Cat People (1982) 👎

First of all I want to say that this is nasty and icky. Nastassia was only 21 and now we know she was sexually abused by her father when she was a kid. She doesn't like being touched my Malcolm McDowell... So...I cannot possibly let this movie pass Maisy test. Yuck.

Also, there animal abuse. A LOT OF IT. So much so that I'm nauseous. I can't believe they kept animals in those tiny showcases still in the 80s. And that black panther is so scared. So fucking scared.

V Bechdel test
V Mako Mori Test

O Sexy Lamp Test

Frankly, I don't know... can she? I kind of think she could be just a sexy lamp, and it would still be the same.

X The Crystal Gems Test

There is basically four major characters, and half of them are females.
It passes Bechdel test, Mako Mori test, and... er... does it pass the sexy lamp test? How can it pass Mako Mori but not the sexy lamp?
So... Irena speaks with other women. Alice speaks with other women. Female speaks with other women.
Irena could be a sexy lamp. Alice... maybe. Female? No. Is it enough that Female passes the sexy lamp test for the movie to pass it? Because the main character might not...
Irena has a story, Alice... er... Female? Yeah... but... hmm...
"It has to be a clear pass". So I suppose it's a no.

X F-Rating

X Sphinx Test
Rotten Tomatoes 61% - IMDb 6.1

X The Feldman Score 
I think it got 0 points. MAYBE 1, if I'm being nice.

X Furiosa Test

X The Roxane Gay Test

X The Maisy Test for sexism in kids' shows

X Gender Balance - Gender Representation:


X The Uphold Test

X The Rees Davies Test

X The White Test

V The Hagen Test

X The Koeze-Dottle Test

X The Peirce Test

V The Villarreal Test

X The Landau Test

X The Tauriel Test

X The Willis Test

O the MacGyver Test

X the Raleigh Becket Test

V Kuku test

X Molly Haskell:

There's sacrifice. She gives up life as a human being to save Oliver, and he gets to fuck her, too!
There's affliction. She has this terrible curse, which condemns her to live her life alone as an animal, but luckily she has her moment, being fucked while tied up. Because he loves her. Yeah, sure.
There's the triangle drama. She and Alice want the same man.
There is the "born sexy yesterday" trope
She doesn't have any friends. I thought Alice would be her friend, but no, she's just jealous. I thought Female would be her friend, but she was Paul's friend.
She is set apart from other women, as this exceptional and special magical creature, who is even exceptional and special as a magical creature, because she is innocent and pure and good.

She is portrayed as romantic, frail, innocent and beautiful.
But she eats.

There is a woman who isn't romantically connected or related to a male character. Female. (No, that's her name. It's pronounced "Fay-muh-leh".) Frankly, she was the only "real" person in the whole movie. Her interaction with Malcolm McDonald was very nice. Best part of the whole movie.

X Gender Bias Without Borders

V Gender Freedom:

X Gender Safety:

Are body shapes healthy and realistic? No.
Is everyone safe? No.
Are boys and girls treated respectfully? No.
Is the show free from the sexualization of children, objectification, unrealistic body standards and misogyny?
Sexualization of children, yes. Because Nastassia Kinski was 21, and that's an adult. It doesn't much matter that her male coactors were almost twice as old. 

lots of nudity. And one of the nude ones, the nudest of them all, was also the youngest, Nastassia - 21. Twenty-one.

The scene in the bus was icky, with the guy staring at her. Objectification.
And why is she wearing that top that's practically see-through?
sexual innuendos
unwanted attention, comments on her looks - now, it's noted that that's asshole-y behavior, but - unnecessary. And then Alice goes on asking these sex questions, when she's obviously not comfortable about it. (And later Alice says "her type will always be fine". Her type. So, she knows she is virgin and obviously uncomfortable about sex and such things, but men are attracted to her, so she's a whore.)
And what's with those supertiny highcut shorts and wading boots? And of course she has to bend down.

nudity of both sexes. Except that he is very carefully cut at the navel, she is shown fully naked.
We also have plenty of lingerie scenes and bare breasts.

