Director: Coralie Fargeat
Writer: Coralie Fargeat
Stars: Matilda Lutz, Kevin Janssens, Vincent Colombe
Get it from Amazon: https://amzn.to/2LHDdcz
Synopsis
We open on a helicopter flying over the Australian desert. Richard and Jen are aboard. The pilot gives Richard a small package, then gets back in the copter and flies away. Richard and Jen get naked and busy, and later that night, the man gets a phone call from his wife, and there’s a child crying in the background. Yeah, it’s that kind of a trip.
The next morning, the girl is startled when Stan and Dmitri, two men with hunting rifles, show up at the door. Richard explains that they arrived early, and they weren’t supposed to see Jen. Still, that night they all party and seem to have a lot of fun. There’s a mention that the copter pilot handed Richard some peyote, which he gives to Jen to hide for him. She flirts with all three guys.
In the morning, Jen wakes up to find Richard has gone off to see the gamekeeper, which will take several hours. Dmitri has a hangover, so it’s just Jen and Stan alone. She’s a little creeped out and goes to start packing. He follows her into the bedroom and comes on to her unsuccessfully. It gets very awkward. Dmitri stumbles into the room just as Stan starts raping Jen. Dmitri backs out and lets Stan get on with it. Dmitri has a moment where it looks like he may intervene, but instead just turns up the TV so he can’t hear the rape in the next room.
Richard returns. Stan says there’s a problem with Jen. Richard and Stan shout at each other. Richard offers her money, a job, and a plane ticket to Canada; she can start her life over. She tells Richard to call the helicopter or she’ll call his wife and tell her everything. He slaps her, and she runs off into the desert, barefoot, with all three men in pursuit.
They catch up to her as she stands on the edge of a cliff. They close in on her. Richard gives in and calls for the helicopter, then moves in close to Jen. He reaches out for her, but at the last moment, he pushes her off the cliff. She falls hundreds of feet and gets impaled on a tree. The three men plan to continue their hunting trip as planned and clean up the mess on the way.
Some time later, Jen wakes up with a tree stump stuck all the way through her; she really has been seriously impaled. She reaches for her iPod headphones, which she uses to drag a cigarette lighter over to her hand. She reaches down and sets the tree on fire beneath her. The tree burns just enough that it breaks under her weight. She almost passes out from the pain, but she hears the engine of the men’s car approaching.
The men return and don’t see her. It gets dark by the time they find a trail of blood, which they follow until it hits a small lake. Richard and Dmitri split off to circle in opposite directions, while Stan stays behind in the car. Dmitri drives right past her. She sneaks up behind him and grabs his gun; it’s not loaded. She grabs his knife and stabs him in the eyes. One down.
Jen finds a cave and starts a fire. She goes through Dmitri’s backpack and finds a few supplies. She’s still got a huge tree branch stuck through her belly. She eats the peyote and it has the expected effect. It’s time for some self-surgery! She cuts up a beer can with the hunting knife and cuts out the tree stump still sticking through her. She heats up the beer can and cauterizes the wound (at least the one in front), then passes out.
Stan wakes up in the car in the morning and goes down to the river to pee. He finds Dmitri’s body.
Jen wakes up, and she now has a phoenix-print brand where the hole used to be. Otherwise, she looks pretty healthy (we never see her fix the hole in her back) and for some reason, her hair is darker now. She packs up Dmitri’s gun, ammo, and supplies, and then heads off in search of some revenge.
She spots Stan’s car on the road and she follows him, barefoot and nearly naked through the desert. She sniper-shoots him in the shoulder, and then follows his blood trail. Stan gets behind her and shoots, but his hand shakes and all he hits is her earlobe. She gets her revenge on Stan in a gruesome and cringeworthy manner. Two down. She also takes his car.
Richard waits at the rendezvous point all day, then heads home. He calls for the helicopter to pick him up in half an hour. He gets undressed and takes a shower. He hears something outside. He goes to investigate, but no one is there. He goes back inside, and there she is. She shoots him in the belly, but he’s not dead. After an intense chase and after losing an insane amount of blood, he catches her. She punches him in his wound then blows him in half with the shotgun. Three down.
Commentary
The scenery in this is amazing. From the trailer, I had assumed the three men lured her out there to rape and murder her, but it really all just sort of “happens,” unintentionally. The three men don’t start off as troublemakers.
The gore effects are good, as is the peyote sequence. There’s maybe a little too much blood; any injury that left blood trails like these would have been fatal. There are three dead bodies at the end and about fifty gallons of blood spilled. The makeup on dead Dmitri is impressive. What happens with Stan’s foot is pretty horrible to watch as well.
This movie has a ton of violence and gore, and some of it is beyond believable, but at least it’s very entertaining.