Horrorthon 2018 Day 17 - She Who Must Burn (2015)

  Hey, remember yesterday when I was mad because At the Devil's Door didn't seem to have any sort of message I could discern?  Well this one is about a group of fanatical Christians persecuting a planned parenthood nurse.  Yep, no agenda there at all.

Angela (Sarah Smyth) refuses to leave town just because the state has pulled funding for the clinic she worked at and protesters keep invading her property calling her a baby murderer.  It's just words, right?  When she helps the abused wife (Jewel Staite) of the local evangelical leader (Shane Twerdun) leave town, however, shit gets personal.

So this film actually opens with a guy shooting a doctor in a women's clinic.  It also features a pretty graphic depiction of marital rape, domestic violence, and a stillbirth.  99% of the violence in this movie is against women.  Is that horror?  Yes.  Is it a real horror that women are forced to confront in their lives?  Yes.  Now your mileage on watching it on screen may vary, but personally I could have done with a little less realism.  This is obviously a hyperbolic story but it's not as exaggerated as it should be.  Abortion and the larger issue of women's rights over their bodies has been a hot button for decades and I'm not here to tell you what to think about it.  If watching this movie makes you reconsider arguments you've had or how your behavior may appear to others, cool.  If it makes you dismissive because the rhetoric is so heavy-handed, I can understand that.  Mostly, I hope it makes you feel a little sick to your stomach.

Okay, that's message out of the way and for better or worse, I'm glad this movie had one.  Because there's really not much else to recommend it.  The two biggest failings are the constant shaky cam and the need for a much tighter edit.  There were sections in the beginning where I was literally counting how many seconds could have been shaved off without sacrificing the point of the scene.  Thankfully, the performances are good enough to carry the film through these plodding times.

I honestly don't know who this movie is for.  Anyone pro-life is going to be immediately put off by the central premise so that's a wasted effort.  Pro-choice people are going to be horrified, sure, but mostly depressed by that deus ex machina bullshit ending.

Pumpkin rating:  2.3/5