"lacking autonomy"... she moves to live with her brother. Then they for some reason just have to "discover" that the brother is a serial killer using the leopard as a weapon. "Because the dog went wild". Yeah, sure... that will certainly give you a warrant. The dog went wild.
For some reason she is homeless. No, they can not give her protection to catch a serial killer, no, she has to find a new home. The guy "will fix it". Obviously she moves in with him.
She tries to leave and he stops her and basically forces her back. 
She goes to beg the housekeeper to tell her what to do. She refuses.
Then she goes and buys a train ticket and he follows and gets her back.
Also, during their first date, he just grabs her coke and pours it into a glass as if she was a kid. (Also, she says she doesn't eat meat, so he takes her to an oyster bar. *sigh*)
She doesn't have any thoughts, feelings, opinions or voice either. She likes animals. She likes drawing. Frankly, I agree with Alice about he being interested in her just because she is sexy. Which seems to be her only quality. "This is Irena" "She's mighty pretty". Not even hello.
And in the end she becomes a panther at the fucking animal prison with the caravan sized cages and cattle prods. Silent, beautiful, owned...

And when he ties her up he's deliberately hurting her... and just think how tightly the leopard will be tied up. More animal abuse.
And absolutely no foreplay.

And what's with the pool scene? There just so we get to see Annette O'Toole's breasts?

X Social Justice and Equality:

Oh, yes, there's even a fat woman in the movie! Gets a scene with John Heard!

No... seriously... who thought that was a good idea? There's also a circus seal on that mobile, and a circus tent. And probably other figures as well. Did they really sell that at New Orleans Zoo back at 84? And some people bought it? Seriously?

Can every kid see someone like them? No
Does this show support social justice and equality in other ways? No.
Are people of color represented or is the cast all-white? Yes.
Is there any representation of other marginalized groups: disabled people, LGBTQ+ folks, different class backgrounds? No. Oh, well... there's this whore and the hotel congierce, whom, I suppose, could be said to represent "other marginalized groups and different class backgrounds".
Are children encouraged by the plots and characters to critique power structures, consumerism, environmental and social exploitation? No. Even animal preservation is presented as a shitty business.

B The Representation Test
Which says that this Representation Test doesn't really say much about the movie... Yes, it has good roles (well... acceptably good) for black people, and the MC is a woman. YAY! Not.

X The Vito Russo test

Does the film contain a character that is identifiably LGBT, and is not solely or predominantly defined by their sexual orientation or gender identity, as well as tied into the plot in such a way that their removal would have a significant effect?

X Kent test

Well... There is a black woman in this movie, who isn't a walking stereotype/trope, who has her own narrative arc... or sort of... but... is she there to "hold down" some male character or to "prop up" the white female character? I'm not sure I understand the meaning of those terms. She isn't fetished. She doesn't interact with other black females. She interacts with a black male, though. But this male is a police who is there to question and arrest her and she goes to prison. And basically for the crimes of the white male. So - er... It doesn't much matter that she was a friend, a housekeeper and an accomplish, does it?

X Aila test

O The Waithe Test

V The Ko Test

X The Villalobos Test

X The Deggans Test

Not really, no... there is two black characters among the first 10 characters mentioned at IMDb; Female and Detective Brandt, but Detective Brandt isn't really a main character.

X The Shukla Test

They talk about crime - one is a detective questioning the other about a crime... but I don't think it lasts five minutes.

V The Latif Test
 Except that I don't know if Female is a magic stock character... Maybe she is.

So... how could it be better? 

In every possible way.

Cat People (1942) 👍

It's not all good, though. But all in all, it gets feminist thumbs up from me.

V Bechdel test

V Mako Mori Test

V Sexy Lamp Test

V The Crystal Gems Test

X F-Rating

V Sphinx Test

Actually, I think it does pass this. I think Irena has the main role, even though Oliver and Alice are there, too. I think Irena decides very much what happens in the movie. I think she is very active. I don't think she's very stereotypical. (There are some problems here). I think her character is compelling, complex and multidimensional, even though I have seen "better". :-D If the story is essential? I don't know.  But it got 93% at Rotten Tomatoes and 7.3 at IMDb.

