Rape and revenge films are a hard subgenre of horror for many people to handle. It’s one thing to put someone in a compromising position, but it’s another to base the central premise of your story on someone (usually a homely-yet-pretty white girl) being brutally raped by one or more men. It’s grisly and dark no matter how you cut it, but whether or not you like it there is no denying that there is a niche of fans within the horror world who thrive on this type of film. At least, those done well.

Julia, the latest film from director Matthew Brown, hopes to join the ranks of rape and revenge classics like I Spit On Your Grave or Last House On The Left with a tale of terror set on the streets of NYC. Ashley C Williams (The Human Centipede) portrays a quiet young woman who is brutally gang raped and warned that if she ever goes to the police no one will ever believe the story she has to tell. She thinks she can put the past behind her and that with enough time the feelings of uneasiness will begin to diminish. She’s wrong about this, of course, but pretending everything is okay is sometimes a lot easier than admitting it’s not. Fortunately for Julia, she soon meets someone who will help her take back the life they stole from her. One corpse at a time.

The setup for Julia looks like it could be any of films in this thematic arena, but the sections dealing with her revenge do show quite a bit of promise. My only question is, what is there to say or do in this area of film that we have not already seen? Everything Brown shows us here looks like it could be any other rape-revenge tale, only this one is set against New York. That’s enough to get a mention, but not enough to leave a lasting impression in viewers minds.

Julia does not have a release date at this time, but we believe a run on the festival circuit can be expected in the months ahead. Stay tuned.

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James Shotwell

James Shotwell is the founder of Under The Gun Review. He loves writing about music and movies almost as much as he loves his two fat cats. He's also the co-founder of Antique Records and the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. You should probably follow him on Twitter.

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