The term most commonly used for a film such as this would be "video nasty", as it got little cinema release recognition, and got a much bigger audience when released to video, I had to see if it was as nasty as it sounded. Basically attractive New York short story writer Jennifer Hills (Camille Keaton) has rented an isolated riverside cabin outside of the city to start work on her new novel. Soon after she arrives she has attracted the attention of many male locals, including gas station manager Johnny (Eron Tabor),unemployed youths Stanley (Anthony Nichols) and Andy (Gunter Kleemann) and shy and slightly mentally retarded grocery delivery man Matthew Lucas (Richard Pace). One day the four men seize their opportunity to help Matthew lose his virginity by grabbing Jennifer, stripping her clothes off, and the village idiot Matthew refuses to have his way with her. So Johnny rapes her, then Andy has his turn anally, and then Matthew finally gives in, but can't orgasm, so Stanley ends it with a quick sexual assault. They were originally going to leave her in her faint bloody state, but Johnny knows they could be caught so he tells Matthew to stab her to death, but he can't, so he covers the knife in some of her blood and claims he did it. After recovering, and finding out her novel has been ruined as well, she goes to church to ask for forgiveness, as she plans a deadly revenge for the four degenerates. Knowing he will deliver groceries to her door, Jennifer orders some for Matthew to drop off, and she seduces him to have sex with her under a tree next to the river, where she he puts neck in a noose, hangs him, and drops his body in the water. Next to face her wrath is Johnny, who she tempts into her car, stopping on the way to the cottage with a gun and ordering him to remove his clothes, but he tempts to lower the gun. She invites Johnny back to the house for a hot bath, with her of course, and when he mentions Matthew is missing, he thinks she is joking when she says she killed him, and then he has his genitals mauled in the bath. After Johhny dies from blood loss, Jennifer dumps his body in the basement, and she burns his clothes, we see Stanley and Andy know that Johnny has gone missing. They take their motorboat to the cabin house, taking an axe with them, and after some failed attacks with it, Jennifer takes the boat, plunges the axe into Andy's back in the water, and mashes Stanley with the boat propeller. This film has the alternative title Day of the Woman, but the more catchy title gets all the attention, and there are some gory moments, so while the acting is cheesy, and the blood amount is small, it isn't such a bad horror thriller. Okay!

A young woman (Camille Keaton) is spotted by a group of men while writing near a river. Not much later, things go from tranquil to nightmarish for her... where do you go after you reach the lowest possible point in your life?

The director's commentary with Mier Zarchi begins by revisiting the history and controversy over the film -- is it a story that is sick and makes woman out to be nothing more than a sexual object, or is it a feminist film where the "day of the woman" allows the victim to strike back?

Zarchi finally reveals the film's inspiration: in the early 1970s, he and his friend Alex Pfau (a protégé of Roman Polanski) witnessed a rape victim after the fact, her body naked, bloody and broken. They brought the young woman to the police, but allegedly the officer on duty was not very concerned. At this point the director realized that being questioned by the police is not the solution to the rape -- at least not yet -- but the continuation of it.

The film is certainly the most explicit up to the time it was made, and some might even say up until today. Those who do not know what to expect may be very shocked by this film if they see it uncut. Then again, even cut, it is a shocking film -- what would be a two minute scene in some films goes on over an hour here.

Mike Mayo praises the film to a point, but considers it "crude and single-minded" and suggests viewers check out Abel Ferrara's "Ms. 45". Indeed, the film has a pretty thin plot, but its point is clear, and even the attackers get fleshed out a bit in the second half.

What should we make of the church scene? Can you reconcile Christian beliefs with murder or revenge? That is not a question I choose to answer, but certainly a question raised by this film, whether intentionally or otherwise.

The film is a natural step from "Last House on the Left", actually upping the ante. And Camille Keaton has to be honored for such dark subject matter and tackling it head-on. This could have been a career killer, and perhaps it was, though it has sealed her place in cult film history.

There is also a 29-minute special feature called "The Values of Vengeance" which is insightful, though does not cover much the commentary does not. Of course, if you want to actually see Meir Zarchi's face, here is your chance. And you will hear a nice story about Wizard Video's shrewd business dealings.

In summertime, the aspirant New Yorker writer Jennifer Hills (Camille Keaton) rents a lakeside cottage in the woods of the peaceful Park Hell Lane, Connecticut, to write her first novel during the vacation. A couple of days later, she is successively and brutally gang raped by three local bigoted rednecks and one retarded delivery boy from the supermarket. The humiliated and abused Jennifer does not report the sexual assault to the police and a couple of weeks later, she is physically recovered and has just plotted revenge against the rapists.

"Day of the Woman" is extremely realistic and violent; therefore the simple and scary story is absolutely credible. The unknown Camille Keaton has an amazing performance, especially in the impressive long sequence when she is repeatedly beaten and raped. However, this gore movie is only recommended for very specific audiences and prohibited to sensitive persons due to the savagery of most of the scenes. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Vingança de Jennifer" ("The Revenge of Jennifer")