Never take your mistress on an annual guys’ getaway, especially one devoted to hunting – a violent lesson for three wealthy married men.

Married man Richard (Kevin Janssens) takes his mistress Jen (Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz) to a remote hideaway for a long carnal weekend. After a lengthy sexy time, their enjoyment is stunted when Richard’s…uh…”business” partners, Stan and Dimitri, show up a day early. Our first startling glimpse of those two is foreboding, with menacing assault rifles slung around their necks and a piercing gaze, directed mostly at the skimpily-dressed Jen.

And does Jen taunt and tease them, just a bit? She sure does, dancing in her bikini bottoms to her ever-present iPod and giving one of men what amounts to a vertical lap dance. But she laughs it all off: it’s all in good fun, right?

Right?

The next morning Richard is gone when Jen wakes up, away to a “business” meeting. She’s a bit disoriented when she gets out of bed, and Stan’s creepy way of looking at her isn’t helping things. Neither is his way of standing too close to her. And threatening her.

If something horrible didn’t happen to Jen right about now, this movie wouldn’t be called Revenge. But it is and it does and it’s brutal and unforgiving. Director Coralie Fargeat wisely chooses not to focus on the act as it happens but on the indifference of Dimitri as he mutely watches and eats his snack.

And worse is on its way.

There is an entire subgenre of horror movies involving women wreaking vengeance on their abusers (Ms. 45, I Spit On Your Grave, They Call Her One Eye, maybe Kill Bill if you squint real hard) and there is a certain satisfaction that comes with watching horrible assholes get their comeuppance. Also, there is a valid point to be argued about watching women getting abused (no matter if they triumph at the end) as a form of entertainment.

This is not that review.

This movie is terrific.  It starts off like some kind of mid-80s flick where the handsome cad and his bimbo gallivant around in a candy colored house. That this opulent house is in the middle of a desolate and remote desert is our first clue that something is amiss. Richard calling his wife to reassure her about his “extra business meetings” is another clue.  And so it goes.

Fargeat might shy away from showing Jen’s actual abuse, but she does not shy away from showing the tremendous amount of blood contained in one human body. So much blood the characters are slipping and sliding in it as they try to get away. One of them steps on a piece of glass and–do they nimbly pluck it out and go on their merry way? They do not. They dig and dig and dig into their foot trying desperately to remove the glass that remains just out of reach.

Is it excessive? Sure. Is it over the top? Yep. Is it out of place? Not at all.  I seemed to cringe, laugh, and gasp all at once during this scene (and a few others) and that’s pretty much my seal of approval.

Director Fargeat isn’t just interested in rubbing our noses in the viscera. She knows how to draw out the suspense as Jen, Richard, Stan and Dimitri all stalk each other with deadly intentions. She uses the desert environment to her advantage, making a winding road or a single tree or even a spinning apple into the most sinister thing you’ve ever seen.

Revenge is a bloody roller coaster and you should buy a ticket.  Now available on VOD and in theatres.