There aren't really any 'likeable' characters in 'Lady Macbeth (2016)', nor are any of them even all that empathetic. While she starts out sort of sympathetic, our protagonist proceeds to slip so far away from being even remotely relatable, with things only becoming progressively - though, purposefully - worse, that it's hard to be invested even in her somewhat initially understandable but still downright dastardly doings, making her not so much an anti-hero as a part of a landscape of individuals either uniquely despicable or decidedly disposable whom we aren't really supposed to identify with at all. This is a prospect that may be intentional and quite distinct - perhaps, even, a little refreshing - but is still difficult to come to terms with considering that it negates proper investment and, by extension, any real engagement or enjoyment - which, in this case, you could still expect despite how dark things do get. However, the picture isn't without its merits, namely an apt construction and assured tone. It's never totally boring, just not entirely gripping and marred by a slightly lax pace. There's also a sense that not much has been achieved by its end, regardless of its thematic explorations and generally quite interesting, if ultimately very bleak, musings about equality (of class, gender, race and otherwise) as well as the consequences of a power imbalance - especially if it's violently turned on its head and the oppressed becomes the oppressor. 6/10

This film tries to do some interesting things, but it fails. It tries to be a feminist critique of old fashioned sexism, and so we have a young woman whose father has sold her to an abusive husband who controls her and is unable to show any affection for her. Where it goes from there is an absurd slippery slope. Her first subtle step toward disobeying her husband leads her headlong into sociopathic selfishness. I could almost handle that as a statement of "look what oppression does to people," but other details in the film suggest the message that women are better under control. She was immediately attracted to a man whom she caught leading a group sexual assault on another woman, and she stifled her feelings until the man forced himself into her room and sexually assaulted her (I mean, what girl can resist a rapist). The plot was tense, and I watched it partly out of intrigue and partly out of curiosity. There were a number of complications throughout, but they became progressively less believable. The writer seemed to have thought less about the logic/motivation of each new twist, and by the end, the turns in the plot had become consistently both absurd and unsurprising. I gave up trying to find a way to explain the ridiculous choices the characters made because they were largely unexplainable. The casting was the final weirdness. A great deal of the cast were black actors. Had this been a light-hearted comedy or action flick, I would have been okay with the anachronistic lack of racism, but since it was a starkly realistic film focused on ugly human behavior, it makes no sense to pretend that that one didn't exist in that time and place. A glaring example of this is when a black woman walks into the home of a white woman in 19th century Scotland and makes demands of her, demands which the white woman seems powerless to resist. I feel weird complaining that a black character had social power in a film's story, but in the context, it feels wrong. Not only were there very few people of African descent in that time in Scotland, but they certainly would not have been able to lord themselves over white people, as that particular character did to the protagonist. I can't help wondering if the director just wanted to earn progressive points by saying at parties (to other white people of course) that he had hired some of "those people" for his film.

Lady Macbeth: More Dark Gothic than Horror. Not based on The Scottish Play, rather it is an adaptation of the Russian Novella Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District by Nikolai Leskov, which was inspired by the character Lady Macbeth from The Scottish Play. (Phew!) Directed by William Oldroyd with the screenplay by Alice Birch.Rural England, 1865, Katherine is stuck in (literally) a loveless marriage, confined to the home. Her husband is nasty, brutish and short with her. This is indeed a Patriarchal household as her father-in-law rules over the abode and family treating his son as a lackey. This contempt is passed on to the servants.When both her husband and father-in-law are away on business Katherine starts an affair with Sebastian, a stablehand. This is discovered by the Patriarch, violence results and a series of events are set in motion which can only end in tragedy.A vein of macabre humour runs through the film but this is a tale of class and the subordinate position of women in 19th Century England. There are blasted Heaths but no witches. Murder, mayhem and poisonings but no battles. Katherine lives up to reputation of Lady Macbeth. A dark film which has much in common with the 2011 version of Wuthering Heights directed by Andrea Arnold. Running time: 89 minutes. 8/10

Does this movie show actually the killing of a horse during filiming? Isn't That forbidden?