The Woman Blu Ray Review (Arrow Video)
The Woman is a 2011 horror film co-written & directed by Lucky McKee (May, All Cheerleaders Die, The Woods, & Masters of Horror). It’s a sequel to the 2009 film Offspring. It’s adapted & based off his novel with horror author Jack Ketchum (The Lost, Red, The Girl Next Door, & Offspring) who also co-wrote the film. It was produced by Andrew van den Houten (Darlin’, The Ranger, Offspring, Jug Face, & The Girl Next Door) & Robert Tonino (Made for Each Other, Home Video, In the Family, & All Cheerleaders Die). It was released as part of the “Bloody Disgusting Selects” line. In 2019, a sequel titled Darlin’ was released.
A feral woman (played by: Pollyanna McIntosh from Offspring, Darlin’, The Walking Dead, & Let Us Prey) circles what appears to be her child. The woman is the last remaining member of a cannibalistic tribe that has roamed the northeast coast for decades. Country lawyer Chris Cleek (played by: Sean Bridgers from Room, Free State of Jones, Get Shorty, & Deadwood) sits at a local barbecue with his family which includes his oldest daughter Peggy (played by: Lauren Ashley Carter from The Mind’s Eye, Gags the Clown, Black Site, & Imitation Girl), his only son Brian (played by: Zach Rand from Nurse Jackie & The Swerve), daughter Darlin’ (played by: Shyla Molhusen), & his wife Belle (played by: Angela Bettis from May, Carrie, Toolbox Murders, & Perfume). Chris happens upon the woman while hunting. He returns with a net & captures her. He restrains her in a cellar at his home & forces his family to participate in “civilizing” her. The entire family is dysfunctional. Chris kidnaps Ms. Raton (played by: Carlee Baker from L.A. Slasher, Wicked Lake, Karate Kill, & Attack of the Slime People) after she reveals a dangerous secret to him. He locks her up in a cage with his other & wild daughter “Socket” (played by: Alexa Marcigliano from Vox Lux & Darlin’). As the family starts to drift away more, the woman finally gets an opportunity to escape. Will she leave without notice? Or Will she stay for some nasty & brutal revenge????
The Woman is a slow burn type of feature. It takes awhile to get anywhere & it builds up the finale which is worth the wait. Lots of drama & tension before it gets crazy. This is the sequel to the little known horror film Offspring plus they made a sequel to this called Darlin’. I would have never thought this would have became a trilogy after seeing the original film when it was released years ago. Actress Pollyanna McIntosh reprises her character from that & she’s the only original member left from Offspring. She is fantastic in this & the other two movies. She plays a tortured soul with so much rage inside of her. When she loses it, it becomes very brutal & gruesome for anyone in her way. Pollyanna McIntosh uses more reactions & expressions rather than dialogue here. She doesn’t have to say much because you just feel it. Sean Bridgers is a total piece of shit in The Woman & you want him to die because he’s completely unlikable. That’s a good sigh of a quality villain, he makes it easy to love to hate him. Zach Rand proves that he definitely the son of Chris because he’s just as bad as his dad. The rest of the family are just victims & let Chris control all their actions. I feel sorry for Angela Bettis’s Belle because she tries to be good & make something better out of the situation but she can’t overpower her evil husband to do it. She was great & it’s one of her best performances. Lucky McKee doesn’t direct that many features but when he does they are always quality productions. You have to be patient with The Woman, it has a few violent moments here & there but it all mainly happens at the end. I personally love character development material like this. I think it makes everything better & more effective when it actually happens. This one stays with you for awhile after experiencing it, RECOMMENDED!!!!
Let’s talk about the high definition presentation from Arrow Video! This 1080p (1.78:1) transfer is a brand new 4K restoration supervised & approved by director Lucky McKee. It’s a big upgrade compared to original The Collective & Blood Disgusting DVD home video releases. This is the best that The Woman is ever going to look & I am very impressed by this restoration for this brand new release. The colors pop out way more now, the special fx/gore look great, & the locations really shine in this.It has two different audio options which includes English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 & English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 on the blu ray. It’s the exact same audio as The Collective release which was already impressive. All the dialogue is very clean, the wild finale is elevated, & the music has a killer boost to it. It also has English SDH subtitles.
Let’s discuss the special features from Arrow Video! All of the original extras from the other home video releases are carried over on this blu ray plus Arrow Video added lots more bonus material to it. This release has 4 different audio commentaries on it. “Audio Commentary” # 1 with Lucky McKee. “Audio Commentary” # 2 with Lucky McKee, Zach Pasero, Andrew Smelek & Sean Spillane. “Audio Commentary” # 3 with Pollyanna McIntosh. “Audio Commentary” # 4 with Scott Weinberg. All of the commentaries are brand except for the solo one with director Lucky McKee. I enjoyed the fact that all 4 are completely different from each other. Every track brings something unqiue to the table when it comes to information, stories, & anything else that you would want to know about the production. If you are interested in learning more about The Woman, I suggest checking all of these out sometime. “Dad on the Wall: Filming The Woman” from Mike McKee is an hour & 15 minutes. It’s newly assembled from material from when the film was originally shot. This an awesome inside look into the production loaded with behind the scenes footage plus a few interviews. “Meet Peggy Cleek” is an almost 20 minute brand new interview with actress Lauren Ashley Carter. She chats about how she got the role. She talks about her experience on it. She brings up the cast & crew. She says she was a big fan of May before doing it. She tells some stories about it. She goes over how important the music & soundtrack was for her. She chats about her Sundance moments while promoting The Woman there. “Malam Domesticam: The Making of The Woman” is a little over 25 minutes & it’s from the original release. It has interviews with the cast & crew. It has all kinds of behind the scenes footage. They chat about the project, their experiences, the characters, & the story for The Woman. “Meet the Makers” is almost 7 minutes & it’s from the Chiller channel. It has interviews with several major actors & crew from The Woman on it. They promote the film. They talk about the book, story, & roles. It has behind the scenes footage & it takes inside the production. “American Horror: A Panel Discussion” is an almost 45 minute panel from 2011’s Frightfest featuring Lucky McKee, Offspring director Andrew van den Houten, Adam Green, Joe Lynch, Larry Fessenden, & Ti West. The Woman is barely mentioned here. They mention that it’s about to be screened & they bring up the author at some point. They chat about American horror here. They talk about their dislike for the popular remakes & polished crap Hollywood is putting out. They talk a little about working for a bigger company which includes McKee going over his The Woods experience. McKee brings up that he has own style & that’s what he does with his work, nothing else. He chats about writing & showing how people really are in the world. “Deleted Scenes” is almost 6 minutes plus it includes outtakes from the production. “Mi Burro” is an almost 7 minute animated short from The Woman’s editor Zach Passero. The 5 minute “Distracted” music promo from Sean Spillane. It has promotional material like “Trailer”, “Teaser Trailer”, & an “Image Gallery” from The Woman. It also has a high quality slipcover, reversible artwork, & a 36 page booklet with all kinds of information plus pictures from the feature. It’s available everywhere right now, CHECK IT OUT!!!!
