¡Qué horror! 2013

Candidate #15

JUG FACE

(January 2013)

Chad Crawford Kinkle’s feature debut, Jug Face, walks firmly and comfortably in the fine horror tradition of Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery, where a secluded community harbors a long and dark tradition steeped in sacrifice.

Here, Lauren Ashley Carter is the luckless Ada, whose desperate need to keep her shameful secret safe upsets the unsettling status quo of her small backwoods community; Carter was one of the voice talents on Antoine Charreyron’s The Prodigies, and also appeared in Lucky McKee’s The Woman (McKee executive produces on Jug Face).

Other familiar genre faces, Sean Young and Larry Fessenden (hurrah!), are also in here as Ada’s parents.

This is certainly not your standard Hollywood horror affair, and it’s all the better for it!

(Jug Face OS courtesy of impawards.com.)

A Rundown of the 13 (plus) Best Horror Movies I’ve Seen in the Past Year
[5 of 13]

THE WOMAN

(January 2011)

 

“God only knows where she’s been living, Peg. In the woods. In caves. We’re gonna help her…”

Premiering at Sundance 2011 on the same day as fellow ¡Qué Horror! 2012 title, Red State, and causing quite the controversial stir, Lucky McKee’s The Woman is ostensibly a sequel to Andrew van den Houten’s Offspring (both films adapted from the works of Jack Ketchum).

Now, honestly, I wasn’t overly fond of Offspring, so I really only gravitated to The Woman on the strength of McKee’s name, and after having seen it, I have this to say for starters: if someone were to have told me three years ago that Offspring would beget a sequel, I wouldn’t have pictured it to be the feral and ferocious cinematic experience that is McKee’s The Woman.

Truth be told, you really don’t need to have seen Offspring to appreciate what McKee and company have done with The Woman. All you really have to know is, a wild woman (Pollyanna McIntosh, reprising her role as “The Woman”) is living in the woods.

It isn’t long after The Woman starts though, that she’s no longer running loose in the woods. Then, of course, the fit hits the shan, and off we go.

McKee (working together with his May star, Angela Bettis, for the fifth time, if my count is right) shows us just how primal and vicious the female of the species can be, particularly when cornered by the more idiotic and presumptuous members of the opposite sex.

This is strong and potent stuff, not for the easily offended.

You have been warned…

“We’re gonna train her, Brian. Civilize her. Free her from herself, from her baser instincts.”

(The Woman OS courtesy of bloody-disgusting.com; UK quad courtesy of impawards.com.)

¡Qué horror! 2012

Candidate # 18

THE WOMAN

(January 2011)

“God only knows where she’s been living, Peg. In the woods. In caves. We’re gonna help her…”

Premiering at Sundance 2011 on the same day as fellow ¡Qué Horror! 2012 candidate, Red State, and causing quite the controversial stir, Lucky McKee’s The Woman is ostensibly a sequel to Andrew van den Houten’s Offspring (both films adapted from the works of Jack Ketchum).

Now, honestly, I wasn’t overly fond of Offspring, so I really only gravitated to The Woman on the strength of McKee’s name, and after having seen it, I have this to say for starters: if someone were to have told me three years ago that Offspring would beget a sequel, I wouldn’t have pictured it to be the feral and ferocious cinematic experience that is McKee’s The Woman.

Truth be told, you really don’t need to have seen Offspring to appreciate what McKee and company have done with The Woman. All you really have to know is, a wild woman (Pollyanna McIntosh, reprising her role as “The Woman”) is living in the woods.

It isn’t long after The Woman starts though, that she’s no longer running loose in the woods. Then, of course, the fit hits the shan, and off we go.

McKee (working together with his May star, Angela Bettis, for the fifth time, if my count is right) shows us just how primal and vicious the female of the species can be, particularly when cornered by the more idiotic and presumptuous members of the opposite sex.

This is strong and potent stuff, not for the easily offended.

You have been warned…

“We’re gonna train her, Brian. Civilize her. Free her from herself, from her baser instincts.”

(The Woman OS courtesy of bloody-disgusting.com; UK quad courtesy of impawards.com.)