X The Feldman Score (2)

X Furiosa Test

V The Roxane Gay Test


V The Maisy Test for sexism in kids' shows

V Gender Balance - Gender Representation:

I really wish there was an easy way to count screentime and lines... I really cannot sit and count everyone's seconds and words. :-(
All the crew was male, the cast was about 50/50, down to tertiary actors and extras. Impressive, actually.

X The Uphold Test

X The Rees Davies Test

X The White Test

V The Hagen Test

V The Koeze-Dottle Test

V The Peirce Test

V The Villarreal Test

X The Landau Test
 
V The Tauriel Test

V The Willis Test

traditional gender roles

No-one seems to be much concerned about their appearance.
Everyone has a job.
The man orders apple pie, the women don't seem to eat anything
The man is being patient and not pushing himself on to her.
One of the women works in fashion industry, the other in... what? architecture?
The main character is very independent, decisive, active and aggressive
  
V the MacGyver Test

X the Raleigh Becket Test

V Kuku test

V Gender Freedom:

V Gender Safety:

Gender safety, yes, safety in general, no. :-D

Now, I think one of the biggest problems here was that the cat people were considered evil just by default, and she received religious upbringing with all the demons and satan worship beliefs, and she was bullied when she was little by the townspeople... she was never taught to deal with her panther spirit. Now... I wonder how a movie would be if that was not the case. Let's see what the modern version is like.

X Social Justice and Equality:

C The Representation Test

X The Vito Russo test

X Kent test

X Aila test 

X The Waithe Test

X The Ko Test

There’s a non-white, female-identifying person in the film who speaks English, but she is in only two scenes and these scenes are connected. But she seems to own the Sally Lunn's and the main characters go there and know her well. She is not sexualized in any way and she is treated well. We don't know anything about her life or relationships and she is the only non-white character in the whole movie. She isn't there to help anyone, to take the blame, she isn't magical (though I'd like to have some of that chicken gumbo... I bet that is magical. And sorry if I'm being racist here.), she isn't sacrificed or anything.

X The Villalobos Test

X The Deggans Test

X The Shukla Test

X The Latif Test


Age of primary and secondary actors?

Simone Simon 32
Kent Smith 35
Tom Conway 38
Jane Randolph 28

V Molly Haskell:

She doesn't sacrifice herself. She chooses to follow her own conviction and leaving Alice and Oliver to be. She dies at the end, though, but not killed because she's evil, wicked, bad, but in self defence.
The "good woman" isn't "innocent, dutiful, helpless, submissive, obedient, quiet and pretty". She is a friend, a good friend, and their love is based on a strong, equal friendship. She is his colleague.
It is Irena here who is the innocent, dutiful, helpless and pretty one.

But she doesn't have any friends. She's a lonely immigrant, fleeing from her native country, from the legend of the Cat People, the witches. She is one, though, and cannot hide her true nature. That makes her exceptional and unique. Different. She is a witch.

The only other female in the movie is the "other woman". She has been in love with the hero, but when he fell in love with Irena and married her, she was only supportive. There never was anything inappropriate going on between the two. Not even when he wanted to leave Irena to marry Alice. He chose Irena over Alice, because Irena was sick, insane, mad, in need of care, and that was the right thing to do. He could have annulled the marriage, but he chose to get Irena to a insane asylum.
...
...
let's ignore the fact what insane asylums were still in the 40s, and think that at that time that WAS doing the morally right thing and that he was a very good man. But, gosh, it's hard.

V Gender Bias Without Borders

So - the same old question... how could this be better?

More diversity and equality in the crew department. As always. Right now that feels impossible and totally utopistic. :-( Even the newest movies don't pass this!

The main character could be Native American. She could turn into a cougar. She could be totally fine with her nature.
The love interest could be anything but a white man. She could be a woman. He could be Native American. He could be Asian. It would be interesting if he was Indian.
One could do more about the culture clash.
Or she could be black woman. Or black man.

There should be more diversity in body shapes and sizes.

GLBT+


Now, another thing that I must say is that the zoo was awful. Having the cats walk around in tiny cages was nothing but animal cruelty.

