Revenge (2017)

Revenge is the kind of debut that announces a filmmaker with absolute control: Coralie Fargeat takes a familiar grindhouse premise and turns it into a sun-scorched, neon-bright fever dream where every frame feels sharpened to a point. The movie runs on pure propulsion—stylish, relentless, and strangely exhilarating—anchored by Matilda Lutz, who carries the transformation at its center with ferocity and physical commitment that’s hard to shake. Beneath the adrenaline, there’s smart, bold symbolism at work, giving the carnage a pointed edge rather than empty cruelty. Fair warning: it’s graphic, includes sexual violence, and doesn’t blink, but if you can stomach its extremes, it’s a bracing, cathartic thriller that earns its title.

Revenge (2018) is trying to take the grimy rape-revenge template and reforge it into a slick, neon-bright survival thriller with a ferocious, almost mythic heroine. Coralie Fargeat directs with real visual confidence and Matilda Lutz commits hard, but the characters are mostly archetypes and the story beats can feel like you’re watching a familiar genre machine rev through its expected gears. The violence is relentless and stylized to the point of excess, which will either feel cathartic and operatic or flat-out absurd depending on your tolerance for heightened gore and thin realism. If you want nuanced psychology or a fresh structural take on the premise, this may frustrate you; if you’re here for brutal momentum, bold imagery, and a single-minded payback sprint, it delivers that without blinking.