Might others agree that "The Leech Woman" is a misleading, even inaccurate title for this movie? A leech is a blood-sucking parasite but that's a poor description of the Coleen Gray character. Besides, the title is off-putting because it implies something gross and disgusting.
shareYes, I absolutely agree. It's funny that, even in the trailer, they went through the effort of showing us the definition of an actual leech. While the title does work in a metaphoric sense, it absolutely was misleading to audiences overall. They expect a monster, and instead get a woman desperate to make the shallow people around her be more accepting. It's an interesting premise with a bad title.
shareTitles like that attract audiences. "The woman desperate for acceptance from shallow people' wouldn't work.
shareFunny, but I didn't see anyone suggest "The Woman Desperate for Acceptance From Shallow People" as a title. I also didn't see anyone make the claim that titles like Leech Woman don't attract crowds. The simple point of the thread is that the title doesn't really work for the material too well...and it doesn't!
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Whose idea was it for the word "Lisp" to have an "S" in it?
Agreed. The title makes this film sound like just another low-grade cheeseball horror cheapie, which it most certainly isn't.
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It was probably misleading on purpose. This film was made to be on the bottom half of a double bill with Brides of Dracula. They probably felt that a title like The Leech Woman would lead people to think that it was another Universal Monster movie. I certainly expected that it would be. RKO did the same thing with The Leopard Man when it appeared on the bottom of a double bill with a re-release of King Kong.
I have mixed feelings about it over all. I mean, it would have been fun to see another mutant transformation story, but this was probably a better film than what that one would have been. I can watch The Wasp Woman a second time or something. No big deal.
It is really a product of the times. Horror movies were "B" films seen mostly by teens; and the only way to attract them was to have exciting and sometimes misleading titles. I was one of those young teens and imagine my surprise when I saw "The Conquerer Worm" and the "Masque of the Red Death" lol. Some were accurate like "Attack of the Giant Leeches", made a year earlier than this film interestingly enough. Today horror and sci-fi are respected genres; back in the 50s and 60s they were just teen fodder for matinees and drive-ins. Having said all that, there is nothing in this film that remotely resembles a leech. I guess the only thing one could say is that she was "leech-like" in that she lived on men.
shareYea. It didn't work with women; did it? Or is it because she did not take the potion right away?
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The title remains appropriate (i.e. "leeching off others").
I didn't 'get' the title at first but, on reflection, it works. It fits in with the naming of other B-movies of this period. The year before 'The Wasp Woman' was another female rejuvenation film. This time a vengeful woman does become a 'leech' who feeds off other people to maintain her chosen way of life.
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