MAY’s Lucky McKee and Angela Bettis reteam on OFFSPRING: THE WOMAN

By Michael Gingold

Fango just got in some details about OFFSPRING: THE WOMAN, the Modernciné company’s follow-up to its OFFSPRING feature from last year. The movie will be directed by Lucky McKee, with his MAY and MASTERS OF HORROR: SICK GIRL star Angela Bettis in one of the lead roles. Peace Arch Entertainment has already acquired all distribution rights outside North America.

THE WOMAN was scripted by Jack Ketchum, who penned OFFSPRING and its source novel, and McKee, based on an upcoming book the duo also penned (marking Ketchum’s first literary collaboration). The story centers on the title character, the last member left alive of the savage cannibal clan that terrorized a Maine town (to be played by returning actress Pollyanna McIntosh). As she roams the woods, she is stalked by a local hunter and family man named Christopher Cleek, who believes he can capture and “civilize” her. Bettis will play Christopher’s wife Belle; Andrew van den Houten is producing, with Robert Tonino serving as executive producer .

In a statement, McKee, the original director on the Ketchum adaptation RED, says, “OFFSPRING: THE WOMAN is an exploration of the very definition of horror. It is designed to incite feelings of fear, shock, nervousness, dismay, anxiety and disgust. It is designed to make you question what it is to be civilized, what it is to be feral and all the shades of gray in between. On a surface level, the film will make you jump, it will make you squirm and, for the more sensitive, it might even induce nausea. It will make you question my intentions in making it, as well as your own desire to watch it.

“The photography will become increasingly aggressive, gritty and bold, coupled with an escalating, visceral cutting style, all of which will call to mind Sam Peckinpah’s STRAW DOGS and Tobe Hooper’s THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. But it won’t be just blood and guts that will make you feel this way. More than anything, it will be the situation. It will be the actions of the characters, their twisted ideals, their tortured souls and the frightening believability of it all. You want a horror movis? OFFSPRING: THE WOMAN will be horror by definition. To sum it up in an unsophisticated way: I’m going to scare the hell out of you.”

OFFSPRING: THE WOMAN is set to begin shooting in late June on Michigan locations; stay tuned for further updates.