The Furies Parent Guide

Although Kayla (Airlie Dodds) just had a massive argument with her best friend, Maddie (Ebony Vagulans), her day is about to get a lot worse. Kidnapped, operated on, and dumped in the middle of the outback, Kayla finds herself struggling to survive along with a number of other women who woke up in the same predicament. Roaming the outback are a number of large, murderous, masked men, armed to the teeth and stalking the women as prey. Even when she finds what appears to be a way out, Kayla is made painfully aware of what the surgery was for: she’s been implanted with a device that causes excruciating pain when she steps outside the boundary markers. Trapped with killers and with little hope, she decides to try and find Maddie – if she’s still alive.

This movie is downright grotesque. The Furies is firmly in the category of torture porn, brutal violence for the sake of violence. I’m not especially squeamish, but I strongly dislike this kind of nearly fetishized gore. Slasher films have long had a problem of perpetrating grisly violence against women for little more than entertainment value. It’s especially disturbing in this film since dialogue early in the movie implies that at least two of these characters are either still in high school or recently graduated – what could be more fun than brutal violence against teenage girls? Not only is that not entertaining, it sends a message that torturing and killing women is more or less fine as a form of entertainment, which is hardly the kind of statement we need in a world which has already shockingly normalized gendered violence.

While the flick seems to pivot and try to run some bizarre “girl power” messaging, that’s all undercut by the entire premise of the movie. Bad messaging aside, this is clearly unsuitable for viewing by any person of any age. The gore is so disgusting it even made me a little nauseous, which takes some doing. Add in the torrent of profanity and you’ve got a recipe for a truly horrific way to spend just under an hour and a half of your day. I suppose in the interests of fairness, I should point out that the movie was so busy being disgustingly violent that it didn’t have time for any sex or drug use, so I guess that’s something.

If none of this were enough to discourage you, which it certainly ought to be, the writing is lazy and the acting is uninspiring. There are enough problems here without being stupid and irritating on top of everything else, but this movie was truly determined to be an overachiever in all categories. Take my word for it, as someone who’s paid to watch this kind of garbage so you don’t have to: find something else to watch. Please. Don’t make me have watched this for nothing.