore is still there, obviously. If you're squeamish, this isn't for you. There's a particular scene involving a pipe and a man's nether regions that is genuinely difficult to watch. But unlike the first movie, where the violence felt like a desperate act of survival, here it feels like a surgical strike. It’s calculated. It’s cold.
The technical side of the mayhem
R.D. Braunstein took over the director's chair from Steven R. Monroe, who did the 2010 and 2013 films. You can feel the difference. Monroe's style was very "grindhouse chic"—lots of high-contrast yellows and browns. Braunstein goes for a colder, bluer palette. The city looks indifferent. The sound design is also worth noting. The silence in Jennifer’s apartment is deafening, making the bursts of violence later on feel much louder and more invasive.
Interestingly, the film didn't have a massive theatrical run. It was largely a VOD (Video on Demand) and DVD release. This actually helped its cult status. It found its audience among horror fans who were tired of the "sequel in name only" trend. Because Sarah Butler returned, it felt legitimate. It felt like a closing chapter, even though the franchise eventually spiraled out into I Spit on Your Grave: Deja Vu in 2019 (which was directed by the original 1978 creator Meir Zarchi).
But for many, the "Angela" trilogy—the 2010 film and this one—is the definitive modern arc. It’s a story about the destruction of an identity. Jennifer Hills dies in that river in the first movie, and Angela is the ghost that’s left behind.
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Fact-checking the series timeline
It’s easy to get confused with this franchise because the numbering is a mess. Let’s clear that up.
The 1978 original stands alone. Then you have the 2010 remake. The 2013 movie, titled I Spit on Your Grave 2, is a standalone story with new characters in a new country. I Spit on Your Grave 3 ignores the second movie entirely. It is a direct sequel to the 2010 remake. Then, in 2019, I Spit on Your Grave: Deja Vu came out, which acts as a direct sequel to the 1978 original, also ignoring the remakes.
It’s a "choose your own adventure" of trauma. If you want the modern, polished, and hyper-violent version, you watch 2010 and then 2015’s Part 3. If you want the gritty, low-budget, 70s aesthetic, you stick to the Zarchi films.
How to watch it today
If you're looking to dive into this, you can usually find it on major streaming platforms like Amazon Prime, Tubi, or Vudu. It’s often bundled with the other remakes.
Watching it now, years after its release, it feels like a precursor to the "Good for Her" subgenre of horror that became popular with films like Midsommar or Promising Young Woman. It’s less subtle than those films, sure, but it’s dealing with the same DNA. It’s about the catharsis of seeing someone fight back when the world tells them to just go away and be quiet.
Actionable Steps for Horror Fans
If you're planning on revisiting this movie or watching it for the first time, here is how to get the most out of the experience:
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Watch the 2010 Remake First Don't jump straight into Part 3. You need to see the "origin" of Jennifer's trauma to understand why her transformation into Angela is so radical. The emotional payoff in the support group scenes only works if you’ve seen what she went through.
Pay Attention to the Side Characters The film is often criticized for its "one-dimensional" villains, but look at the women in the support group. Their stories are based on real-world statistics of domestic abuse and stalking. It adds a layer of grim reality to the stylized violence.
Compare the Directorial Styles If you’re a film nerd, watch the 2010 version and the 2015 version back-to-back. Notice how the setting—woods vs. city—changes the way the camera moves. In the woods, the camera is wide, showing how trapped she is. In the city, the camera is tight and claustrophobic, showing how she's trapped in her own head.
Check the Unrated Version Like most films in this category, there are "R-rated" and "Unrated" cuts. The Unrated version is the one the filmmakers intended. It doesn't shy away from the visceral reality of the genre. If you're going to watch a movie titled I Spit on Your Grave, you might as well see the full vision.
This movie isn't for everyone. It’s polarizing, it’s violent, and it’s deeply uncomfortable. But as a piece of genre cinema, it’s one of the few sequels that actually tries to say something new about its protagonist rather than just upping the body count. It's about the exhaustion of being a survivor. And in a weird, dark way, that makes it more human than most slashers.