The Company Of Wolves 👍

Now... this is a fairytale, so there's a lot of misogyny and stereotypes that is to be expected about a fairytale. But the heroine is an independent girl who does what she believes to be right and doesn't give a hoot about what people think about her. 

V Bechdel test

I don't know... there were a lot of women talking with each other... but were they talking about men? I kind of think granny warning Red Riding Hood about men isn't what they mean with talking about men... Yeah! They were talking about her sister and the wool shawl!

V Mako Mori Test

V Sexy Lamp Test

V The Crystal Gems Test

This one is trickier... we have the girl, who passes all this. We have her sister... she doesn't really have a character arc. The granny doesn't really either... nor the mother. Or the wolf girl or the witch or... but everyone passes the sexy lamp test. Even the wolf girl. I'm going to give it a pass.

X F-Rating
It IS written - partially - by a woman, and based on a book/story written by a woman, and it features a complex and compelling female character in main role, so - it's not bad. But it is not directed and written by a woman.

V Sphinx Test

Rotten Tomatoes 79%  IMDb 6.7

V The Feldman Score

Though it's tricky... again.
"no female characters were victimized, stereotyped or sexualized". No... I can't say this is true.
"the female characters initiate or reciprocate sexual advances". Ye-es... I think it passes.

X Furiosa Test

As far as I know, no men are whining about this movie :-D

V The Roxane Gay Test


The Maisy Test for sexism in kids' shows

V Gender Balance - Gender Representation:

X The Uphold Test

X The Rees Davies Test

X The White Test

V The Hagen Test

X The Koeze-Dottle Test

V Gender Freedom:

Now - this is a fairytale, so all females wore skirts and all males pants. But - men wore makeup, men were shown being scared. So... uh...

V Molly Haskell

X Gender Bias Without Borders

V The Peirce Test

V The Villarreal Test

V The Landau Test

X The Tauriel Test

O  The Willis Test

It would make a REALLY interesting story genderswapped.

V  the MacGyver Test

The father of the family was shown being tender, loving and caring toward his wife and daughter, without losing any of his manliness or respect he was shown by the villagers. The boy who was in love with the girl was respectful in his courting. So, yes, I think this passes.

V the Raleigh Becket Test

V  Kuku test

O Gender Safety:

Well... there is quite a lot of sex and sexual tension going on, and the main character was 12. I find that totally unacceptable, but on the other hand, she doesn't appear to be so young, and she wasn't touched inappropriately... it was all a lot of implying and so on. They were talking about kissing, and it's OK for 12 years olds to kiss. The only one she actually kissed was the boy who was about the same age. (And, yes, she kissed him.)
Nevertheless... it's very icky watching knowing that she's only 12.

Rosaleen was shown dressed in just a towel... and Micha was shown with bare upper body, with the intention of sexualizing him. So - not a pass. There was no objectification, though. He wasn't presented as just a sex object, to be used.

There's also a scene with a naked werewolf girl. The wolf girl was 26 at the time this movie was filmed. She wasn't naked for sexual purposes, but because she was a wolf in human shape, and wolves don't wear clothes. Duh. Also, her private parts were covered with her hair, so one couldn't see any more than if she had been wearing a swimming suit. It really wasn't sexual in any way, but she was naked.

Age of actors:

Rosaleen was 12
Her sister was 18
Her mother was 53
Her father was 43
Her granny was 59
Micha Bergese, the "Huntsman" (and the Big Bad Wolf of this story) was 39

X Social Justice and Equality:

Again, oh so white. White straight able-bodied. So, no, it doesn't pass this one.

C The Representation Test

X Kent test

XAila test

X The Waithe Test

X The Ko Test

X The Villalobos Test

So... how could this movie be better?

Fix the representation, of course. Get more women in the crew. We need more female script writers. We need more female directors. We need more ethnic and cultural diversity. It's naturally important to keep telling the Anglo-Saxon and European cultural stories, but... er... like... we have that. Come on, not every American movie made need to be about WASPs.

