To countdown to this year’s Halloween, Luke Owen reviews a different horror film every day of October. Next up; The Woman…
Working as a pseudo-sequel to Andrew van den Houten’s 2009 film Offspring, The Woman sees a family man discovers the last remaining member of a flesh-eating cannibal clan roaming the woods surrounding his home. Thinking he can cultivate this ‘creature’, he captures and enslaves her before introducing his family to its newest member, with the plan of working together to make her a respected member of society. Think of Lucky McKee’s The Woman like a horror version of California Man. Only without Paul E. Shore. Which makes it less horrific?
What makes The Woman stand out from a lot of modern-day horror movies is that its focus is not on the ‘horror’ of bringing a savage woman into your life (although it eventually boils down to that), but is completely character focused. It doesn’t rely on cheap thrills or jump scares to hook its audience. McKee and Ketchum’s script is purely about family dilemma and how this new element and addition to their lives effects them as characters.
While the film lives and dies by the performance of the titular character, its cast all do a great job in their roles. Sean Bridgers is perfectly cast as the evil Chris Cleek who is nothing but sweet on the surface, but the worst kind of man behind closed doors. He’s the sort of bad guy you see on the news accompanied by interviews from his neighbours saying, ‘you just wouldn’t have expected it from him’ – and Bridgers sells this role full force. Angela Bettis is also superb as the troubled wife who inevitably becomes threatened by the captured woman, but it’s Lauren Ashley Carter who steals the show from the family as pregnant teen Peggy. She delivers every one of her lines with full conviction, which really makes you feel for her as her family world starts to collapse around her.
As previously stated however, The Woman was always going either going to succeed or fail based on the performance of Pollyanna McIntosh, who plays the savage beast. And while Carter steals the acting show from the family point of view, this is 100% McIntosh’s movie. She pulls out all of the stops to create a breathtakingly believable performance and gives the film all the credibility is needs. Because McKee rarely resorts to the cheap tropes of modern-day horror, all of the terror comes from McIntosh’s performance and the unease that comes with taming a wild cannibal with no concept of human emotion.
The Woman actively attempts to tackle the issue of female oppression within a male-dominated world and does so with varying degrees of success. Despite his calm and cool exterior to the outside world, Chris Cleek is actually a wife-beating arsehole behind closed doors and is abusive to all the women in his life, expecting them to do his bidding. In one of the better constructed themes of the movie, his awful attitude towards women bridges to his son Brian (Zach Rand) who then stoops to his father’s levels with their captive female. Of course, all of this boils to a Day of the Woman style revenge slaughter which actually comes with a few surprises.
Whilst far from perfect, The Woman is a very credible horror movie and thoroughly entertaining. The acting is brilliant, the story is simple yet effective and the characters are either wonderfully likeable or utterly detestable. Even the soundtrack is phenomenal with the last track acting as a beautiful denouement to the events that transpired. It flew under the radar of a few horror movie fans, but this is one that comes with a massive recommendation.
Luke Owen is one of Flickering Myth’s co-editors and the host of the Flickering Myth Podcast. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.
Originally published October 4, 2013. Updated November 7, 2019.
