Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Fairer Sex My Ass

Ummm... so, if a movie is a sequel, shouldn't it actually reference the movie to which it is... sequeling?

Is that a word?  Sequeling?

2011's The Woman (which is one of Lucky McKee's better flicks) does that.





The Woman, a story of kidnapping, torture and hideous abuses, is actually a sequel to Offspring.

Did you know that?

I didn't know that.

Maybe some kind of reference to Offspring would have made that obvious.  You know... like finding articles about a cannibal clan that was found and mostly killed off in Maine?  A federal agent poking around saying things like "There may be a homicidal maniac in the area who WILL murder you, drain your blood and brine and pickle your flesh in preparation for a hard winter"?

Not that this affected my enjoyment of the movie.  I just prefer that my sequels be clearly laid out.

ANYWAY.

Mostly, this story is about this guy and his family.


Doesn't that face just beg for a slappin'?

Chris Cleek (played by Sean Bridgers and, yes, that's a reference to Christie Cleek, the legendary Scottish cannibal) is a lawyer with some dark secrets.  For one, he's a control freak.  For two, he's not averse to smacking women around, raping his daughter and encouraging his son's obvious trip into Serial-Killer-Land.  And, lastly, he hunted down the titular Woman (who has no name, nor is she ever given one) and chained her up in the shed.

Yes, we spend an entire movie hating someone and it's TASTY!

So, yeah.  He gets a wild hair up his ass about training the Woman to be a normal human being but really ends up treating her like a pet.  His wife (Angela Bettis, who is awesome)spends the movie realizing that he treats her and their daughter the same way.
That's Angela's "concerned face".  It gets used a lot.

All the while, the son is torturing girls at school (because I LEARNED IT FROM YOU, OK!?!) and the daughter is pregnant and the school counselor is all suspicious and shit.  All the while, the Woman is plotting her revenge and you can see it in her eyes.  She's all "I will suck the eyeballs from your skull and piss in the sockets to marinate your brain."

Because you made me take a bath.


Now, in all seriousness, this is a fine example of indie film making.  There's tension, good acting, and a "horror in daytime" look at abusive family situations that, for once, isn't all "Lifetime Movie of the Week".

Highly recommended.

4 comments:

  1. "I will suck the eyeballs from your skull and piss in the sockets to marinate your brain."

    New threat-of-choice.

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  2. LOVE Angela Bettis. Had no idea this was a sequel to Offspring. Great movie, great writeup. Sean Bridgers was a perfect choice for the dad you love to hate.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, again. :0-)

      Angela Bettis is ALWAYS amazing and I don't think anyone had any idea that this was a sequel. The only link to Offspring is a character that doesn't speak. There's no legitimate mention of the linkage at all.

      And Sean Bridgers was about to get such a kickin' by the end. He is one of the worst examples of maleness in cinema. Anybody that has to treat women that way deserves whatever bad karma they get.

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