Menopause

Menopause changes women, and it affects every woman differently. There are those who experience memory loss, anger, night sweats, weight gain, and many other uncontrollable urges while undergoing change. “While woman sheds the Blood of Life each moon at menstruation, man can only shed the blood of death through warfare and killing,” writes Katha Pollitt. From Pollitt’s quote, director and writer Joshua Nelson lays the foundation for a low-budget, cast-heavy horror film that many women may appreciate in Menopause.

With a primarily female cast and a handful of men, a town becomes overwhelmed with a bizarre community-killing spree committed by all its women. Why did they go berserk? Well, their insatiable bloodthirst was brought on by menopause due to a full moon solar eclipse. Some women are already in a place of rage, some know the moon’s power, and others discover their need to break out of their existence. But, as each woman finds a need to kill, the men are left in peril and powerless.

“…a bizarre community-killing spree committed by all its women.”

Under this “killing moon,” Nelson reveals several relationships from marriages that have lost their spark to a woman staying at a shelter after being assaulted. The filmmaker even explores how this unusual moon energy wrecks even the best of marriages. Many of the women throughout Menopause are working through emotional issues when they think they are pregnant and want to kill their male partners. For some of these women, it’s an outrage to be pregnant; for others, it is not. The pregnancy angle seems odd, but it is an overwhelming theme and ties into various subplots. I’ll concede that it’s most likely Nelson’s reach to connect a strange circumstance related to actual menopause.

With a great many killings executed through blunt objects, blood abounds as the women appear to be in hyperspeed menopause-mode killing as well as planning their kills. Some women evolve into blood-thirsty killers embracing a new life, while others go through the motions, and some go back to their former selves. Although this slapstick horror movie may not have effects that make you cringe and cover your eyes, its underlying premise of uncontrollable killing urges is not entirely far-fetched from the reality of how menopause can wreck women, which is frightening enough.

Menopause sports a premise that finds the horror in the extremes of an actual problem all women will face one day or are currently facing. The cast is fun, the kills are numerous and gory, and the runtime breezes by. While not all the themes totally gel, Nelson does not lack for ambition which makes the whole affair go down smooth.