People should ask themselves if the role really must be played by a white person. This was about a girl's dream, so it doesn't need to be historically accurate. This was also a fairytale, which means that it REALLY doesn't need to be historically accurate, or even biologically or scientifically accurate. Take Cinderella (1997) The prince was Asian, his mother was black and father white.
People should ask if the role really must be played by a man or a woman. If the person must be able-bodied. Or straight. Would inclusiveness REALLY take away something from the story?

In this story, nobody's gender, color, culture, ability, weight, form, height or sexuality played any role.
So - why were all white, straight, normal-weighed, normal-height, able-bodied, etc. etc.?
Because discrimination. Laziness. Xenophobia. The casting director couldn't think beyond herself. It happens. But people should start thinking beyond themselves and remember to be inclusive and start casting people who look different. I mean, I wish Hermione had been black. But - Susie Figgs did the casting there, too. Now, there IS a bit more diversity in Harry Potter, but not enough.

Now, not every movie needs to get an F rating or pass the Furiosa test :-D That doesn't say much about if the movie is expressing feminist values or not. It's OK to show skin and sexuality. It's even OK to have sexual abuse in a movie, just as long as it is acknowledged as abuse in the movie. I mean, the victim doesn't even need to get right and compensation for it, just as long as it is not brushed aside as nothing.

But Tauriel test and the "Gender Bias Without Borders"... We need to show our daughters more women who are good at their job and who get acknowledged for it, especially in STEM and other occupations that are sadly lacking women. This is so important, that I wouldn't mind if the "good female STEMician" was mandatory in every movie, even if she was a token character. I think I'm going to start giving gold stars to movies with the "good female STEMician" :-D
This one isn't one.
And it could have been... Just put in some lines in the beginning of the movie showing the mother works in STEM. (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, if someone doesn't know ;-))

I mean, it would be a bit like the Bechdel test. Bechdel test isn't really measuring feminism, it's just a poor measurement of female representation in movies, but it's purpose is to make people think and see and discuss. And that is what it has done, during the last 30 years since it was coined. And there is a lot of movies where they have inserted two women having a discussion, just to get it pass the Bechdel test. Most of these movies are crap, because that kind of tokenism doesn't work well. But there's a lot of movies that aren't crap, because they wrote in women and gave them good roles, because they were made aware of this incredible imbalance. (I mean... how difficult is it to put in two women talking about something else than men in a movie? Yet there are films, AND A LOT OF FILMS, that don't pass! To me it's about as difficult as to make a movie where nothing is blue. Like, you have to actively write the movie without women in it! Just think about how many movies don't pass the reverse Bechdel test. I think there's 10 movies IN THE WORLD EVER MADE... and about 50% of the movies that don't pass Bechdel test. Think about it a little.

The Haunting (1999) 👎

It's funny... when I don't like the movie, I don't want to give it thumbs up from a feminist point of view either. And I don't like this movie.

V Bechdel test

V Mako Mori Test
Although... her raison d'etre was to fix her great grandfather's sins.

V Sexy Lamp Test
Though... Theo... Maybe she could be replaced with a sexy lamp or a cardboard cutout of Catherine Zeta Jones. Not saying that she can't act, saying that her role was... uh. I mean, she didn't add anything to the story. She was there basically as a sexy, "liberated" bisexual counterpart to Nell's "modest" (what's with the birther uniform? Geesh!) innocent sheltered whatever she was supposed to be. And then she yelled a lot, probably to hide the fact that she didn't DO anything and didn't have any role to play. At least Owen Wilson's character DID things, even though that got him killed.
Frankly, Liam Neeson's character could be replaced with a lamp as well.

X The Crystal Gems Test

No. No. I mean... half of the major characters are female. It passes Bechdel test. But - Theo doesn't pass Mako Mori test nor Sexy Lamp test. I COULD be kind and say, "OK", but "it has to be a clear pass", and it isn't. Theo doesn't have a character arc. She doesn't even have a character. I love Catherine, but Theo is a crappy character.

X F-Rating

X Sphinx Test

Is there a woman center stage? Yes

Does she interact with other women? Yes

is there a woman driving the action? Er...

