In the Blog
Feminism, the horror movie
Here’s a Film Fridays bonus. I get a lot of weird press releases: people who want Shameless to do stories on teen TV Hollywood stars and mommy-and-toddler toys. But the strange press release of the day goes to the makers of Women’s Studies: a horror B-movie coming soon to a movie theatre near you.
At first, I thought this might be fun: a largely female cast – it could be campy, subverting the traditional man-hunts-helpless-girls horror set up. Maybe this wasn’t just scream queens and blood-spattered prom dresses. Maybe this wasn’t the senseless misogynist violence of torture-porn movies like Captivity (see Stacey May’s excellent post about that one here). After all, Buffy was in the horror genre, right?
Nope, Women’s Studies looks more like “Feminism: the horror movie.” (I think the movie’s tagline, “Open your mind before it gets opened for you” is deeply hilarious.) Students at a girls-only college are indoctrinated with women’s studies, politics, media and genetics (so that women can reproduce without male chromosomes). Check out this description, straight from the Women’s Studies website (which, by the way, has the URL areyoualadykiller.com):
Mary soon discovers that Judith and the academy have a darker side: indoctrinating women into their apocalyptic sect and then sending them out into the world to strip men of power and status and enslave them. Slowly, Mary begins to realize that Judith and the cultists will do anything to fulfill their dogma … including murder.
The filmmakers seem to think that they have made something revolutionary and relevant. (See their hilariously bad documentary about why the movie is so edgy.) But it’s the same tired old stereotype of feminists as man-haters. And, of course, they all make out a lot. Ugh.
Well, I guess the press release was useful. I am getting the word out: don’t go see this film.
