TIFF 2017 Review: Revenge

Each year at TIFF's Midnight Madness program, I always look for the one film that looks the most gory and brutal hardcore horror film of the bunch. Not every year has one of them, but since my first ever TIFF experience in high school with 2008's "Martyrs", I like to try and find something new each year that pushes boundaries and that successfully freaks out it's audience.

French cinema in the past decade has been fairly reliable for me in terms of filmmakers who aren't afraid to go that little bit (or a lot) further in terms of what makes people squirm and scream. I may enjoy these gruesome films, but they still have to have purpose for the violence on display and characters I care for.

This year's pick was Coralie Fargeat's "Revenge". I was intrigued by seeing a female perspective on the often exploitative "rape-revenge" genre. The plot is about as simple and straightforward as the title suggests and Fargeat certainly delivers what she promises in spades. The plot starts off with Jen and her rich, married boyfriend (whose name I honestly can't remember if even mentioned) enjoying a weekend away of sex and relaxation. When the boyfriend's friends show up a couple days early, things get complicated and inevitably unpleasant. The "rape-revenge" genre sort of spoils itself in terms of telegraphing the story arc, but Fargeat's own stylistic and narrative flourishes make Jen's descent into madness and badassery (with the help of some mind-altering drugs) quite compelling.

Fargeat and her DP, Robrecht Heyvaert, shoot most of the film in super saturated sun-drenched colour palettes. If the film isn't filled with deep shades of orange, it's filled with varying shades of red. When the revenge portion of the film kicks in, the film is suspenseful, exceedingly gory (yet arguably not gratuitous), and occasionally spattered with bits of dark humour.

My main qualms with the film come after some reflection on my viewing. While I was engaged from start to finish, we never really get to know any of the characters. The fact that I can't remember the names of any of the characters, save for Jen and a helicopter pilot at the beginning named Roberto, or if they even had names, is an example. Everyone puts out a great performance, especially Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz (who plays Jen), but no one is necessarily "likeable". From the start, Jen and her boyfriend don't say much before the other boys in the club show up. From that point onward, while I can certainly sympathize with Jen and her situation, I feel like I rooted for her out of her situation and the desire to see vengeance delivered, opposed to being drawn to her character past that. All the male characters have some pleasantly unexpected transitions too, but like the title of the film, Fargeat is perfectly content to let its audience know what they can expect, even at the expense of diminishing certain narrative surprises.

All that said, Fargeat and her team deliver a stripped down, stylized, and thoroughly engrossing horror film that I'm sure many will enjoy in the Midnight crowd or amidst horror fans, pending that one has the stomach for it. While not particularly deep past it's visceral and cringe-inducing thrills, the thrills still more than make up for any shortcomings in the character development department.

9/10