The Woman (2011): Attitudes to women in horror and society.

This film came up for the Scary Movie Month Movie Club over at Fthismovie (everybody should join in the Scary Movie month challenge over at http://www.fthismovie.net) and it has completely blown me away. I am still processing it but I had to write a review in order to express some of my thoughts. This powerful film follows ‘the woman’ who is living in the woods and Chris Cleek a country lawyer who kidnaps her. He tells his family that they will have to ‘help’ her in an awful attempt to civilize her. 

When the movie was screened at Sundance someone reacted very strongly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqrrxJtcVPM

This man's reaction is very telling of the sort of person this is. The fact he was yelling about degrading women, was as though he needed to speak for women, like the women in the audience can't speak for themselves? This man’s reaction proves he has not only missed the entire point of the film but he also reflects the need for this film. Women in horror have been sexualised and objectified for years. In this film, McKee (the director) is holding up a mirror to that. He is commenting on how men in horror have treated women, how women are treated in the film industry and on the whole by society.

Mckee definitely offers a strong feminist voice in the film. It is great to finally have that in horror, but there is something wrong with horror when one of few feminist voices heard is a male one. How many women are being funded to make a personal film like this one, in which they have something to add to this issue? I do think McKee is addressing that, however, I had a look at the crew list and there are very few women in important positions. Why is it he did not hire more women to work on a film called The Woman (not including cast)?

Saying that though the points he does raise in the film are incredibly important. I really respect him as a filmmaker and as an artist. For instance, when Chris first sees ‘the woman’, she is completely free from our society where women are repressed, second best, and subservient. She is wild, free but animalistic. The only thing Chris wants to do is take her independence away and crush it. He wants to put her back in her place as someone who obeys him. When she bites his finger off it is a subversive action, almost an action of castration as she is rebelling against his authority. She takes away his position as a man for that moment. This drives him crazy and causes him to treat her even more abusively. The performances are very strong and suit the tone of the film for instance Pollyanna McIntosh's performance as the woman is incredibly bold. There is a strong aesthetic to the film that adds to harshness of the film and its messages. 

There is a disturbing scene where Chris and his wife Peggy dress her. Of course, they put her in a dress. This is very telling of Chris’ wish to domesticate her. Could this therefore be a more up front symbolic representation of the way America on the whole treat women? This is similar to the forceful nature in which the 50s tried to brainwash the general public into forced positions, with women being drawn back into the home as housewives and mothers, only there to serve. Women still play that role in a lot of horror films, a role of a hopeless and sometimes pathetic victim. Often women are undeveloped, characters that are only there to be punished for their sexuality or objectified.  This attitude is what The Woman is targeting and challenging and it does it in a way in which you have to face this fact. It is very blunt and over – the – top in making its points, but this is to the film’s service as it means you have to confront the way women are treated in horror, by society and by the media. This means the viewer then has to think about it in a way where they can see just how awful and even dangerous that objectification is. 

When Peggy tells Chris she is leaving, she is finally standing up for herself and her daughters. She tries to make it clear that she will no longer tolerate any abuse and that she wants to get away. She also states that he has already corrupted their son into being a rapist like him. This makes an interesting point, as to the culture that sexualizes and objectifies women makes it seem to men that is the only way to treat them, especially if they are young and influenced by other attitudes of this kind around them. This is quite a bleak and strong message and one that really is trying to influence change to stop this attitude, as there is a dangerous impact (that of abuse). I feel this must be so much more uncomfortable to watch as a male, as men aren't being represented in a positive way. But hopefully the film is loud enough to for the men who watch this that care about the equality of women to start writing more interesting and less objectifying roles for women and even give chances to females wanting to produce their own horror films. 

So even though this is a film called The Woman this is does seem to be equally about male roles as well as female ones, within horror and society. How women are mistreated and how men need to take some responsibility in the way they have been representing them for so long. There needs to be a change, and there is no reason it can’t come from the horror genre. There are so many bold choices in this film that I hope to see more feminist horror, but hopefully even from women as well.