Review of The Woman (2011) by Stephen K — 14 Jul 2012

A perverse, lurid and surprising horror drama, and certainly McKee's best work since the excellent May. While a decidedly unsubtle and viscous critique of western masculinity and patriarchy, the film never lets its message undermine its status as an effective genre film. In fact, text and subtext synergize beautifully here ; the tension and sense of repression that builds up over the movie's runtime is enhanced by its gendered nature. It all culminates in spectacularly visceral and cathartic finale, and while the gore itself is hardly more extreme than your average 'zombie flick', the nature of the violence and the contextual elements at work make it truly unsettling. While the effectiveness of its message and its 'feminist cred' may be questioned (it is hardly nuanced and there is merit to the claim that film relies on scenes of sexualized female nudity and torture that are often uncritically utilized to entice and titillate in more politically regressive works of the genre, however I'd argue this imagery can serve to enhance the critique, if interpreted correctly) The Woman's success as a disturbing horror film is, to me, undeniable. It's a been a long time since a film has so thoroughly unsettled me.

The cast is mostly excellent; Pollyanna Mcintosh is a goddamn force of nature, Sean Bridgers masterfully plays the cheerful misogynist, and handles the gradual reveal of the depths of his depravity with a skillful zeal, and Angela Bettis puts in a strong performance as a completely demoralized housewife, browbeaten into submission through years of psychological manipulation and abuse (to the point of complicity in her husband's madness). The film has its share of flaws and is hardly the first (or best) film to push this ideology, but it is damn effective in its use suspense and gruesome shocks.