Notorious and nasty Sundance feral-woman-chained-in-the-cellar shocker. “A girl-power allegory, a cheeky genre-twister, and exploitation cinema par excellence.” — L Magazine
Fully capable of evoking dread and turning stomachs... a deeply unpleasant viewing experience.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2011
The Woman 2011
Like a hot poker in the eye of political correctness, this Sundance premiere outraged one viewer so much he demanded that staff ‘BURN THIS FILM NOW!’. A midnight shocker, it sprang from the pen of Jack Ketchum, scribe of literary nasty The Girl Next Door, and was realised by Lucky McKee who slammed onto the scene with his knockout debut May. Patriarch Chris is a smarmy court officer whose sense of ethics and morality make American Psycho’s Patrick Bateman look relatively normal: a condescending, dominating suburban prick whose stern hold over his subservient wife, idolising teenage son and two daughters forms his warped version of the ideal nuclear family. That is, until he captures a near-naked feral woman on a hunting trip and forces them to civilise her. Without a doubt, the feel-bad comedy of the year comes with a very serious warning that it contains scenes that may be upsetting and distressful to audience members. — AT