Full marks for courage to the French director Coralie Fargeat who, for her feature debut, plunges into the murkiest territory imaginable and tackles the rape revenge genre. But unlike the subversive art-house ordeal of Baise-Moi by Virginie Despentes and Coralie Trinh Thi, or the showily sadistic pyrotechnics of Gaspar Noé’s Irréversible, Fargeat favours a camp, heightened, almost cartoonish approach. Revenge is part trashy exploitation flick, part Looney Tunes romp.

Italian actor Matilda Lutz stars as Jen, a resourceful young woman who, after a trip with her boyfriend goes wrong, finds herself forced to slaughter her lover and his hunting buddies one by one. She does so with a great deal of flair, despite first having been pushed off a cliff, impaled on a tree and self-medicated with industrial-strength peyote.

The violence is so eye-poppingly extreme, Fargeat’s props department apparently ran out of fake blood. This is wannabe cult cinema with its roots in the midnight movie circuit. It’s certainly a wild ride. But I am not sure it works as a feminist revamp of this most troubling of genres. Sure, Jen kicks ass. But does she need to do it semi-naked with the camera hovering at groin level?