The Woman

Horror is the only film genre that actively tries to make you uncomfortable.  So, the idea that any dimwit with a half-finished script and a couple gallons of fake blood can pull it off is not only a misconception, but an insult to those who take the genre seriously.  By way of example, Lucky McKee’s The Woman (2011) is a macabre social commentary on misogyny, motherhood and teen angst drenched in copious amount of gore.  While its predecessor, Offspring (2009), is just…filled with copious amounts of gore.  The two drastically different approaches to horror, however, make for a fascinating double feature.  And one of those rare cases in which watching the sequel first is the preferrable viewing experience.

 

Stumbling upon a feral woman alone in the wilderness, Chris Cleek makes the odd decision to chain her up in his shed and train her in the ways of civilization.  He also brings his family into the mix, involving them in the cleaning, feeding and dressing of his pet project.  Of course, Chris also uses her for his own manly “needs,” a dirty secret that doesn’t go unnoticed by his son, who is soon following in dad’s footsteps.  But when the women of the family finally band together, including the latest member, there’s hell to pay.

 

The Woman certainly isn’t subtle, but its damn smart and expertly performed.  McKee invests the film with the same suburban decay as David Lynch’s Blue Velvet but grounds it in all the visceral realities of abuse, assault and emotional trauma.  The situation itself might be an exaggeration, but it’s a recognizable one.  The explosion of violence in the final act negates a lot of the hard work put into the first two, but still proves horror can have an agenda beyond shock tactics and gross out gags.  

 

Produced three years earlier and based on material by horror author Jack Ketchum, Offspring actually laid the groundwork for McKee’s film by introducing a family of inbred cannibals wandering the forests of Maine.  Directed by Andrew van den Houten and starring genre veteran Art Hindle, the story wastes no time setting one family against another as the primitives capture, kidnap and torture unsuspecting vacationers.  It’s an obvious riff on Wes Craven’s The Hills Have Eyes (with a little Last House thrown in for good measure) that doesn’t aspire to do much more than shock and disgust. There’s plenty of room for that in the horror genre too, but it just doesn’t hold a candle to McKee’s superior sequel.

 

The only way to get both films is as a two-movie limited edition 4K Ultra HD set; Arrow also has a stand-alone Blu-ray that includes just The Woman if one is so inclined.  The new 4K restorations are director-approved and include a wealth of supplementary material, including multiple commentary tracks, deleted scenes, hours of behind-the-scenes footage, film panel discussions, more interviews and an illustrated collector’s booklet. 

 

 

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tormented

Image
The west coast always struggled to create a creepy atmosphere on screen.  All that southern California sunshine just doesn’t lend itself to ghostly apparitions or gothic castles.  But  Tormented  (1960) gives it a good try, staging its opening scene in an abandoned lighthouse where blackmail turns into murder - and one cover up leads to another.  Director Bert I. Gordon, better known for his giant-sized - but low-budget - monster movies, works well at this level, turning in a film that delivers small scares but perhaps his most  professional finished product. Tom Stewart (played by genre regular Richard Carlson) is a fairly successful jazz pianist whose impending marriage to Meg Hubbard (Susan Gordon) will put him in an entirely new tax bracket.  Trouble is his old flame, Vi (Juli Reding), isn’t taking this lying down.  After  allowing  her to fall to her death in the opening scene, Tom is haunted by disembodied visions of his ex-lover who refuses to go quietly into the afterlife.  And
Read more

All Ladies Do It / Frivolous Lola

Image
Every semi-professional review of erotica probably starts off with the same question:  what’s the difference between porn and art?  The internet age has essentially done away with foreplay; sex is merely the act of completion itself, minus the threat of any malware or suspicious browser activity.  But the work of Italian director Tinto Brass, for all its leering upskirt shots of derrieres and pubic hair, still communicates something that websites like Pornhub never will:  the art of seduction.  All Ladies Do It  (1992), a breezy sexual adventure, follows Diana (Claudia Koll) whose marriage is threatened by her fantasies of dalliances with other men, stories her husband believes are nothing more than exciting role play.  But her loose definition of adultery inspires plenty of promiscuous hook-ups, taking advantage of any (ahem)  loophole  that provides a quick thrill.   Flirting with some hardcore sequences (there is an abundance of fully erect fake penises and female genitalia on displ
Read more

The Cat and the Canary

Image
My favorite directors have always been showoffs:  Hitchcock, DePalma, Spielberg (when he’s feeling frisky) and gonzo auteurs like Sam Raimi.  There’s just something about their cinematic ambition, constantly reminding the audience that, yes, there actually  is  someone behind the camera calling the shots.  And that directorial discontent shines through even in the early days of the medium, such as Paul Leni’s 1927 adaptation of  The Cat and the Canary .  While the rest of the industry was still learning the basics of visual language, Leni fills his frame with tracking shots, POVs and dramatic lighting that set the standard for every spook show to come!  Gathered for the reading of the last will and testament of eccentric recluse Cyrus West,  the potential heirs meet up in his decrepit mansion to discover who will inherit the estate and family jewels.  Predictably there is some petty jealousy when young Annabelle West is named the sole beneficiary…that is, if she can be proved sane afte
Read more