What the film "The Woman" has going for it is that it's different than your average horror movie. Instead of a family being terrorized by some feral people in the woods (as in Wrong Turn or Hills Have Eyes), a man captures a wild woman and brings her home to his family, keeps her chained up in a cellar in an attempt to civilize her (as in Black Snake Moan), or so he says. We soon learn that all the females in his house are sort of prisoners at the hands of this abusive husband / father and his real intention is to have a girl toy so that he can go out and rape her at night while his wife is sleeping. Even though this implausible story moves along at a snail's pace, it's still pretty interesting simply because it's something different. The film does a good job of really making us hate the evil man, but it peters out in the revenge department, which happens during the last ten minutes, resorting to cheap gore effects. I would have liked to see the man suffer a bit more, would like to have seen the wild woman toy with him or hunt him down instead of killing him so quickly. In fact, I would have liked a different ending altogether, because even though the man is evil and all, he is after all a lawyer and is masterfully meticulous in his psychological and physical torture, so for him all of a sudden to turn into a total madman is out of character. Pollyanna McIntosh is fabulous as the wild woman and the rest of the casting is superb (the kids really look like the product of their parents). Lauren Ashley Carter does a fine job as the depressed, secretly pregnant daughter, and Angela Bettis is convincing as the flinching mother / wife so scared of her husband that she goes along with whatever he does, even something this absurd (although her sudden bout of bravery at the end is unconvincing, but that's the fault of the writing, not the acting). There is a good surprise at the end but unfortunately the timing and mood are off in my opinion, so it isn't nearly as scary as it should be. If you're a horror fan you'll want to check this out, because even if it's flawed it's at least something different and probably the beginning to some great careers.
Review of The Woman
