Critics savaged Deja Vu for its runtime. The film clocks in at nearly two and a half hours. For a rape-revenge film, this is an eternity. Most of the runtime is consumed by extended dialogue scenes where the villains argue about morality, legality, and whether they have the right to kill Jennifer.
Set 40 years after the original massacre, Jennifer Hills has become a successful author and rape counsellor, having written a memoir titled I Spit on Their Graves The Abduction: i spit on your grave deja vu
, the film ignores the continuity of the 2010 remake and its subsequent sequels. It reunites Zarchi with lead actress Camille Keaton Critics savaged Deja Vu for its runtime
| Aspect | 1978 I Spit on Your Grave | 2019 Déjà Vu | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | | Meir Zarchi (young, raw) | Meir Zarchi (old, angry, self-indulgent) | | Runtime | 101 minutes | 148 minutes | | Tone | Grim, documentary-like, morally complex | Exhausting, repetitive, unintentionally comic | | Violence | Graphic but relatively brief (rape sequence ~25 mins) | Extremely graphic and protracted (rape/torture ~60+ mins) | | Revenge | Practical, brutal, realistic (drowning, axe, knife) | Cartoonish, inventive, over-the-top (guillotine, crossbow, hanging) | | Jennifer | A terrified woman becoming a predator | A stoic, almost superhuman avenger | Most of the runtime is consumed by extended
Yet, that amateurish quality adds to the "grindhouse" authenticity. It feels like a film that escaped from 1979, not a polished Hollywood product.