THE WOMAN

A feral woman (Pollyanna McIntosh) exists deep in the heart of the Massachusetts forest, killing wildlife for food and sheltering at night in an overgrown warren.

Her peace is disturbed when successful lawyer Chris (Sean Bridgers) and his family move into a house nearby. One afternoon while out hunting, Chris spies the woman through his rifle sights and decides to return the next day with a net.

Having shackled the woman in his detached basement, Chris invites the rest of his family – downtrodden wife Belle (Angela Bettis), teenage daughter Peg (Lauren Ashley Carter), younger sibling Brian (Zach Rand) and baby of the bunch, Darling (Shyla Molhusen) – to view his latest prize.

Warning the others not to get too close and showing them what happens if they do (he’s already lost half a finger between her gnashers), Chris introduces the woman to his clan. They’re understandably shocked, but each begrudgingly goes along with his insistence that it is their job to "civilize" her.

Over the next few days the family pull together to feed, bathe and clothe the woman. Chris dictates the pace throughout, both in the basement and back in the family home where things are clearly equally amiss.

In the meantime, each member tries their best to maintain a degree of normalcy about their everyday lives. But while this may be easy for Chris to achieve, the likes of Peg have issues of their own that are more difficult to conceal. And that brings an unwanted visitor to the family home...

THE WOMAN should be an outright genre masterpiece. It’s directed by Lucky McKee, who in 2002 brought us MAY, one of the most purely enjoyable genre flicks so far this Century. Bettis, who provided the heart and soul of that film, is also on fire here in an initially more subdued, but no less intense role. And McKee’s screenplay is based on the novel by Jack Ketchum, possibly the most celebrated ‘new’ horror writer of the last decade.

But there are weaknesses that prevent this from attaining greatness. First off is the plot itself. The whole thing about the brutal domestication of the woman doesn’t offer much in terms of insight, nor does it lead anywhere other than to the inevitably bloody denouement. The little sub-plots are consequently more interesting, but alas only one is satisfyingly explored.

Ill-advised moments of slow-motion cheapen the look of the film in its opening and closing scenes. These are stylistic touches which feel at loggerheads with the almost voyeuristic realism strived for in-between.

Then there are the leaps of faith required by McKee’s screenplay. Firstly, Chris captures the woman right outside what he’s already observed as being her ‘home’. But he doesn’t think to check it out (if he did, he’d have come across something rather obvious, and prevented a nasty surprise for himself later on). I was also dumfounded by the way we were expected to accept that he’d just run his chewed-off finger under a house tap and carry on regardless, without need for medical attention. And, is it just me, or is it unlikely that a woman who’s been living in the wild for years would have perfectly shaven legs and a well-groomed pubic region? Unless they’re NELL?

Also, the soundtrack’s horrible. McKee employs a similar indie route to MAY, but here the songs are simply turgid and repetitive. They rarely suit the mood of the action either.

I must sound like I hated this film. That’s not so. It’s actually better on a second viewing, when the little nuances such as the glance between Chris and Peg at a party near the film’s start really sink in. There’s a lot to pick up from a secondary look at the movie, and that’s always a good sign.

The cast deserve plaudits too: they’re superb. Especially Bridgers, who excels as the believably nasty patriarch. Despite looking like an evil Gordon Brittas, he’s convincingly sinister in such a subtle way that it’s easy to see how he can charm his secretary one minute, and then make you worry about what he’s going to do while alone with his daughter the next. He made my skin crawl, and that’s a great thing.

Bettis is reserved for the most part, but comes into her own during a show-stealing moment of defiance that propels the film into an impressively vitriolic final thirty minutes.

The kids are all great too, with Rand taking top honours here as a quiet kid unwittingly destined to become the monster he looks up to.

McKee goes for the same soft, stylish visuals that worked well in MAY, as well as retaining the latter’s sense of quirky characters and offbeat humour. Where THE WOMAN differs is in its more downbeat tone and some ugly instances that have seen the more ignorant factions of the press crying "misogyny".

Hardly. The screenplay lays out its feminist cards quite blatantly throughout. From the beleaguered wife who holds the family together, through the feral woman’s matriarchal similarities, to Peg’s sensitivity and the early telling scenes of boys picking on girls simply because they can – McKee’s message is very clear, even before Bridgers’ enjoyably excessive villain goes into cartoonish overdrive.

McKee attempted to adapt a Ketchum novel to the screen once before, with 2008’s RED. He got sacked from the production under mysterious circumstances (along with his regular collaborator Bettis) and was replaced by Trygve Allister Diesen. RED is probably a better film than THE WOMAN, simply because it had a more engaging story to tell. But McKee can rest assured that his film also makes for a rewarding experience, despite the aforementioned misgivings. Especially a second time around.

Oh, keep watching to the very end too, past the end titles...

Revolver Entertainment present the film uncut on this DVD, in a reasonably nice anamorphic 1.78:1 transfer. Framing appears correct and colours, while a little washed out, seem to be natural. Some scenes are sharper than others, but overall this offers a clean, stylish playback.

English audio comes in options of 2.0 and 5.1 mixes. Both are good, although the nature of the film dictates that the latter is a little under-exploited – save for some moments of inventive, nauseating sound design.

A sparsely animated main menu page leads into a static scene-selection menu which allows access to THE WOMAN via 12 chapters.

Extras begin with a 24-minute Making Of documentary. This is a slickly produced, proficiently edited affair from Moderncine – the production company behind the film itself. McKee is our guide as we join him on location for the film’s shoot, taking in cast and crew interviews along the way. Some interesting behind-the-scenes footage rounds off this worthy bonus.

"Meet the Makers" is a similar but less rewarding 4-minute excerpt from a US cable TV show entitled "Chiller", where McKee once again proffers the low-down on his latest film.

"Mi Burro" is a 7-minute animated piece from McKee, which mixes crude illustrations with base humour to tell the tale of a little homeless boy trying to find food for his hard-living friend. Who happens to be a horse. Weird.

Finally we get a track from the film’s score – Sean Spillane’s "Distracted" – set to 5 minutes of stills taken from the main feature.

The disc is defaulted to open with trailers for ELITE SQUAD: THE ENEMY WITHIN and SNOWTOWN.

THE WOMAN is a flawed film but is also a return to form of sorts for McKee, and much better than THE GIRL NEXT DOOR (another Ketchum adaptation, which boasts a superficially similar premise). Whether or not that is enough to draw you to it, is debatable.

Also available on blu-ray.

Review by Stuart Willis