Independently
distributed by writer, director, editor, and co-producer Meir Zarchi in 1978, 'Day of the Woman' drew little attention on its limited rural drive-in circuit
run. Zarchi pulled it due to hardly making anything back on the marketing
costs, and it was quickly forgotten. Then a few years later in 1981, legendary
exploitation producer/distributor the late Jerry Gross gave the film a wide
release. He re-titled it to 'The Rape and Revenge of Jennifer Hill', and 'I Hate
Your Guts', before settling on the now notorious 'I Spit on Your Grave', named
after Michel Gast’s 1959 film noir, an adaptation of Boris Vian’s 1946 crime
novel J’irai cracher sur vos tombes ('I Spit on Your Graves'). Meir Zarchi hates
this title. Its infamy then went through the roof, garnering the attention of
mainstream critics and their scathing narrow-minded views. “A vile bag of
garbage”, proclaimed the late, often great, but sometimes imprudent, especially
when it came to genre cinema, Roger Ebert. He and partner in pomposity, but at
times great as well, the late Gene Siskel, led a misguided campaign against
films featuring women in danger, with this as its leading example and prime
target. Ironically, this became positive publicity, as it generated even more
box office revenue, because the horror crowds lap up this kind of controversy.