At first she is stuck to the house taking care of her mother and catering to her every whim. She dies.
She plans on staying living in the house. Her sister sells it and kicks her out. She doesn't know what to do. A telephone rings and she is informed about the study. She applies and is approved. Goes to the house.
Is sitting there and doing what is asked of her, by the good psychologist, by the dead children... Last 10 minutes of the movie she does things herself, taking initiative, being affirmative and decisive and powerful, and then she dies. So... no.

Is she active rather than reactive? No

Does the character avoid stereotype? Yeah... I think so.

Is she compelling and complex? Not really, no.

Is the story essential? No.

Does the story have an impact on a wide audience? No. IMDb 5 - Rotten Tomatoes 16%

X The Feldman Score
2 points. 


X Furiosa Test
The only people who get infuriated with this are the people who saw the 1963 version and liked it.

V The Roxane Gay Test

The Maisy Test for sexism in kids' shows

V Gender Balance - Gender Representation:

V The Peirce Test
V The Villarreal Test
X The Landau Test

A movie fails if:
A primary female character ends up dead

Oops.

X The Tauriel Test

The thing is the Nell IS good at nursing and such. But that is never recognized by the other characters. We don't know what Theo does and if she's any good at it.

X The Willis Test

The movie is heavily based on the madonna/mother image. It's even further emphasized by the fact that the last part of the movie Nell runs around wearing a white nightgown. That wouldn't work well with a male character.  Now, it would be amazing to have this genderswapped. I would like to see a "Jesus is dad to all the children" version of this movie :-D

traditional gender roles

Now, they were trying to make Theo dominant and assertive, and sure... what ever.
And Nell did show ingenuity in solving the problem. She did figure it all out by herself and she fixed the house. Now her sister can sell it, too. (Because, I suppose, being the great-granddaughter of the houseowners, they own that house as well. But, again, what ever.)
She achieves the goal. They eat. Although, Theo serves wine to everyone and then sits down to drink the wine herself. I don't think she ever eats.
And the women are not romantically connected to the male characters in any way. There isn't even any chemistry. There really isn't any chemistry. The dialogue is so weak.

Now, Nell is The Mother, but she also rescues Liam Neeson's character - just to then be "rescued" by him. Frankly, the whole scene is stupid and unnecessary. What was she doing up there anyway? And why did he have to take the staircase when there was another, safe way up there? (The way they used to get down from there.)
The girls talk about clothes and relationships when they are together. 

We really don't know what Owen Wilson's character does for living. Theo is probably still a designer or artist of some sort. Nell probably has no job. Liam Neeson's character is a doctor and scientist.

O the MacGyver Test

I don't know about this either.

O the Raleigh Becket Test
I really can't tell. I don't think there was any male character development there at all. Maybe it was supposed to be so that because of what happened Liam Neeson's character realized the error of his ways, and Catherine Zeta Jones' character realized the shallowness of her life. Or something. Wouldn't know, don't care.

X Kuku test
"the males in the film must not be treated as disposable, or act for women's benefit" - Er... uh... no.
"fathers must not be portrayed as stupid, useless or incompetent" - er...
"the movie must not relate everything negative to males and positive to females" Eh...

V Gender Freedom:

V Molly Haskell:
 
She sacrifices herself, has about 10 minutes of independent, courageous, assertive, happy life and then she dies. She chooses children over her own life. And dead children at that... She doesn't have any friends, or life, or lovers or children of her own. She is a totally superfluous and no-one will miss her when she's gone.

Now, Theo isn't punished for being an openly sexual woman who is successful in her career. She isn't silenced, shamed, hurt, ostracized, killed for that. She doesn't lose anything - except a person she cared a lot about - whom she knew for a week or less. Was all this over in... three nights?

But - the woman uses her resources to make herself happy and fulfilled and complete her own goals. So - it's a pass.

X The Uphold Test

X The Rees Davies Test

X The White Test

I'll go this through quickly - I'm pretty sure I'm not missing anything important here, but if you know I'm wrong, please, tell me.

Directed by a man, written by a man, music by a man, cinematography, editing, AD, production design,
Assistant Director and second unit directors were mostly female. Also casting. As usual.

