Director Steven Monroe saw the original I Spit on Your Grave as a teenager, and it stuck with him all these years.  When he found out that a remake was in the works, he was adamant about coming on board to preserve to integrity and violence of the rape/revenge story.  We spoke exclusively with Monroe about the decision to go out unrated, and the possibilities of a sequel.

FEARnet: How did you get involved with I Spit on Your Grave?

Steven Monroe: Cinetel acquired the rights to the film.  I was in their office and I saw the DVD sitting on someone’s desk there.  I asked what it was doing there, and they told me they acquired the rights to make a remake.  I said, “I want to do it.”  I had watched too many bad remakes. I saw the original when I was [about 16] and it really had an impact on me.  I was worried that, in the wrong hands, it would lose that impact.  Luckily, [producers] Lisa Hansen and Paul Hertzberg had the same concerns.  I read over the first draft of the script and told them my concerns.  They agreed with me, and I got the job.

Is this truly unrated?  Did you submit it to the MPAA at all?

Yes, it is truly unrated.  The cut we submitted to the MPAA was what we called the “Everything Cut.”  It had everything in there that we wanted in there, and that we thought the fans would want to see.  We didn’t want the fans to be able to say that we backed off on anything.  That is the cut we sent to the MPAA, and that is the cut that is going out to theatres unrated.  The MPAA said that cut would be NC-17, but they also said that they don’t recommend we cut it down. In a way we were shocked, but it was easy for them.  They don’t care if the film is released with an NC-17 or an R.  It’s the distributors who care.  Why go NC-17?  You can’t get into any theatres with that.  At least with unrated, you can show it to theatre chains to see if they will take it.  And a lot did take it.  The R-rated cut that the MPAA signed off on is sitting on a shelf somewhere.

Will that end up getting a wider release?

No.  They are not doing any release with that R-rated cut.  At all.

With I Spit on Your Grave and Hatchet 2 being released to theatres unrated, do you think this is the renaissance of the unrated film - movies that aren’t being watered down?

I hope so.  It’s tricky, because even if you go unrated and you aren’t dealing with the MPAA, you are dealing with the theatre chains.  They can say no, we aren’t going to show this movie.  So you are still dealing with censorship, but it is an easier thing to change.  You can’t change what the MPAA does, but horror fans can change the minds of theatre chains.  If theatres that are showing an unrated film are selling out, the theatres that said no before can start to change their mind.

Before we made a decision on the rating, a lot of the internet chatter said that we were going to wimp out, go R-rated, and give us this dumb, watered-down movie.  I get that, but now we are getting people complaining that because it is unrated, it won’t play in many theatres.  Make up your mind about what you are mad about!  But we know that the real fans will find those theatres.

Have you received any kind of hate mail from conservative groups, or women’s groups, or anything like that?

No.  Not yet at least.  I say this with all due respect, but conservative groups don’t generally pay much attention to this kind of media.  If the film starts doing really well, they are going to start realizing what is going on.  If this was going into a wide release right away, they’d be all over it.  But they don’t know about it yet, so I’m not really worried about it.  Most of the hate I have gotten have been from those fans - or pseudo-fans - who are offended that I would remake this film.

Are you trying to please the hardcore fans or make new fans?

Both.  This is the most exhausted I have been after any movie I have ever done.  I worked so hard to make it work for both audiences.  The producers and I all knew that we weren’t making this film for everyone; we were making it for a specific audience.

It’s nice to see a director who has so much passion for his work on a remake.  Remakes get a really bad rep.

Because there is no passion behind them.

Do you feel that I Spit on Your Grave is a great feminist manifesto, or is it just a slasher film with a message?

I think people will make it out to be whatever they want it to be.  To me, it doesn’t matter the gender; this movie is about something horrific happening to one person - gender doesn’t matter - and it forever changed her.  She went back and got her own revenge.  In this situation it was portrayed that there weren’t many places she could go to get justice.  Someone called this film “the most unmasculine movie ever directed by a man.”  I don’t know why - because the woman has power in this film?

I’ve had a lot of people come to me and tell me that they start to feel sorry for the guys by the end of the film.  The original doesn’t really go to the lengths we go to with the revenge portion. In a way, that was somewhat intended.  I went to the actors and told them that I don’t want cartoon bad guys.  There is a reason why you guys are like this, even though we don’t address it directly.  Audiences need to see behind the eyes of the bad guys; it can’t be on the surface.  For each of the guys in this film, there is a moment where you look at them and start to feel bad,  even though you are with Jennifer and cheering her on.

You had a really small budget for this film: around $1.5 million.  Was that on purpose?  So many of these remakes of zero-budget horror films seem to have too much money.

My manager always laughs at me because I like to say I don’t want a movie with too much money.  I’ll give some of it back!  I think if you get too comfortable, you don’t make the right creative choices.  I don’t think it was planned; that was just our budget.  Nobody thinks the movie was the budget that it was; everyone thinks it was much more.  You can do a lot with a little, but you can’t do a lot with nothing.  I don’t see any reason why a horror movie should have a $20 million budget.

Would you be interested in doing a sequel?

I would, as long as a sequel could be made that has the impact of the original, and the impact I hope this remake has.  As long as it can be as dark and violent and upsetting of a film.  A sequel can’t be the same story, but it has to carry the same theme.  If all that can happen, I would be more than interested.  I feel like this remake is part of me now.  To turn over a sequel to someone else - when I know it could be great - would be really hard.