The Furies
Name: The Furies
Directed By: Tony D'Aquino
Subgenre: Slasher Battle Royale
Series: Spooktober 2020 entry #17; review #79
Review: Obscene topics in horror--as in every genre of film--can be tricky. There's a fine line to walk with what and how much are shown in order to avoid unintentionally glamorizing the very subject that was intended to be maligned (assuming that was the goal, at least). Netflix ran into this taboo via its highly controversial Cuties release, and I believe The Furies falls into the same problematic niche. The film follows the story's main dame as she is kidnapped and taken into the wilderness; there, she meets other young, attractive women who quickly learn that there are masked serial killers hunting them down. It's a pretty straightforward slasher, and the gore and other effects are shockingly effective. Don't watch if you're squeamish. That said, those scenes are few and far between; the rest of the film is mostly just running around, screaming, and feminine bickering. Why put emphasis on "feminine" there? Well, because the film wants us to. The Furies feels like a cheap excuse for ultraviolence against women despite what the ending might suggest; it glamorizes what it thinks it's trying to malign. More egregious, the film breaks a cardinal sin of horror: it's boring. You can have extremely effective kills, but if you aren't made to care about the characters, then their deaths mean nothing: they're just vapid but pretty butchering. Not every film needs to have a point--hell, there are even some films that intentionally eschew them for the sake of it (see the preamble in Rubber, for example)--but The Furies just feels like a thinly veiled excuse for misogynistic violence with little else to add.
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