VIOLATION – Anyone on holiday in a cabin in the woods will meet disaster in some form… it’s easy for me to say that as a horror fan, but crikey, it’s usually not this bad. ‘Violation’ is absolutely a horror film, a rape revenge film, but it’s not exploitative, at least not in the way this kind of film can be. No judgement either way on that one, it’s simply that ‘Violation’ isn’t interested in selling thrills, it wants to show pain. The rape that ignites ‘Violation’s payback inferno is shown glancingly; what happens afterwards is a shriek of despair that once or twice threatens to shatter the screen. The comeuppance meted out to the central perp here might have had problems with the BBFC a few years back (maybe more cos of said creep’s schlong waving than anything else), but the main point is Madeleine Sims-Fewer‘s performance. It goes for the jugular in a way that a less committed film would shy away from and seems to reach deep, at points collapsing into shudders and gasps that recall Isabel Adjani going full-throttle in ‘Possession’. The rest of the film is more subdued but still glowers. In fact, the slow-burn that leads to vengeance is where, for me, the film is at its strongest, foregoing standard beats and plot moves for the sake of building an atmosphere of mounting dread. There’s something about the constant shots of nature that seems sickly and eerie, a sense of poison spreading in lockstep with scenes of ever-more toxic squabbling. Powerful and punishing stuff. Recommended if you’re in the mood for a challenging watch… if you’re not, you could always put on ‘I Spit On Your Grave’ for light relief!
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