The Woman (2011)

The person who wrote the previous review on here was so anal i had to join to write a review based on the view of an average movie goer. This is a flick so cleverly presented that the viewer does not realize what is going on till well into the film..Basically most horror films have tons of over the top guys with beards and tattoo's and guns taking advantage of four high school kids...In this lovely film, it is a "normal" whatever that is, family of five,who because of the father ,capture a woman and keep her in the basement. Without giving anything away, it is the first time the genre has been presented this way. The direction and camera angles keeps the suspense going.You identify with ALL the characters,you root for the good guys and boo the bad guys and don't know until the end what is going to happen.Thrilling story, excellent camera-work, the music that the young girl was listening to was her world, so you clicked with her when it came on. I loved this film. DEnnis

Fmovies: I went into this movie knowing absolutely nothing about it other than that it was based on a book. I was shocked by what I saw, but in a very good way. I watch a lot of horror movies, and while I do enjoy most of them, it does get rather boring watching the same ole plots get rehashed and redone. Finally we are given something new and just plain out insane.

The story itself was very original, but the execution is truly what was the best about this whole film. They do such a good job of just presenting you with a family that you hardly ever see in these types of movies. A dysfunctional who appears normal is something that has been portrayed in horror films in the past, but this film does it in a way that will just shock and awe you.

The score for the film is actually pretty great. It was full of songs im sure pretty much nobody has ever heard before. Every single song really did a good job of complimenting the mood of each scene, however some of the songs did seem a bit out of place.

There were some pretty gross scenes, but nothing you haven't seen before. I did see the youtube video of the man complaining about the content of this film. I do not believe that he was a plant since I do kind of see where he is coming from, but the movie is not nearly as disturbing as he makes it out to be.

My review makes this this movie out to be the prefect horror film, but it did have its faults. It does start to get a tad boring towards the middle, but it does end up picking up pretty well. Also, the ending seemed a bit rushed.

This was a very enjoyable horror film. I recommend it to someone who is just tired of the same ole same ole crap. Give it a try, you won't be disappointed.

8/10

Jack Ketchum's "The Woman" early scenes introduces a normal American middle class family in the Cleeks,a young successful lawyer father,his sympathetic wife and three children ranging from preschool age to mid teens attending a BBQ and enjoying life.The facade doesn't last too long, and soon enough Chris Cleek,while hunting stumbles across an escapee cannibal from "Offspring".He captures cannibal girl and puts her in the basement,where he tries to civilize her via torture and sexual degradation.The film becomes darker and darker as we see that Cleeks family has its own ugly secrets.Disturbing horror movie that mixes cannibalism with misogyny and dysfunctional hell.The acting is great,there are some upsetting shades of incest and plenty of nasty gore.The finale is extremely gory with plenty of blood spilled and guts eaten.Haven't read the novel yet,but its film adaptation by Lucky McKee is quite graphic.I wouldn't call it 'abhorrent',though.8 cannibals out of 10.

The Woman fmovies. I don't write a lot of reviews but this film gained a lot of publicity after some guy at Sundance walked out (or got kicked out) for complaining about the violence and misogyny in it. He was probably right to walk out, but did so for all the wrong reasons. I didn't find the movie particularly violent for the horror genre. What it was lacking was better writing and character development. So adding the review to give people a better idea of what they were getting, since it's presently sitting at an 8.5 with no other reviews.

The mother and kids of the family and even "the woman" were fairly well acted and developed, although I find it hard to believe in any teenagers these days that will just do whatever their father says. Unfortunately, the father, teacher, and some other small parts seemed to be more caricature than character. The fact that it was not working was obvious, although how much of it can be blamed on bad writing, bad acting, or bad directing may be debatable. Unfortunately, the father is in almost every scene, so this caricature becomes the centerpiece that the rest of the film revolves around.

There are some other problems with sound choices and some of the worst use of music I've heard in any film. Almost every time one of these alt-pop tunes came on all I could think was "Really? They're using this to set the mood?!" I think only once during the course of the film, did a song come on that I thought "Oh, this almost, sort of works". Most of these songs would probably be fine on their own, but didn't seem to fit the mood of the film at all.

In addition occasional bad directing, lighting, and editing choices left me not being able to see or understand what was happening at certain points in the film or understanding why they edited the same shots cutting back and forth at times. This is most obvious in the opening scenes where they are showing the girl raised by wolves. It's a pretty common theme that's been done dozens of times before. Yet here they spend too much time on it, without actually developing it at all. Just a lot of jumpy cuts going back and forth to state the obvious, to the point that I started fast forwarding to get to the credits and see if the film was actually going anywhere. The credits really shouldn't be more interesting than the opening scenes. I would have much rather seen more development on the father's character and what his motivations were in these opening scenes. We never really get any of that, and as I said earlier, he's pivotal to the way every other character acts and reacts during the course of the film. Other than those complaints, the overall technical aspects of the film were pretty professional for an indie film.

The biggest problem for me though, was lack of any kind of suspense buildup. Something that is ever present in the best of horror films, and usually at least some hint of, even in a mediocre horror film. I was never really left wondering what was going to happen next, things just happened and we watched, but didn't feel much of anything for the characters involved.

I respect the director's decision to do something a bit out there in terms of film norms these days, and the ending might give you a bit of a chuckle, if you hang in there that long, but in the end found it to be a rather low end mediocre movie, so 5 out of 10.

The Woman tells the tale of a feral woman who is captured by, at least on the surface, a traditional family man who is an attorney in a solo practice. As the movie proceeds, it is clear that the man's patriarchy goes way beyond, into that of a power-crazed maniac. The tension is palpable between the man and his captured trophy as her presence in the lives of the family members affects each differently. Be prepared for shocking and intense graphic violence and plot twists you would never expect. Not for the squeamish. The story is compelling and so are the characters in this study of human nature.

The acting is practiced and believable. The writers have a good handle on the dynamics of domestic violence. I see this film as exemplifying domestic violence taken to its furthest extreme. How domestic violence perpetuates itself through the generations can be seen in the distance.

I like the way The Woman is the central character of the film while at the same time being incidental to the drama unfolding within the family unit.

The Woman arrives on DVD and Bluray amidst almost a year of controversy and festival runs. The picture was accused of misogyny, horrific violence, and bad music. Two of these three things are true. Let's just say certain musical selections don't really make sense in a film of this subject, and the violence will surely have innocents running for the door. "The Woman" sports a deeply feminist view upon domestic violence and the domination of man over women in contemporary society. However the film does not focus it's killer's eyes on the disturbing, horrible men featured here. A crucial moment underlines the idea that we all have the power to change a lurid situation drastically, and if you do not seize that opportunity, you are just as guilty as an aggressor. My heart broke for all the women in this film, including the titular cannibal. They endure some of the worst male behavior ever seen in a suburban, or civilized, society and the violence that embeds the last half hour is blunt and brutal. Director Lucky McKee injects so much energy into this film, but he doesn't glorify the violence. It's the audience's choice, myself included, to crack a smile when certain characters get what's coming to them. Prepare to be made uncomfortable, disturbed, scared, and finally short of breath by The Woman.