Revenge (2018)

Six years before she would achieve success and acclaim with The Substance, recently Oscar-nominated French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat directed this nasty little grindhouse thriller.  It's a simple story about a young, aspiring actress/model named Jen (Matilda Lutz) who is staying with her wealthy MARRIED boyfriend Richard (Kevin Janssens) for the weekend at his remote vacation home out in the desert.....when company comes calling with Richard's two hunting buddies (Vincent Colombe, Guillaume Bouchede).  While Richard steps away, one of them assaults her and sadly when he returns, things just get worse from there....as Jen is eventually left for dead, bleeding out in the middle of nowhere.  Once she wakes up though, she finds a way to heal herself in more ways than one and heads out to exact.....REVENGE....on the three men.  And what results is one truly BLOODY affair! 

WARNING: GRAPHIC VIOLENCE PORTRAYED VIA MOVIE CLIPS

Host & Editor: Geoff Gershon
Producer: Marlene Gershon

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Transcript

REVENGE – 2018

Directed by Coralie Fargeat

Starring Matilda Lutz, Kevin Janssens, Vincent Colombe, and Guillaume Bouchede

Genre: Revenge Thriller

Last fall with eager anticipation of her next film (The Substance) coming very soon and all of the praise it's been getting,  felt the need to revisit director Coralie Fargeat's grindhouse gem from six years ago....and it's even bloodier than I remembered. 🤫 It's a basic rape-revenge thriller in the vein of I Spit On Your Grave or the more recent Blink Twice but much more simplified. And gratefully the inciting incident is presented delicately by Fargeat (who also wrote the screenplay and did second-unit) and not in any sort of exploitive manner but.....from THAT point on, subtlety is out the window.

Our protagonist Jen is played by Matilda Lutz and as presented initially, she's basically an aspiring young model/actress/influencer being treated as a side piece by the wealthy and married Richard (Kevin Janssens) as she stays at his remote desert getaway home....before he's then visited by two hunting buddies, one of whom the creepy Stan (Vincent Colombe) immediately has his eye on her. While Richard has to leave for a couple of hours on business, Stan then unfortunately....yeah, what might be most disturbing moment is the blase expression on their other friend Dimitri's (Guillaume Bouchede) face when he accidentally walks in on this. It's pretty chilling. 

Once Richard returns, he predictably does not react well though he also starts to get violent with Jen, she runs outside, all three of them chase her to edge of a nearby cliff and THEN....they leave her for dead. And she SHOULD be dead but this is when Fargeat begins to take the story in more absurd, fantastical directions. 🫣 Which is NOT to say the quality of the movie falls off a cliff, not at all.....what results is a story which could have easily been titled "There Will Be Blood" because there is a LOT of it! Genuinely gnarly stuff which is NOT for the squeamish involving knives, shotguns, glass, rocks, tree branches, saran wrap, beer cans, and a generous helping of peyote for one particular character. 

Regardless it's all shot and edited so crisply, piercing sound design (oh it gets squishy) - along with genuine go-for-broke performances from each actor especially Lutz - you can't help but get sucked in and of course, you're fully behind Jen attempting to get her titular REVENGE. Maximum tension is wrung out of this premise - with several effective cat-and-mouse moments - even though there are a few points where you're questioning how conceivable this all is. Seriously having now seen this a few times, I still LOVE the final climax but just can't help but observe, "The human body doesn't contain THAT much blood right?!? 🤔" 

Best Needle-drop (best song cue or score used throughout runtime of film): 

What better way to accentuate the vibe of such a sleek, brutal revenge thriller than to throw in some pulsating synth music over it?  Well we’ve got that covered thanks to French pop/rock musician and film composer Robin Coudert, officially known as ROB. (Audio clip) 

And his music does not disappoint as it is used sparingly yet effectively, during the opening and closing credits and during a few key action beats – it’s rousing, increasingly high tempo, and a pretty kick-ass track…sharp sound….comparable to Daft Punk I would say….and just given the simple title “Revenge.” Yeah that works… (Audio clip) 

Wasted Talent (most under-utilized talent involved with film): 

Overall this was a very LEAN production with five speaking parts, filmed entirely at ONE isolated location in Morocco, and with a budget of just under $3 million – as a result, it’s pretty challenging for me to find any waste there.  

Trailer Moment (scene or moment that best describes this movie):

Now I am always a sucker for a good old fashioned GNARLY sequence of an action hero repairing his (or her) own bloody wound.  My personal favorite has always been the one half-way through Rambo III….underrated film in the franchise as far as I’m concerned and just a STANDOUT sequence as John Rambo pushes out an arrow which has been wedged into his side and then cauterizes the wound in a pretty inspired fashion. (Audio clip) 

Well ok you want gnarly, then our heroine Jen does you even better by going FULL-ON gnary in a truly memorable sequence about 40 minutes into the film.  She’s now on her own in a cave, bleeding out with a sizeable piece of a tree trunk in her abdomen…..yeah it’s safe to say that this is the film gets more fantastical.  And the whole key to her being to pull this off while just wincing in a daze in pain is….a small portion which she nabbed from her boyfriend in a necklace before all hell broke loose….peyote can be ONE hell of a drug. (Audio clip) 

S0 we then watch in AGONIZING close-up as Jen carves around the tree trunk wound, pulls it out, and then starts to bleed profusely from the gut.  Oh right she’s going to carterize the wound…well how do you cauterize SUCH a large wound in your mid-section?  Well you cut apart a beer can, turning it into a metal plate which you then you heat on an open fire…..then apply that plate of hot metal across your stomach….a few sizzles later, passes out, has some hallucinations….and PRESTO not only has your stomach been cauterized but you’re left with a kick-ass engraving of the eagle plastered across said can.  Hey whether you buy this or not, SURELY even Rambo would have been impressed. (Audio clip) 

MVP (person or people most responsible for the success of this film):

At the end of the day, this film is first and foremost Coralie’s achievement – it’s DAMN impressive for a first-time feature no less.  It looks great, moves well, the violence is convincing, the tension is effectively maintained for a sustained period of time, and the conclusion is satisfying.  Now as of the recording of this review, she is up for a few Oscars for previous episode The Substance….a film which has become a surprise breakout hit worldwide, has substantially raised her profile, and….which I liked but did not love.  If I’m being honest, I found it a bit overlong and not as engaging as it could have been considering the top-flight performances and effects used.  However LIKE this film, it demonstrated Coralie’s primary strength as a visual storyteller – both films have stark, chilly vibes to them with minimal dialogue….and both films communicate their themes very clearly as a result.  Bottom line, she’s still two-for-two and a pure unadulterated GENRE filmmaker to watch and for pulling off what I believe STILL remains her best film, Coralie Fargeat is the MVP. (Audio clip) 

Overall Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

I simply love this film and cannot recommend it highly enough as an in-your-face grindhouse thriller.  However one more time a warning: it is NOT for the squeamish and if you’ve already seen The Substance and dug it….good deal but believe me, this film has even MORE blood!  

Streaming on Shudder, AMC Plus & Prime Video

And that ends another BLOODY review!