Cell Block Tango
AKA Violent Women who Torture Men
The Loved Ones (2009) d: Sean Byrne
May (2002) d: Lucky McKee
Audition (1999) d: Takashi Miike
American Mary* (2012) d: The Soska Sisters
“He had it coming, he only had himself to blaaaaaame” OK, some of the men on this list definitely don’t deserve the torture they suffer, while others……
We’re starting off with a bang with Australian flick, The Loved Ones. Poor protagonist Brent is definitely in the doesn’t-deserve-this camp, and he is put through the gory (and I mean gory) ringer. You know that line in Scream where Billy says: “Movies don't create psychos, movies make psychos more creative!”? Well, this movie inspired a really freaky real-world crime. May is an intentionally cringy watch - you’re going to be squirming if you get second-hand embarrassment. This is fundamentally about the painfully awkward May (Angela Bettis absolutely killing it) desperately trying to forge meaningful connections, and her creatively morbid attempt to overcome her disappointment in others. The ending hits surprisingly heavy.
Audition is pretty notorious, so I was surprised by the slow burn, pseudo-rom-com first half of this movie. But then things take a turn. Oh, what a turn it is. There are a few moments in this film that get absolutely burned into your brain.
Fair warning - American Mary is a rape revenge movie. Personally, it’s not a subgenre that I love (for obvious reasons), and I think there are a thousand too many. That being said, this was directed by the incisive Soska sisters, and the focus is squarely on Mary and her bloody journey to seize her agency and succeed in her new underground career. I don’t think it necessarily handles the camera gaze in a way that gels with the film’s ethos, but I think this movie is a really interesting watch and is full of really confident body horror visuals.