The Stepford Wives

[poliphilo]

I haven't seen either movie version of The Stepford Wives, but I've just read the book. I had Ira Levin pegged as a horror writer, but this is a fable, very gently written, which side-steps physical horror even at the climax. What is actually being done to the wives to turn them into man-pleasing zombies? We're never told. All we see is a woman, her retreat blocked by three Stepford husbands, stepping into a shiny, shiny kitchen where her former friend, now a domestic goddess, stands waiting with a shiny, shiny knife.

And............

Cut!

I love it that the shadowy chief villain is identified as a former Disney employee.