Arrow Video, out now

One family are terrorised by a tribe of cannibals in modern day America, while another torment their new house guest.

Featuring the first two movies in the Offspring series – they would be followed by 2019’s Darlin’ – Arrow’s two-disc double-bill will test your stomach and your sensibilities as this duo pile gore and horror onto your small screen.

Both movies feature Pollyanna McIntosh (The Walking Dead’s Jadis) as the series’ alpha female, and she’s formidable and fearless in her role. Of the two films, the second – The Woman – has the most to say and is the more original, Offspring being more a generic cannibal attack movie like an entry in The Hills Have Eyes or Wrong Turn series. Both are extreme, with bloody gore – ripped throats, lacerated limbs and sexual violence spray the screen. Neither are easy to watch, frequently veering in to torture porn territory, and indeed they may be too much to handle.

The Woman’s most interesting aspect is that the eponymous cannibal is not the monster, but the victim. The beast here is controlling psychopath and lawyer Chris Clerk (a terrifying Sean Bridgers) who finds the woman on a hunting trip and incarcerates her at home, subjecting her to all forms of exploitation and humiliation. When her revenge comes, we’re cheering that the deranged head of the family gets his comeuppance, while in Offspring, the woman was the lead villain.

Offspring has a new 4K restoration supervised and approved by the director and new commentary by him, as well as an archive commentary with writer Jack Ketchum.

The Woman benefits from a new 4K restoration supervised and approved by director Lucky McKee as well as A new commentary from him, with editor Zach Passero, sound designer Andrew Smetek and composer Sean Spillane. There’s also commentaries with star Pollyanna McIntosh and critic Scott Weinberg, a new 75-minute fly-on-the-wall behind-the-scenes documentary and a raft of other featurettes, images and trailers.

There’s a new interview with Pollyanna McIntosh and Andrew van den Houten, a fly-on-the-wall behind-the-scenes documentary and a whole bunch of webisodes, featurettes, trailers and images.

Verdict: Strong, adult horror that flip-flops between exploitation and social commentary, these are generously-stuffed discs, but cautiously recommended with extreme caution. 8/10

Nick Joy

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