V The Hagen Test

Crowd scenes? I suppose there was the gates of hell... and while ghosts, skeletons and demonic shapes cannot be said to have gender, they looked very masculine to me.
And "one scene roles"? Five males, three females. Now, one of the female roles was a bigger one, she had like three or four scenes, but... she's just... uh. Don't know.
Oh, and then there was Hugh Crain's wives. *sigh* So I suppose... it's about even. So - let's give it this.

V The Koeze-Dottle Test

Not really, but... uh. I'll give it this, too.

X Gender Safety:

No. Because of Theo. Female sexualisation. She wears miniskirts and deep cleavage. Struts around in lingerie. Some sexual abuse. Sexual comments and innuendos. She slaps another person. She yells at people. That's not OK.

X Social Justice and Equality:

Remember I gave the 1963 version a red X for this? Did they change anything?
Theo is still LGBQT, and no-one cares. At least this time no-one told her she's unnatural.
There are still no non-white characters, or anything but able-bodied people around.
There's social commentary. "He got rich on the backs of his workers" or something like that. But it wasn't followed in any way, or supported by any other words or actions, so - it doesn't mean anything. It was there just to... I don't know. And after all, that wasn't what made him a bad man, it was that he tortured and killed little children and somehow bound their souls in the mansion so that he could have a lot of children. Or something. I don't know. And I don't really care either. So, no. This movie doesn't really make a point of that child labor is wrong, or that it's bad to exploit your employees.

Also, "Extra points if children are encouraged by the plots and characters to critique power structures, consumerism, environmental and social exploitation".

"Prada; Milan, not New York. But they're killing me... Small price to pay for such savage kicks!" 

So, no.

C The Representation Test

The protagonist is a woman, the movie passes the Bechdel test, Theo is bisexual (though... is she stereotypical bi?) and the men don't have extreme/unhealthy body ideals. I won't give it points for not perpetuating cultural, ethnic, racial stereotypes, because there is only one culture, ethnicity and race represented. And... the guys are pretty violent. Might be that they aren't hitting other people, but they are smashing cars, the house and paintings and whatnot. That's pretty aggressive, violent and reactionary in my mind, and quite a lot a stereotype. I really don't think this movie represents a diverse array of people and experiences.

X Kent test

X Aila test

X The Waithe Test

X The Ko Test

X The Villalobos Test

The Haunting (1963) 👍

I'm not all happy with this movie from a feminist point of view, but all in all it's OK

IMDb 7.5 - Rotten Tomatoes 87%

V Bechdel test

V Mako Mori Test

V  Sexy Lamp Test

V The Crystal Gems Test

X F-Rating

V Sphinx Test

X The Feldman Score 
2? Maybe 4...

X Furiosa Test

V The Roxane Gay Test

V Women in Refrigerators test

X The Landau Test

The primary female character ends up dead

V The Tauriel Test

X The Willis Test

X Molly Haskell test

I can't say... because she only has a short time of happiness in her life before she dies... but I don't think she is being punished.
There is this terrible need, want, desire to belong... and the idea of an own home, own place.
She was also bossed around and ran over. Even when she was sort of a willing victim, she was nevertheless a victim.
Then we have mrs. Markway... When she comes, she is assured, decisive and tells her husband what to do. When the movie ends, she's a shivering pile of damsel in distress who seeks support from her husband.
We have the little incident when Nell finds out John is married, and then puts the wife in harm's way.

Then we have all the stereotypical stuff.
"Nell, this is HAPPENING TO YOU!" She isn't making it happen - although we don't quite know. It is quite possible that that is exactly what is happening. That it is Nell that makes it all happen. But it's like a rape fantasy, she is an innocent, helpless victim, and just have to let the house have its way with her, and she'll be happy... and I don't like that part one bit. "an object is passive, being acted upon"
Also, the women's "adventures" in this movie are emotional and inner adventures. The men's adventures are physical and active.
In all, this is a stereotypical feminine movie. It's all about Nell and her psychological development.
Then we have the romance between Nell and John. I get the feeling that he is drawn to her, romantically, and she most certainly is infatuated with him. He keeps telling her how beautiful and attractive she is, and that's totally inappropriate. And she is flirting with him, changing her hair and dressing as prettily as she can, and things like that.
There's also talk about clothes and hair and such between the women.

