Did You Know?

The scar displayed on the left side of Jennifer (Camille Keaton)'s face in the post-trauma scenes is real, the result of an automobile accident in the actress's youth. In these scenes, it was exaggerated by the make-up artist, and in the opening and closing scenes, it was hidden under a thin layer of foundation.

The film was passed uncut in Australia until December 1997. It was banned from December 1997 until June 2004.

Meir Zarchi said that he was inspired to do the film after helping a young woman who had been raped in New York. He tells of how a friend of his and his daughter were driving by a park when they witnessed a young woman crawling out of the bushes bloodied and naked (he later found out the girl was taking a common shortcut to meet with her boyfriend when she was attacked). They took the girl with them, took his daughter back home, and talked with the friend on whether they should take her to the hospital or to the police. They decided to take her to the police first, which they soon afterwards discovered was a mistake - the officer, whom Zarchi described as "not fit to wear the uniform", delayed taking her to the hospital and instead insisted she answer questions about her assailants, even though her jaw had been broken and she could hardly talk. Finally, Zarchi insisted to the officer that they take her to the hospital right away. Zarchi said that soon afterwards the girl's father wrote him a letter of thanks for helping his daughter, and wanted to give him a reward, which he turned down.

When this film was first released in 1978, the original title was "Day of the Woman" and was poorly received at the box office. In 1981 distributor Jerry Gross renamed it "I Spit on Your Grave" - after a 1959 French drama - for re-release. Under the new title the film received greater publicity and became a key target of Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel's campaign against films featuring women in danger.

A poster's tagline mistakenly says, "This woman has just cut, chopped, broken and burned five men beyond recognition." There are only four men she gets revenge on and she does not burn any of them. In the remake I Spit on Your Grave, a fifth man is added.

The house where the rape takes place was owned in real life by Meir Zarchi's friend Nouri Haviv, who was also director of photography on the film. Zarchi had visited his colleague when he was developing the script and was influenced by its location.

The film was submitted to the Motion Picture Association of America several times before it was passed. It was originally rejected due to the nature of its violence, although the MPAA did not specify which violent sections should be trimmed. After several re-submissions, the film was passed after Meir Zarchi had removed all references to anal rape.

Camille Keaton wore her own wardrobe.

Meir Zarchi wrote the screenplay largely on his commute in to work over a period of four months.

All the actors performed their own stunts as the production couldn't afford any stuntpeople.

One of the production crew quit during the filming of the second rape scene as he simply couldn't stomach any more of the violence. The film's make-up artist also quit the production halfway through as she too had been gang-raped and couldn't relive the horror of her attacks.

Features the longest rape in film history - roughly 25 minutes.

Any zoom shots in the film were achieved by placing the camera on a supermarket trolley.

Actor Richard Pace (Matthew) unintentionally worried director Meir Zarchi filming his death scene when he started to convulse while hanging. Zarchi initially thought he was just doing some really good acting, but realized that something was wrong. Pace wasn't choking, but was afraid of heights and was having a panic attack.