31 days of Horror 2012 day 31

The  Woman
2011
Vivendi Entertainment DVD

Now first off I am a huge fan of both Jack Ketchum and Lucky McKee. So when I heard they were teaming up to write a novella that would be the third chapter in Ketchum's series of stories about cannibals living on the modern day coast of Maine I was very excited. Well the book was released as a trade paperback. And I could never find it at any book store. Then I hear it was also being made into a film. With Lucky directing. Well it premiered at the 2011Sundance film festival and caused some controversy. One member of the audience left the film and went on a rant about how "A film like this should never be made." Well sadly the theatrical release of the film was very limited. I checked and it didn't play any theaters in the state I live in. So I had to wait on the DVD release.

We pick up a few weeks after the end of the novel and film Offspring. The Woman is the only survivor of the tribe of cannibals. And she is living way out in the woods. Then a small town lawyer spots her early one morning while he is deer hunting. He decides to capture her and teach her how to be a proper human. He manages to catch her in a huge net,knocks her out. Then takes her to his home where he ties her up in his root cellar. And he convinces his family to help civilize this wild woman.

But we quickly learn that the father and the son are vile human beings. The father treats all women like shit,and the son seems to have a fascination with torture. We also learn that the oldest daughter is pregnant. One of her teachers comes to the house to talk to the parents about this and all hell breaks loose. Now before this happens there has been small hints that there is something up with the dogs the family keep in a pen inside a barn. And in the climax of the film we learn what this secret it. The Woman gets loose and gets her revenge on those who have tormented her. Then the film ends what with can only be called a semi happy ending.

Now about 4 months after seeing the film I finally managed to track down a copy of the book. And it goes into way more detail about the son and father's hatred of females. Plus it has a short story that happens after the end of the film. Which lets us know that the Woman is on her way to rebuilding her tribe.

The DVD is well done. We get a nice making of that shows how lots of the FX was done. Plus some deleted scenes. Not sure if this is out on Blu Ray but I would love to see it in true HD. The Woman gets an A.