‘Revenge’ Is the Revenge Movie to End All Revenge Movies

A gorgeous woman suddenly impaled through her stomach. A manhunt in the barren wilderness. A climactic bloodbath to rival The Shining’s torrent of hemoglobin: Coralie Fargeat’s debut feature, Revenge, made an impression when it premiered in the Midnight Madness program at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. But now that it’s out in theaters, on demand, and available on iTunes (before it streams on Shudder in the fall), the film deserves as much attention as it can get. Its blunt title demands it. Revenge isn’t simply a rape-revenge thriller, it’s also an act of vengeance against a genre’s common misogyny.