It was with a lot of excitement that I entered the theater on that Tuesday night as I eagerly anticipated the gut-stained feminism of Lucky McKee's The Woman. As for the two previous films, they shared the advantage of being independently produced, and thus more likely to surprise me. Given the somewhat enticing title (and titular babe) of Attack of Alien Bikini, I easily managed to enlist a willing partner for the first screening. And while he left the theater infuriated by the neurotic protagonist, I myself felt quite differently. In fact, I felt a distinct bond with that character whom had infuriated him so, a bond that goes far beyond his sporting of a mustache. Witnessing his painfully hesitant attitude toward sex, I was cruelly reminded of my own, and of all the missed opportunities which it has caused me over the years. For me, Attack of Alien Bikini was not unlike a horrific mirror through which my own impotence was showcased as a grotesque, but oh-so relevant spectacle. Yet, I could hardly defend the film in those terms, and so I didn't... Instead, I watched my friend leave and we never spoke of the film again... until many months later, when I asked him if he remembered that "awful" Korean film we'd seen back on August 2nd. He was weirdly surprised by the mention thereof. "It wasn't that bad", he said defensively, as if I had suddenly accused him of dissing a classic. What this goes to show is that while you may be pissed as hell against the protagonist just after leaving the theater, this probably won't taint your memory of the film.
Fake mustache, fake masculinity:
Invasion of Alien Bikini
Invasion of Alien Bikini
And then there was Marianne, whose world premiere took place right after the first screening. Unbeknownst to me, I sat down right next to director Filip Tegstedt and producer Alexandra Malmqvist, who were understandably anxious to have their work first seen and appraised by a foreign crowd. Even Rick Trembles might've been in the crowd since he published a positive review of the film in his weekly Motion Picture Purgatory on the following Thursday. A star-studded night as it turned out, since we also got to meet Mr. Lucky McKee in person during the only, surprisingly unattended screening of The Woman. Stars aside, here was one of the best nights at the festival I'd had in a while as all three films on the lineup scored big points for walking the rugged path outside of the beaten trail that is horror cinema.
FILMS SEEN
Invasion of Alien Bikini
Micro-budgeted (4,000$!) Korean oddity takes the literal approach to torture porn by confronting a virginal, but somewhat heroic dork with a sultry alien babe hellbent on harvesting his seed. While there is more to the plot (but nothing more interesting), the crux of the action, or rather, the absence of action, takes place in the protagonist's diminutive apartment and it concerns the lady alien's attempts at stimulating her uninterested partner. Thankfully, the film manages to do a lot with very little, generating genuine laughs, exciting fight scenes and effective special effects that perfectly showcase a great number of clever little ideas that go a long way to keep the narrative outside of the box. And while said narrative totally crumbles near the end, with an overly dramatic twist on some outrageously comedic material as well as cryptic mythological implications (being Korean must help here), the ensemble is well worth the admission price. Plus, foxy Korean actress Eun-Jung Ha is an attraction in herself. And while she doesn't fully disrobe here, her strut alone should be enough to make you drool. Enjoy!
THUMBS UP
Marianne
This is not a ghost film, but a mare film. If you don't know what a mare is, you might want to check out this modest Swedish family drama that focuses on the tortured nights of a traumatized patriarch desperately trying to cope with the recent death of his wife and the subsequent souring of the relationship with his estranged Goth daughter. Filmed using a nearly documentary approach and containing the bare minimum of scares necessary to depict the protagonist's breakdown, Marianne takes a modular approach to narrative construction. Alternating almost seamlessly between current events and pivotal flashbacks, the film plays like a puzzle being slowly pieced together. The result is an engrossing adventure that keeps you involved throughout. As for the mythological elements on display, they are used to strengthen the dramatic structure rather than as a goal in themselves. So, genre film fans should be warned.
THUMBS UP
The Woman
Not exactly subtle but all the more powerful, this gutsy shock film is the ungodly brainchild of splatter master Jack Ketchum and pseudo-feminist horror author Lucky McKee. The result is a cumshot in the face of conventions and a castrating blow to the peachy facade of Americana. When the despicably macho head of the Cleek family spots a shapely feral woman in the woods surrounding his Massachusetts estate, that's more than he can bear. A woman free of masculine dictates? Not on my watch! And so, he decides to capture the titular creature in order to "civilize" her, a process that involves several sessions of humiliation which the man shares with his increasingly uneasy family. As the narrative unfolds, all males in the narrative seem to become increasingly misogynistic until they receive some very bloody comeuppance.
Raw, unapologetic and bleak, The Woman is exactly what you'd expect to come out from a collaboration between Jack Ketchum and Lucky McKee, sort of a Girl Next Door with a man's hand on the whip. The result is surprisingly polished in technical terms, but somewhat simplistic and retro in its depiction of sex roles (I was reminded more of 19th century Arkansas here than present-day Massachusetts). Evidently, contemporary women are still prey to men's violence, but overemphasizing that violence is missing the point. Especially if one considers just how multiform male domination actually is. And so the unfathomable amount of violence directed at women appears somewhat perplexing in its trying to prove a point about our society. Then maybe sense can be found in the feral woman's counter-attack. But what does that say of evolving sexual conceptions when woman is still represented as the primordial (read natural) form of humanity while it is man that possesses "the word" (Ordet)? Obviously, these are all valid questions that can be hotly debated, and therein lies the strength of the film as an exercise in representation. Personally, I would qualify the ensemble as a clumsy attempt at feminist discourse, although you could easily argue for a totally different interpretation. As from a spectator's point of view, the show is well worth it in a very raw, vindictive way. The shocking nastiness of the male characters and their over-demonstrated lack of respect for women make it all the more exhilarating for us to witness their gory demise at the hands of the very femininity which they have soiled. And while such a tactic is derivative of many rape revenge films from the 1970s, it takes a new dimension here as the atrocities onscreen are made under the sign of normalcy, and not the sign of deviance, making systematic male violence an integral part of Americana. But before one can make any deeper assumption about the film, one must first ask this broader question: Is The Woman more than exploitation? Does the film deserve any form of deeper analysis? As for the sub-genre itself, does it warrant study as a relevant cultural item? Ask yourself these questions, and the film automatically finds relevance.
As for some truly transcendental film feminism, it should be found elsewhere. And the first place I suggest you look is in the cinema of Carl Dreyer (my favorite director of all times) and especially his four key films: The Passion of Joan of Arc, Vampyr, Day of Wrath and Ordet. These four films are masterpieces of proto-feminism from a man whose own mother was put to death by a cruelly phallocentric society, not unlike all the protagonists of his films, through whom he honors her over and over again.
THUMBS UP
