Revenge movies
Revenge horror is the subgenre where the audience is asked to want something. Someone has been wronged, the film shows you exactly how, and then it makes you sit with what wanting them to answer for it actually looks like.
The Last House on the Left is where the American rape-revenge cycle starts, a rough reworking of an Ingmar Bergman film that was itself reworking a thirteenth-century Swedish ballad. The strand runs on through Day of the Woman, better known by the title its 1980 re-release gave it, which is attacked about as often as it is written about and has been defended at length by people who take it seriously. Revenge is the recent entry that turns the camera's own habits back on the genre.
It also runs quieter. Carrie earns its ending across an entire film of accumulated cruelty, Audition spends most of its length as something else entirely before it declares itself, and I Saw the Devil follows the pursuit far enough to make the pursuer the problem.
Notable revenge movies
If you only ever watch a handful of these, make it these.
New revenge movies
Revenge remains a reliable engine, and the recent films are more interested in the aftermath than the act.
Upcoming revenge movies
A few revenge movies on the way. Dates can still move, especially for the ones furthest down the schedule.
You can find these and every other revenge movie in our database. And if you want to keep track of the ones you have seen and the ones you are saving for later, start a profile and log them as you go.