Rape & Revenge

"Rape & Revenge" constitutes one of the most controversial subgenres in the realm of exploitation films. On the narrative level, its canonical formula is rather straightforward, calling for the protagonist, after being brutally attacked and raped, to plot and take revenge against the guilty parties, conventionally a group of troublemakers or a gang of delinquents. There are, however, several variations on the main theme, ranging from situations when third parties carry out the retaliation (for example, when the victim doesn't survive the attack) to the possibility that one or more culprits go unpunished (for example, the unnamed woman played by Macha Méril who instigates two male criminals in the 1975 film "Last Stop on the Night Train").

By extension, this Tag will also be applied to certain films in which the female character becomes the focus of severe humiliation and physical and/or psychological abuse rather than a direct sexual attack (such as in the case of the 1975 "Emanuelle and Françoise"). A milestone in the "rape and revenge" subgenre is Wes Craven's "The Last House on the Left" (1972), a film inspired by Ingmar Bergman's (!) "The Virgin Spring" (1960). Craven's work elicited - for better or worse - an unprecedented clamor.(+)

Detractors of such works generally accuse them of pandering to the basest instincts of a voyeuristic audience by offering a milieu laden with sinister sensationalism and misogyny. On the other hand, those who champion "R & R" movies point to the deeper sociopolitical message and metaphorical significance such films often convey. Which side is right?