David O'ConnellMIFF 2011: The Woman
August 9th 2011 04:07
Director Lucky McKee pushes all sorts of buttons once again with his latest, The Woman. After the relatively tame The Woods (2006), McKee has risen to the challenge he’s seen emerging from recent envelope-pushing European horror to produce what may be his most divisive film yet. It’s no May (2002) or 'Sick Girl' (2006), but beneath its coal-black streak of humour, The Woman is bloated with a running, scathing social commentary on the despicable mistreatment of women.
When country lawyer and family man Chris Cleek (Sean Bridgers) goes hunting in the nearby woods one day he comes across the remarkable sight of a woman (Pollyanna McIntosh) seemingly raised in the wild. Rather than alert authorities he decides to tranquilise her, drag her home and chain her up in the backyard basement on their property.
Chris brings the family in for a perusal, laying down the law. Wife Belle (McKee stalwart Angela Bettis), emo daughter Peggy (Lauren Ashley Carter) and son Brian (Zach Rand) are amazed to learn that Chris is going to ‘keep’ her in a bizarre attempt to civilise her. So begins a trial and error of attempts to educate the screeching woman about the ways of human beings. Yet, simultaneously, Chris’s own behaviour runs counter to his supposed intent as his hubris morphs into monstrous maltreatment of his wife and daughter.
As the madness of the father descends to gruesome depths, in turn corrupting his pervy son, the final confrontation looms. McKee doesn’t disappoint here, with a bravura finale that’s a fitting payoff for the moments spent imagining - to our darkest heart’s content - how ultimate revenge will be released once the leash comes off The Woman herself.
A continuation of ideas begun in the film Offfspring (2009) and based on a novel co-written by McKee and master of the macabre, Jack Ketchum, The Woman transcends its controversial subject matter to become something genre fans, in search of material that pushes the boundaries of taste, can savour for its ghoulish excesses despite the fact that no sense of 'reality' is ever created.
An intrinsic part of the film’s success is the music and many original songs by Sean Spillane. These combine brilliantly with McKee's 'extreme' aesthetic, working a strange sonic magic in the way they enhance seemingly mundane scenes. Many were written prior to filming and the uncanny instincts of both composer and director have produced one of the more effective unions of image and sound seen in a horror film in many years.
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Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Didn't read the review for fear of spoilers but I will say anything by Lucky McKee demands my attention an I will return once I have viewed the film
Comment by David O'Connell
20/20 Filmsight
Screen Fanatic