Title – Revenge (2017)

Director – Coralie Fargeat (feature debut)

Cast – Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz, Kevin Janssens, Vincent Colombe, Guillaume Bouchède

Plot – On a trip with her married boyfriend Richard (Janssens), wannabe actress Jen (Lutz) finds herself battling for survival and seeking revenge after an horrific incident leads her to be left for dead.

“These are my associates”

Review by Eddie on 10/10/2018

If you’ve seen one revenge movie, you’ve seen them all and while French film Revenge doesn’t mess with the well-worn formula, this blood soaked and stylishly filmed low-budget effort does enough to warrant a viewing, especially for those horror aficionados seeking out their next blood soaked female orientated bought of violent retribution.

Focussing on Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz’s wannabe actress Jen, who on a getaway/boys hunting trip with her wealthy married company man boyfriend Richard (played loathsomely by a very game Kevin Janssens) and his two creepy friends Stan and Dimitri, finds herself in a battle of life and death after she’s taken advantage of and left for dead making Revenge is a neon-drenched desert set experience that isn’t for the faint of heart.

Directed by debut female filmmaker Coralie Fargeat, Revenge is filled with ominous foreboding as Jen’s seemingly good-time filled world is turned upside down in an instance, as we as an audience get thrown into her bloody journey from dancing free-spirit to Lara Croft looking, gun-toting one-woman army.

It’s a fever dream like experience, not unlike one you’d expect to find from a filmmaker such as Nicholas Winding Refn as where thrown headfirst into Fargeat’s film that isn’t looking to take any prisoners and Revenge is unafraid to shock, slice and savage its way through its at times bogged-down runtime with a collection of hardcore experiences that culminates in one of the year’s most bloody finales.

There’s beatings, bruising, shootings and self-surgeries’ as Revenge trots along its path as it well and truly earns its adults only rating.

Overcoming it’s at times stale scripting and suspect supporting turns from Vincent Colombe and Guillaume Bouchède as Stan and Dimitri, Revenge also unearths a real gem of a performance from Lutz who embodies Jen with a powerful will and determination and is game to embrace the films often unbelievable and over the top moments to help give Revenge a steely determination to complete its goal as a cinematic offering.

Final Say –

Filled with just enough originality and style to separate itself from the revenge pack, Revenge is a hard-boiled and often horrific tale of justice served cold. Not for those that don’t like their movies drenched in copious claret, Revenge ends up becoming one of the year’s more memorable horror/thriller offerings and marks down director Fargeat and star Lutz as a talents to keep an eye on.

3 heated cans out of 5