Age of primary and secondary actors?
The main character is Julie Harris as Eleanor Lance, and she was two years older than the main male character, Dr. Markway. Lois Maxwell as Grace Markway was 10 years OLDER than her husband. The other female lead is almost as old as Eleanor and John, but the last member of the central four, a male, is youngest of them all, almost 10 years younger than Nell.
On the other hand, the fact that he is given more self-determination and responsibility becomes then a bit offensive...

V the MacGyver Test

X the Raleigh Becket Test

Now, this is a bit grey, too, as there is a central male character whose narrative arc requires the development of a female character BUT there is something romantic between these two. It is not strong, sexual thing, it never becomes anything but an apparent mutual attraction, but it is there.

V Puer Aeternus – Peter Pan syndrome – Man-child

V Kuku test

V The Maisy Test for sexism in kids' shows

V Gender Balance - Gender Representation:

The cast is about 2/3 female. The narrator is male. The crew is about 9/10 male.
Now, I don't have the possibility to measure screen time or words, but I believe men have the most words and Nell gets the most screen time. Julie Harris gets the billing position. She is the only one in the movie poster (though there are versions where the three others are in the lower part of the poster.  There's a very interesting little detail there... look at their shadows. Looks like a child standing in between two adults holding their hands.

V Gender Freedom:

Now, this movie was made in the 60s, so the fashion was what it was. The women wear skirts, but they make decisions, they drive - in one scene the MC tells a man that the car is hers and she is going to drive, and the man doesn't protest, just moves aside. Everybody is scared.

V Gender Safety:

I am going to give it pass even though there are some sexual harassment and innuendos going on.
There's no sex or nudity, no-one is wearing anything revealing or sexual.

X Social Justice and Equality:

Well... there is a prominent LGBTQ+ character, who isn't stereotypical,, depicted negatively, is not the villain and doesn't sexually harass or threaten the main character. She is treated with respect, like eceryone else. Eleanor is comfortable with her and even though she calls Theo's homosexuality "unnatural" and "nature's mistake", when she's angry with her, she isn't in any way treating Theo differently from other people. More importantly, the movie isn't treating her any differently.

But - there isn't much support for equality and social justice in the movie, no. It's very white.

B The Representation Test

X Kent test

X The Duvernay Test

X Aila test

X The Waithe Test

X The Ko Test

X The Villalobos Test

X The Uphold Test

X The Rees Davies Test

X The White Test

V The Hagen Test

V The Koeze-Dottle Test

V The Peirce Test

V The Villarreal Test



So - how could it be better?

Obviously, more women in the crew, more diversity and representation in the characters. Now, this movie was made with all white cast and crew to all white audience, and because it was made in the 60s, this can be overlooked, but the remakes... not so much. We should know better now.

Also, the cast is 2/3 female, so maybe add some more males? Now, the only one who I could think of genderswapping here is Theodora. She could be Theodor, the gay designer, who becomes Nell's BFF.
On the other hand, there are a lot of movies where the division is more like 9/10 of one gender, and usually it's 90% male, so I'm not too bothered by this. 1/3 of women would be totally acceptable for me.

I am not bothered by Nell being kind of submissive, a doormat, a grey mouse, because she has a core of steel... or something. Also, feminism isn't about making every woman a Wonder Woman or Captain Marvel. There's nothing wrong with submissive, mouse-y doormats. Those women exist, and need representation and acceptance just as much as fierce warrior queens. I like the soft, feminine women, the "boring" Melanie Wilkeses, homemakers, housewives and Evelyn Couches, even though I am a tomboy feminist, who idealise the warrior queens.

I am bothered by how people push Nell around all the time, even though she protests. Her protests aren't listened to or respected, she's just pushed around. That should change.



Beat sheet comparison

Feminist Halloween: The Haunting

Suddenly a shot rang out: Haunted Femine