Toxic Femininity

Found Jennifer Kent's episode ('The Murmuring') to be by far the most beautiful and most interesting in an otherwise fairly underwhelming anthology, plagued by such horrible dreg as Panos Cosmatos' effort ('The Viewing') and his crass mannerism.

After 'The Babadook' and The 'Nightingale', Kent continues her exploration of toxic femininity -yes, it exists too, and it sounds as dumb and unsophisticated a concept as when applied to masculinity- albeit with a good dose of empathy and emotional complexity ('Baby Jane' it ain't, and this is not a Robert Aldrich movie).

In cinema couples, it is rarely women who are shown to be out of touch with their own feelings, behaving unfairly, selfishly and otherwise emotionally destructive towards caring and emotionally intelligent husbands whom they simply "cannot see".
And when they are, it is rarely with such empathy, complexity, understanding or potential for identification by the audience as in Kent's effort.
Maybe it required a female director Kent's caliber to do them justice by acknowledging their share of darkness, without making them out to be harpies.