If there’s one thing you can’t say about Violation, the feature length debut of Canadian writer-director duo, Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli, is that it holds itself back. This film is brutal with a capital B, and unflinching as all hell with its approach to some unsavory and likely triggering material. It is another addition to the controversial yet ever present rape-revenge genre. And it’s probably one of the more extreme examples of the genre in recent memory, not so much in that it’s as gruesome as Coralie Fargeat’s Revenge or as horrific in its explicitly as Gaspar Noé’s Irreversible, but it will leave an impression.
The film follows Miriam (Madeleine Sims-Fewer), a woman who is already in a rocky relationship with Caleb (Obi Abili), and finds herself reuniting with her estranged sister, Greta (Anna Mcguire), at a cabin in the woods along with Greta’s husband, Dylan (Jesse LaVercombe), who Miriam has had some history with. However, the trip takes a turn as one night by a campfire, Dylan rapes her while she sleeps, and doesn’t stop when she wakes up and tells him to. When Greta doesn’t believe what happened, Miriam takes things into her own hands, and have her revenge.
The filmmaking is certainly distinctive from what you would usually expect from the genre, refusing to lean in on the catharsis typically apart of these kinds of stories, and instead presenting a bleak outlook that tackles the heavy psychological toll on Miriam’s mind. Along with that, the story is told in a non-linear fashion, which doesn’t become immediately clear until the final act, which did make things a bit frustrating, since I found myself asking numerous questions throughout the film; ones less about the themes of the film and more about the practicality and confusing nature of certain plot beats.
Along with its non-linear format, the film relies much of its suspense on its atmosphere, which reminds me of something like Lars von Trier’s Antichrist. Nature shots, footage of wolves on the hunt, and several other dreamy slow motion shots overlaying Andrea Boccadoro’s moody score. More often than not, it’s pretty effective, but there are times when it begins to feel cliché. However, the performances are able to keep things engaging, especially from Madeleine Sims-Fewer, who dives into a dark psychological space in a way that is haunting and bold, and she carries the film really well, even through some of its strange and ethereal plotting.
Violation is definitely a film that is designed to be difficult to watch. Although, it comes across a bit more literal for a significant portion of the film as you try to fully piece together what exactly is going on, but when things do go down, it does become genuinely fearless and hard to watch as it deals in the ugly aftermath of Miriam’s act of revenge. It gets under your skin, but it still handles its themes with a degree of sensitivity while also embracing all the complexity of emotions that our lead experiences in the final stretch of the closing act. Violation definitely holds its own among recent films like Revenge or Promising Young Women, where a female voice is able to bring a new angle and perspective on the rape-revenge genre. It’s a fascinating film, with strong work put in from Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli, and while I’m not sure if all of its individual elements work, it comes together in a way that is powerful and – considering the note that it ends on – incredibly memorable.
Violation is now out on Shudder.