What is behind the continuing appeal of the revenge movie? We may not endorse it publicly, but something primal in us roots for the righteous avenger when we see him or her on screen. I wonder why? Could the erosion of civil liberties have anything to do with it, or the law being soft on crime, but firm on political correctness?

For instance, there cannot be a parent who is unaware that a tap on the wrist for a little terror is taboo. So I was somewhat surprised when, in the recent revenge movie Meet the Spartans, the sight of a character repeatedly knocking the stuffing out of his uppity five-year-old son was met with hoots of delight in the audience. Why? I wonder if revelling in such an un-PC action could be a sort of safety valve for those numerous members of society whose lives are tinged with feelings of guilt.

Some dismissed the film as knockabout nonsense, but this is not the only revenge film of late to take a stance against all that is right and proper. Take The Brave One (2007), for instance, starring Jodie Foster. It starts in the dark in Central Park, New York, where she and her fiancé are mugged by a group of thugs. The fiancé dies, while Foster’s character is badly hurt and traumatised.

Fearing for her life and not deeming it safe to wait 30 days for a gun licence, she gets hold of a firearm illegally and becomes a reluctant vigilante dispensing lethal justice in a city where random violence seems to be the order of the day. And how she finally exacts vengeance, with the help of a sympathetic cop, brings to a very satisfying finale a morally corrupt movie that has you rooting for this cute little killer from start to finish.

It was made by Warner Bros, which released my own revenge film The Devils (1971) on VHS, but still refuses to release on DVD, in spite of organised begging by fans and film societies. But then, that film was about corrupt religion, a subject still somewhat taboo.

But not all revenge films are politically incorrect. Take Seraphim Falls (2006), for instance, which has its cake and eats it, so to speak. For most of the film Pierce Brosnan, a former Union general in the American Civil War, is being hunted down by Liam Neeson – a captain from the South – and his hired killers. These are picked off one by one by the crafty Yankee until finally Brosnan and Neeson alone survive, and come face to face in the desert.

It is now we find the reason for the Southerner’s quest for vengeance: the Yankee was responsible for allowing his men to torch the Southerner’s homestead, killing his wife and baby.

However, with the chips down, having endured everything the lawless Nevada of the 1860s can throw at him – including prairie evangelists, railroad bosses, bullets, thirst and a vision of Angelica Huston as the Devil – the wronged man realises that the Yankee was powerless to stop the tragedy, and magnanimously spares his life.

The film ends with the former enemies going their separate ways, and what has been a constant bloodbath ends in divine reconciliation. And that must surely be the latest word in vengeance.

The revenge movie is a many-splendoured thing. Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill, 2003-04) and Park Chan-Wook (Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, 2002, Oldboy, 2003, and Lady Vengeance, 2005) accentuate the blood. Walking Tall (2004), starring Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson, emphasises the kick-ass aspect.

Straw Dogs (1971) and the deliciously wry Falling Down (1993) focus on the thinking man going primitive, while Coppola in his Godfather trilogy highlights the dysfunctional family at war. And in The Crow (1994), we find a ghost avenging his own murder, a plot made spookier in that the lead actor Brandon Lee, son of Bruce, was accidentally killed during filming.

I shouldn’t leave the genre without mentioning the less serious side of it, memorable movies such as Revenge of Frankenstein (1958), one of the most fun of the Hammer Horror films, the delightfully preposterous Revenge of the Zombies (1943) and – one of the biggest audience-pleasers of all – Revenge of the Nerds (1984), which gave us that inspirational declaration of nerd-pride: “I’m a nerd, and I’m, uh, pretty proud of it.”

Then there is my own Revenge of the Elephant-Man (2004), a trunkful of outrageous fun, soon to be available on X-certificate DVD. What happens when a highly cultured hybrid, part-man, part-elephant, is pushed to the limit by a vicious attack on his lady love by the mad doctor who scrambled the elephant man’s body parts in the first place?

Is all forgiven? That angry trumpeting coming from his bulging underpants could only be interpreted as a resounding “No!”

Explore Film

• Film Reviews

• DVD

• Oscars

• Bollywood

Editor's choice

• Proms Podcast with Danielle De Niese
• The Bachchan tour is dynamite!
• Dark Knight storms to $155m record