Conclusion: Challenging the Boundaries of Cinema’s Rape-Revenge Genre in Katalin Varga and Twilight Portrait

Abstract

Far from being a cycle of films that passed with the heyday of secondwave feminism, the rape-revenge genre has had a surge of popularity and prolificacy in the post-2000 period. It has become a global and hybrid genre, reinvigorated by variations and trends such as male victim-avengers (Acolytes [Jon Hewitt, 2008], Lola and Billy the Kid [Lola + Bilidikid] [Kutlug Ataman, 1999]), its appearance in the blockbusters Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2 (Quentin Tarantino, 2003/2004) and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Män som hatar kvinnor) (Niels Arden Oplev, 2009), and, as outlined in the following pages, its infiltration into art house cinema. This new wave of films often takes a revisionist approach to the genre, deeply challenging the conventions and ideologies of classic American exploitation films such as I Spit on Your Grave (Meir Zarchi, 1978), The Last House on the Left (Wes Craven, 1972), and Ms. 45 (Abel Ferrara, 1981). The contemporary films raise difficult questions for the genre. For example, when ethical and political issues with enacting revenge are raised, can revenge continue to be an option for the protagonists? If not, where does this leave the rape-revenge genre, which depends on the pleasures of revenge in terms of both expectation and affect? In questioning the morality and effectiveness of revenge as a response to rape, the genre tests its own boundaries, its own assumptions, and the spectatorial pleasures it has traditionally offered.