22 Of The Best Revenge Films

Fresh off becoming only the second woman ever to capture the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival last month, Sofia Coppola’s artistry lands in theaters everywhere for the first time in four years (“The Bling Ring”) with her Civil War-era revenge thriller “The Beguiled.”

Coppola’s Palme d’Or contending adaptation of the novel by Thomas Cullinan features a plethora of talent including Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning and Colin Farrell. “The Beguiled” showcases Coppola experimenting in murky waters as she delves into material splattered in bloody revenge and deranged by a Southern Gothic twist. Revenge is one of the more often explored themes in cinema. However, in celebration of Coppola’s return to the director’s chair and in anticipation of her vengeance-seeking thriller, we decided to explore the history of revenge in cinema by pinpointing 22 of the most essential films that tackle the topic. We’ve tried to mix the essentials of the genre with some picks that might be less familiar and if you don’t like our picks, well you could always try and come at us with a bloody vengeance.

“Carrie” (1976)
With a rotting amalgamation of themes detailing deep-seated rancor and abuse, director Brian DePalma coaxes an essence of anxiety and dread in his horrific, off-kilter revenge tale “Carrie.” While the brutality imposed upon Carrie domineers the majority of the plot, its closing moments are drenched in impalpable vengeance — including a scene that solidified “Carrie” as a cult-classic forever. “Carrie” reveals a tale of a festering tragedy involving 17-year-old Carrie White (Sissy Spacek), an often bullied student with an overtly religious mother (Piper Laurie). Carrie fails to find refuge in either school nor home, placing her in a perpetual state of misery provoked by religious fanaticism and oppressive teenage behavior. Carrie, an outcast at large, is unlike any of her contemporaries — she possesses telekinetic powers, the ability to move objects with the strength of her mind. With her potentially lethal powers awakened by the commencement of her first menstrual cycle, an inner rage grows within Carrie and begins to melt her once-reserved self. While the film surprisingly bounces between imagination and caricatured portrayals of students and teachers, Spacek’s bloodcurdling performance as a mocked, helpless teen pushed over the edge is agonizingly authentic. Her face gradually contorts into a fiendish expression unhinged by every passing moment of humiliation. Spacek’s emotional fatigue is deeply felt and her body undulates into a breathing special effect ready to unleash this smothered wariness and sadistic rage. With an ill-advised plan to humiliate Carrie one last time at the school’s prom, her classmates are blindsided by her progression into a vengeful ticking time bomb with unfathomable capabilities. Her insatiable desire for revenge finally jumps the gun in the film’s defining moments with one of the most volatile scenes of mass murder to ever grace the silver screen. The tormented Carrie, mortified for the last time, inflicts a ferocious passage of bloody, fiery chaos upon her squirming victimizers and regretful bystanders. Although unnerving, Carrie’s moment of revenge embodies a misfit’s dream come true. She signifies the underdog, and anyone who has been emotionally or physically beaten, battered and bruised will empathize with a film defined by teen retribution.

“Coffy” (1973)
While some demonized its existence for perpetuating common white stereotypes about black people, the Blaxploitation era of film served as a double-edged sword and presented viewers rare, empowering gems behind African-Americans seeking retribution. With a likeness for low-budgeted action films, director Jack Hill helped project the movement into the mainstream while building a platform for actress Pam Grier to radiate as a preeminent African-American figure within the entertainment industry. Few names are as synonymous with the Blaxploitation movement than Grier and with her performance in “Coffy” as the film’s titular hero, cementing herself as a relentless, self-reliant, avenging force. Employed as a nurse, Coffey is out for blood against those who supplied the narcotics that sparked her sister’s heroin addiction. While many Blaxploitation films prior to “Coffy” anointed a black male hero to save the day, this film flips the script with a feminist flare and proclaims Coffy as the film’s heroine. Eventually, she slithers through the ranks of the drug ring with wit, anger and a destining instinct to kill and to fulfill a sense of justice for her sister. Grier makes and breaks this film, as her larger than life guise and pissed off demeanor stipulates “Coffy” as the paramount of the short-lived Blaxploitation era.