The Woman (2011)

Oh dear or my. Where do I begin?

I suppose I'll start with the bad:

#1: There is very little bad in this film. There is no cheese or humor, none. There is a teacher that I think was poorly cast. Otherwise - well done.

The good - no wait, questions:

How did this movie idea come about? Was it prompted by the 6:00 news? Personal experiences? Research data? If so, the human race get's an F-. Because we, as people, suck. If this movie idea was not initiated by any other means except absurd imagination, then good for you human brain. You can create the most inhuman brain things. [slow clap]

I'm disturbed because this movie is about an 'ideal' family that hoards secrets and people. SECRETS and PEOPLE, like a disturbing amount of families do - which makes this an everyday horror film. And that makes me a little bit sad inside.

Thankfully, I think very few families hoard feral people. No doubt it might feel like it at times, but statically and scientifically, the people holed up in homes are not feral. Just pissed as hell.

Which leads me to my next point: #1 Rule to Life: Don't be an asshole.  Follow this rule and you're golden. That goes for both people who feel their abilities are restrained and those imposing the restraints. Don't be an asshole. Be an asshole and you're sure to die terribly (fact).

Almost everyone in The Woman earned a great big fat gold star in assholery. The saddest thing is - they all earned it because that was all they knew. And that makes this film truly chilling. People acted out in the only ways they knew how to:

#1: stay alive
#2: understand their surroundings
#3: cooperate

Although these basic concepts were relayed, they were understood in the most catastrophic atmospheres.

This movie covered the characters in an everyday horror so subtly, yet so much, that it burst in flame and then doused with a whole lot of feral woman. They didn't need a feral woman to make this a horror movie. The feral woman turned this horror movie into a nice, clean horror package.

The actual long lasting horror element is that people  may not have to go home to a woman in the basement, instead they have to go home to actual horror in their kitchen/livingroom/bedroom/etc., you get the point.

Sure, the woman tied up in the basement made the movie, and made it mighty gross/terrible/wrong, but the actual monster in the film was running the household. THAT is what made this film truly horrifying - because it still happens, again, and again, and again.

This movie is hard to watch. Consider your company when approaching it. Would not recommend eating while watching it. Also would not recommend watching with domestic abuse survivors. Watch with assholes who need to know they are assholes.