The Woman
Directed by: Lucky McKee
Written by: Lucky McKee and Jack Ketchum
Starring: Pollyanna McIntosh, Sean Bridgers, Angela Bettis, Lauren Ashley Carter, Zach Rand

Every year there are a handful of films that make waves on the festival circuit and manage to get people talking — not necessarily because they are great films but because they are shocking and controversial. Some would say that the ability to provoke is the sign of a great work of art, but it can also divide audiences and completely turn viewers off. Clearly this kind of hype is a double-edged sword, and yet it’s hard to deny that it can bring a smaller film plenty of attention.

Lucky McKee’s The Woman is a film whose reputation precedes it. After causing one audience member to faint and another to stand up and berate the director at Sundance last year, it soon became the talk of the town. Horror fans took notice, while distributors slowly backed away. Fortunately, The Collective and Bloody-Disgusting Selects eventually stepped in to help the film find its audience with a limited theatrical and DVD release. But in the end, is this movie really as extreme as the gossip would have you believe? Well… yes and no.

From the plot synopsis alone, it is easy to see where the controversy lies. A small town lawyer on a hunting trip stumbles across a feral woman living out in the woods, but rather than react with disgust or even curiosity, he seemingly becomes excited at the golden opportunity he has been presented with. He decides to help save the woman — by taking her home and chaining her up in his root cellar, of course! As if that wasn’t disturbing enough, he also decides to make it a “family project” by getting his wife, son and two daughters to help out by feeding and cleaning her. However, it’s clear from the outset that they are playing with fire, and as things start to get out of hand, the family’s other dark secrets slowly start to bubble to the surface as well.

Prior to The Woman, director Lucky McKee was already known for taking on dark and edgy subject matter with movies like May and The Woods, but his collaborations with horror novelist Jack Ketchum seem to be taking things to a new level. He previously adapted Ketchum’s novel Red (although he was fired from the project halfway through) but when it came time to make The Woman, they actually co-wrote it together. The Woman is a sequel to Ketchum’s novel Offspring (also adapted into a film by Andrew van den Houten), which introduces a clan of cannibalistic savages. Pollyanna McIntosh reprises her role here as the sole survivor of the clan.

Going into this film, I was expecting a revenge story, a borderline exploitation flick and an all-out bloodbath. While that’s not really off base at all, I was surprised that the majority of the film plays out as a tense and twisted black comedy. At times it reminded me of a Todd Solondz film, only with a lot more blood. Sean Bridgers gives a memorable turn as Chris Cleek, a chauvinistic douchebag who acts like a nice guy but has become comfortable with bullying his way through life. His performance lies somewhere between Christian Bale and Will Ferrell, if that makes any sense, and he’s charming, but even early on you see hints of the monster underneath it all. His wife and oldest daughter are both docile and afraid, while his adolescent son is well on his way to becoming a self-entitled douchebag himself.

Meanwhile, Pollyanna McIntosh as the titular Woman is both terrifying and menacing; sympathetic and sexy. It’s not an easy role because not only does she have to act like a predatory wild animal who is covered head to toe in filth, but her character suffers a fair amount of abuse as well. There are multiple facets to the performance, and she must rely on physicality instead of words. On top of it all, she maintains a strong presence without stealing the spotlight, because despite what the title implies, it’s not really her story specifically — she just happens to be a victim that gets pulled into this messed up family.

Obviously there is a lot more going on here than just sex and violence for the sake of sex and violence. The movie is attempting to satirize the American family unit and explore issues surrounding misogyny. Although we now generally like to believe that women have equal rights in modern society, this movie goes a long way to making you question that fact. That being said, the direction was so skillful and the tension so exquisite throughout the majority of the film that I was a little disappointed when the finale descended into the very bloodbath that I initially expected. Sure, it feels cathartic, but it is also a little too obvious and the violence itself was pretty over the top.

Either way, it didn’t detract too much from my overall enjoyment of The Woman. The movie is an uncomfortable watch, to be sure, but it is well-made and, for the most part quite unpredictable and clever. I wasn’t a huge fan of the original music by Sean Spillane, but at least it was an interesting creative choice and I grew to appreciate it more as the film went on. It probably goes without saying that The Woman is not for everyone, but as an extreme horror movie, I thought it had some subtlety to it and it actually had something to say without being too heavy-handed. If you think you can stomach it, this one is worthy of your time and money, just don’t expect a straightforward splatterfest.

Extras on the DVD include: The Making of The Woman (a 25-minute behind-the-scenes documentary), plus deleted scenes and a short animated film produced by Lucky McKee called “Mi Burro.” — Sean

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