Confessions of a Film Junkie: A review of “The Woman”
By: Brian Cotnoir
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| Author of "The Woman" Jack Ketchum |
In October I attended
the horror movie convention “Rock N Shock” in Worcester, MA. Rock N Shock is your typical fan-based
convention that has merchandise stands, a film festival, and Meet N Greet
sessions with celebrities. This year’s
convention had a slew of great celebrities such as Anthony Michael Hall, Sid
Haig, Bill Moseley, Danny Trejo, Peter Criss (drummer of Kiss), and a whole
bunch of other notable celebrities from horror films. One of the celebrity guests I met at Rock N
Shock was an author named Jack Ketchum.
Now, before this convention I had never heard of Jack Ketchum and I have
never read any of his books, but after getting the chance to hear him speak at
the Fangoria Panel and getting to
meet him, I decided to check out some of his work. I’ve found out that some of his novels have
gotten adapted into film , so I decided to to review a film based off one of
his novels; “The Woman”.
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| "The Woman" |
“The Woman” was realeased in 2011, and it
is about a lawyer named Chris Cleek who lives out in the woods with his family,
and one day while on a hunting trip one day he comes across a mysterious feral
woman living in the woods. Mr. Cleek
decides to trap the woman and hold her captive on her property and even
recruits his family to help domesticate
and civilize the feral woman. But are the Cleek’s really the decent and
honest humanitarians they appear to be or do they have some ulterior motives
for why they want to keep this mysterious feral
woman?
This is a great horror/thriller film with a great story,
graphic visuals, and plenty of thrilling twists. I think one of the reasons why I enjoyed this
film so much is that it was co-written by the book’s author, Jack Ketchum. I think films that are adapted from books are
always better when the screenplay is written (or co-written) by the book’s
author, because many of the author’s ideas and opinions from the book make its
way on to the screen. I would say this
film (and the novel to) should proudly boast that it features the Most Dysfunctional
Family you will ever see in a film. I really like how the father in the film,
who is this total sadist, expects complete obedience from his family and will
settle for nothing less than total perfection. In some ways I saw this
character as complex and interesting and I would actually say that his
character is similar to that of Alex DeLarge from “A Clockwork Orange”. I also like how we are introduced to the rest
of the Cleek family. There is little
dialogue spoken by the family early on in the film, and instead the film just
uses the atmosphere to let you get a full understanding of the character, which
in my opinion is a lot better than having all the characters be introduced
through an exposition.  |
| The Most Dysfunctional Family that I've ever seen in a film, The Cleeks. |
I
also really enjoyed the soundtrack to the film which features Original Music
written by Sean Spillane. The songs of
Spillane really take “The Woman” from already great film and propel it to
Freaking Fantastic film. If you’ve never heard of Sean Spillane, then you
should definitely check out his music; especially his songs “Distracted” and
“Patient Satellite”, which both appear in the film.
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| "Not Quite John C. Reilly" as Chris Cleek |
However, there are some minor faults with
the film. Even though I liked the
character Mr. Cleek, I did not really like the actor who played him. I don’t even remember the name of the actor
who played him in the film because for most of the film I was just referring to
him as “Not Quite John C. Reilly” because that’s who is acting reminded me of. He was not scary, he was not terrifying, he
was just quirky, neurotic, and massively anal retentive, and I just feel he
didn’t do his character any justice with his portrayal. He starts out as this nice calm Mr. Cleaver
from “Leave it to Beaver”, and he just sort of stays at that same tone
throughout most of the film. Even most
of the parts when his character acts violent he just has that same calm
cheerful demeanor on his face, and I just did not think that he was a great
acting choice. I also did not like the
way the oldest daughter, Peggy, was written in the film. In the film she just comes off as the
emotional basket case, and really not a ton of signs as to why she acts the way
she does, which is pretty mysterious, but the reveal at the end just sort of
came out of nowhere, and it was not like I said “Oh, wow what a shocking
twist”, my actual reaction was “Are you serious? That’s all.”
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| Oooh, now that sure does look unpleasant |
This
film has twists, it has blood, it has gore, it has rampage, and ending that
will just leave you with a ear-to-ear smile. I am regretting not buying a
signed movie poster of “The Woman” at Rock N Shock, and if Jack Ketchum comes
back again next year, I will make it my mission to get one from him.
So do yourself a favor and see this
film. Horror movie fans I guarantee you
that you are just going to really like “The Woman”.
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