By now, 99.9% of horror fans are familiar with the recent film The Substance. It’s one of those films that divides the horror community into camps of “love it” or “hate it,” but that seems to be the case with most movies these days.
Demi Moore just won her first Golden Globe award for her role as Elisabeth in The Substance, and there is a lot of positive buzz around the film’s director, Coralie Fargeat. While it’s not Fargeat’s only writing - directing credit, it is only her second feature film; her other projects have been shorts and series.
In 2003, Fargeat (who is French) wrote and directed a short film about a couple of women waiting for mail to be delivered during World War II. The short, called Le Telegramme, won 13 awards on the film festival circuit.
This was followed by the comedic mini-series Les Fees cloches, then another short called Reality+ in 2014. After that, Fargeat got her first big break when she wrote, directed and edited Revenge which was acquired by Shudder.
Revenge premiered at the 42nd Toronto Internation Film Festival before Neon gave it a limited release in the US shortly before it became available to watch on Shudder. Like The Substance, Revenge is ulta-violent and gory, with gallons of blood featured onscreen.
Revenge is about a young and beautiful woman named Jen, who is first seen taking a helicopter ride with her married boyfriend Richard as the two travel to his very ritzy, secluded home in the desert. The two are just planning a fun, sexy weekend before Richard is scheduled to go on a hunting trip with two of his besties Dimitri and Stan.
Unfortunately, the two men show up early, and the four party into the night. The next day, Stan sexually assaults Jen. Obviously, Jen tells Richard what happened, but he shrugs it off, and the three men end up running into the desert after the fleeing Jen before Richard pushes her off a cliff, impaling her body on a tree branch. The men think she is dead, so they aren’t in any hurry to get to her, which seals their doom. Jen pulls herself off the branch, cauterizes the horrific wound, and decides to seek revenge.
What follows is extremely violent, while also rendering Jen into a total bada** who proceeds to hunt the men down. Some of Revenge is very difficult to watch (there is a really gnarly foot trauma scene), but I was enthralled by Jen’s transformation. Through the run of the film, she transforms from a sex kitten to a lean, mean fighter, and the men definitely suffer for mistreating her.
When I first got my trial subscription to Shudder, Revenge is the film that made me decide to pay for a full year, and I have never looked back. Matilda Lutz completely embodies the character of Jen, who is so tough and empowered that she cauterizes her wound with a heated piece of a beer can, which ends up “branding” her with the very fitting image of a Phoenix.
If you haven’t seen Revenge, stop what you are doing right now and look it up on Shudder. You’ll be glad you did.