The Woman features a respectable physical and psychological performance from Pollyanna McIntosh, reprising her role from Offspring, the rest of the film is rather predictable.
The Woman
(2011)
Genre(s): Horror, Drama, Suspense
Arrow Video | R – 103 min. – $39.95 | May 26, 2020
Date Published: 11/09/2020 | Author: The Movieman
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Arrow Video provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 2/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: The Woman (POLLYANNA MCINTOSH) is the last surviving member of a deadly clan of feral cannibals that has roamed the American wilderness for decades. When successful country lawyer Chris Cleek (SEAN BRIDGERS) stumbles upon her whilst hunting in the woods, he decides to capture and “civilize” her with the help of his seemingly perfect all-American family, including his wife Belle (ANGELA BETTIS), son Brian (ZACH RAND) and daughter Peggy (LAUREN ASHLEY CARTER). The Cleeks will soon learn, however, they hell hath no fury like The Woman scorned… Quick Hit Review: The Woman is the follow-up to 2009’s Offspring and co-scripted and directed by Lucky McKee (who co-authored the “Offspring” novel with Jack Ketchum). I don’t remember a whole lot about that movie, but Pollyanna McIntosh returns as the titular character and takes front and center stage in this entry (there is a third movie called Darlin’ released on Blu-ray in early 2020). In any case, this is very much a psychological horror-thriller and certainly on the nose with its messaging with the Woman being chained up to be domesticated because of her animalistic nature, yet the real animal is the father of this wholesome on the outside family. Not exactly subtle. And also nothing much more to this thinly plotted film either. I suppose Pollyanna McIntosh did her best in the role with minimal dialogue (mostly grunting early on) while everyone else ranged from passable to being close to Community Theater (with all due respect to community theater actors). There were a couple suspense-filled scenes but everything else was predictable and pretty dull/uninteresting. I can’t really recommend The Woman as it hits you over the head with the metaphor (course the tagline is “Not every monster lives in the wild” so guess they weren’t trying to hide it. Beyond that, this is one to just skip which is a shame as does seem like Pollyanna McIntosh gave it her all. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 4½/5 |
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The initial pressing included a slip cover and booklet while subsequent ones is just the Blu-ray with a reversible cover artwork. Audio Commentaries:
Dad on the Wall: Filming The Woman (1:15:13) is a fly-on-the-wall behind-the-scenes featurette that was shot throughout the filming and was shot by the director’s father. Meet Peggy Cleek (19:59) – New interview with actress Lauren Ashley Carter. Malam Domesticam: The Making of The Woman (25:29) – Archival behind-the-scenes featurette on the making of the film produced in 2011. Meet the Makers (6:49) – This is a compilation of six short making-of featurettes originally produced for the cable channel Chiller. American Horror: A Panel Discussion (44:46) is an onstage chat about the future of American horror cinema that took place at “Film4 Frightfest 2011” and features Lucky McKee, Andrew van den Houten, Larry Fessenden, Adam Green, Joe Lynch and Ti West. Deleted Scenes/Outtakes (5:55) – A mix of deleted footage and outtakes, nothing noteworthy. Mi Burro (6:41) – Animated short film by editor Zach Passero. Music Video (5:01) – “Distracted” by Sean Spillane Last up is the Theatrical Teaser (1:17), Theatrical Trailer (1:40) and an Image Gallery. |
VIDEO – 4½/5 |
| Arrow Video releases The Woman onto Blu-ray where, through Moderncine, it underwent a new transfer, taken from a 4K scan of the original digital intermediate, done by the film’s editor and post production supervisor Zach Passero and approved by Director Lucky McKee. I don’t know how this compares with the DVD release, however the picture does look quite good, detail is sharp and well defined throughout and colors are more on the muted side in keeping with the dark nature of the story. Black levels are well balanced where one can discern what’s happening on the screen, such as in the basement where several scenes take place. |
AUDIO – 4¼/5 |
| The disc comes with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track and it’s not entirely amazing but more than satisfactory, dialogue comes through with some great clarity and the environmental elements make fine uses of the front and rear channels. There were no perceptible pops, hisses or other flaws. |
OVERALL – 2½/5 |
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While The Woman features a respectable physical and psychological performance from Pollyanna McIntosh, reprising her role from Offspring, the rest of the film is rather predictable and the acting from most of the supporting cast was questionable. On the plus side, there a good amount of bonus material including no less than three new audio commentaries. |