{"id":1366,"date":"2011-09-29T22:12:49","date_gmt":"2011-09-29T22:12:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/?p=1366"},"modified":"2011-09-29T22:12:49","modified_gmt":"2011-09-29T22:12:49","slug":"the-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/thriller\/the-woman\/","title":{"rendered":"The Woman ****"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> Lucky McKee<\/a>\u2019s new horror The Woman<\/em><\/a> is 2011\u2019s very own I Spit on Your Grave<\/a><\/em> for fuelling post-viewing debate and controversy. It is a love-hate piece of film-making designed to revolt, but also to allow us to reflect. To describe it as a \u201clook into the darkness of human nature\u201d gives it a purpose and an excuse for exercising some of the most raw and depraved acts seen in a long time. What it does deliver though is the much desired shock tactic, just when the genre feels like it has little else to stoop to and horrify us with.<\/p>\n

Controlling family man Chris discovers a feral woman living wild in the woods and decides to capture her and civilise her ways with the help of his long-suffering family. Holding her prisoner in his home grounds, Chris finds the task more difficult than first thought, and his family\u2019s fascination and well-intentioned compassion soon turns to sadistic cruelty.<\/p>\n

McKee uses the feral nature of the Woman, defiantly played by\u00a0Pollyanna McIntosh,<\/a> as a mirror to reflect our own deepest, darkest instincts, which we keep intact through our belief in a legal system and our ingrained civilities that separate us from animals. What\u2019s terrifying to witness in this film is how Chris, a lawyer, and others in authority like him, become so consumed with power that it corrupts them and their judgment. McKee\u2019s story is an extreme analysis of this, and it\u2019s said that abusive people start with cruelty to animals \u2013 the animal in this case is a human. The cruellest living mammal is human, too, it seems.<\/p>\n

The subjects of rape, incest, brutality, domestic violence and murder are all dealt with, without much compromise or redemption. McKee aims to paint the disturbing truth of our psyche, and even has a slight dig at America\u2019s religious bigotry \u2013 another man-appointed belief system designed to contain us. Chris uses the excuse of God to justify his actions \u2013 like a latter-day Crusader. Sean Bridgers<\/a> is repulsively apt in the role, never allowing us to empathise with Chris, even at the start. His son, Brian (Zach Rand<\/a>), copies his father, and these scenes are horrifying alone, but with a lot of youngsters being conditioned in war-torn areas around the world, his actions are never acceptable, but are better understood.<\/p>\n

However, it is McKee\u2019s female characters that strike the biggest punch and raise the greatest controversy. Whether they are powerless at first like Chris\u2019s whimpering wife figure, Belle (Angela Bettis<\/a>), McKee has set their fate without much room for improvement. Therefore, our initial sympathy ebbs away, whether intentional or not. Those who are tainted remain so, and there\u2019s only one female who triumphs in the end, but she suffers for her defining moment. Revenge on the male captors also doesn\u2019t feel adequate enough, considering their actions, and leaves you feeling wholly unsatisfied and without full justice served. Hence, the parallels McKee depicts to the animal kingdom are striking in this film, with the weak paying the price: It\u2019s like watching a human nature study at times, once you get past the appalling violence \u2013 some shown, some not to fuel your imagination.<\/p>\n

McKee not only succeeds in taking us to the most depraved depths of the human soul but also makes no apologies as the context is any one of us can relate at a certain level, anyone who has ever harboured an unnatural or barbaric thought. It\u2019s this trigger of unease, coupled with the film\u2019s bloody actions that make The Woman<\/em> one of the most affective and most intense horrors seen in recently.<\/p>\n

4\/5 stars<\/strong><\/p>\n

By @FilmGazer<\/p>\n

Follow on Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n

**WATCH THE TRAILER HERE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lucky McKee\u2019s new horror The Woman is 2011\u2019s very own I Spit on Your Grave for fuelling post-viewing debate and controversy. It is a love-hate piece of film-making designed to revolt, but also to allow us to reflect. To describe it as a \u201clook into the darkness of human nature\u201d gives it a purpose and … <\/p>\n

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