Director Lucky McKee Responds to His Irate Sundance Hater: 'Then Don't Watch It'

How do you respond to accusations that your film is anti-female due to the violence done to women, especially your lead character?

I've read one negative review by a fellow who was very upset with me, and very upset that I'm adding to all this negative stuff around women. But I adore women! Watch all of my films! It's like Hitchcock's movies always had scary mothers in them, but if you read about his life he loved his mother dearly. So having a scary mother in a film is what's scary to him. Your mom is the person who's supposed to protect you, and if that person's bad, that's scary. That was scary to him. And to me, women that can be put under the thumb of a man is scary, so I wanted to explore that. Sorry if it's hurting people.

No, the kind of film that challenges its audience to think about what they're watching is sadly rare.

When I started making horror films, I put myself in there -- my personal observations and things that had happened to me, I tried to just put my heart in there. And the stuff is dark and hard, but there's a catharsis I get out of doing it, putting it out there and sharing it with people like, "Look, I see this stuff. Do you see it, too?" Going to horror conventions and having kids come up to me asking, "Did you see that movie where the guy got ripped in half? It was so cool!" And I'm like, yeah I saw it, but I didn't think it was cool. Horror films are starting to be treated like roller coaster rides at amusement parks. You go to a meeting in Hollywood and they're like, "This is what we want to do -- what do you think the good kills will be?"

How many times have you had that kind of conversation?

Multiple times! And how do you announce that? What are our kills... Just to turn it into an amusement park ride is a little disturbing in itself to me. Obviously those movies are very popular and entertaining to people, but I'm not capable of that. I can't just brush over our subject matter, especially death. It's the one we're all most afraid of. So I want the movie to make people question why they watch this kind of stuff. What is it that makes me and you and everybody fascinated to see these dark things take place on screen?

Besides the obvious boost in profile, what were the immediate benefits of having the spotlight shown on your film's visceral power?

It's definitely helpful; it makes people realize that this movie really pushed people's buttons. The thing I've seen the most online is people saying, "I want to see it!" And that feeds right into that: Why are we all fascinated with this stuff? We watch horror on the news every night, you know, but instead of just telling it in some sort of emotionally honest way they're selling Viagra and all that kind of stuff in between. They put all sorts of awful images in your head, and it's just a show! I've had my dinner ruined a couple of times just from the things they show. This film is one of those awful stories you hear on the top of the 6 'o clock news: "Here's the most awful thing that happened today!" But this is making you sit in it and examine it and live in that situation. And if you're sitting in a movie theater and you forget you're watching a movie and you start having a physical reaction to it, that's pretty awesome. That's better than 3-D, I can tell you that much.

If The Woman were to come with a warning label, what sort of warning would you give to folks like the man from the Q&A?

That's a really good question. If you're afraid of something being brutally honest about the awful things that happen in this world, then don't watch it. It's nothing if not honest, and it very much plays like a nightmare because nobody's reacting to what's happening in a correct way and you don't know why that is until you've been through the film once. It's designed to be watched multiple times, and its designed to be completely different the second, third, and fourth time you watch it. But if you can't get past the first viewing... But if someone's getting physically upset and it's hurting them in some way, by all means don't watch it, get out!

[Top Lucky McKee photo: Getty Images]

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