Written By Peter Osmond
Aww
man the world of body modification is a fucked up sub culture, well if
that's what we're lead to believe in
Canadian
filmmakers Jen and Sylvia Soska aka The Soska Sisters aka The Twisted
Twins, first gained attention thanks to their grindhouse-esq revenge
thriller, Dead Hooker In A Trunk, a low budget film made using the
tips set fourth in Robert Rodriguez's Guerilla Filmmaker's Handbook,
a book which lays out the rules of low budget film making. It harks
back to the days of back yard film making, a way for non professional
directors to bring their own brand of movie making to the table
without the help of major studio backing, these days people just pop
a video on Kickstarter to help raise the funds, but back in 2009 when
DHIAT was shot, the twin's own parent mortgaged their home to help
finance the film. Dead Hooker became an underground sensation and got
people talking about these weird film making twins. Cut to 2012 and
the twins release their second feature, this time, gone is the low
budget video look of the Dead Hooker and in comes the professionally
shot (on the Red Epic camera), lit, acted and directed film American
Mary.
American
Mary follows surgical student Mary Mason (Katherine Isabelle), broke
and down on her luck. In a moment of desperation she enters a strip
club with the intention of making some money by removing her clothes.
In an odd situation she hands the owner, Billy, a CV. Strippers don't
usually hand in CV's for a job like this, billy see's that Mary is a
surgical student. When one of his bouncers is badly sliced in a
brawl, in desperation Billy offers Mary five grand then and there if
she could save his life. Mary agrees and performs basement surgery on
the man. Shocked at what she'd gone through mary almost crumbles
until she receives a phone call from a woman called Beatrice.
Beatrice is a stripper but also a part of the Body mod community.
Beatrice is trying to change her appearance to resemble Betty Boop
but she has a friend, a friend who needs a procedure that no medical
professional would undertake. Offered $10,000 to perform the
operation, Mary agrees and meets the woman, what she wants is her
nipples removed and her genitals sown up to remove the idea of being
sexually objectified. To make herself look more like a mannequin.
Mary again performs the operation with success. She starts a
residency in a hospital and is invited by he tutor and her former
tutor to a get together at a party. Mary is drugged and raped by a
professor and decides to exact revenge on the man using her now new
found knowledge of body modification. Mary becomes the pillar of the
BM community with everyone wanting her to work on them, but as the
bank balance increases, Mary's mental stability decreases, she
descends deeper into the murky world of BM and finds herself becoming
more and more ruthless, all while a detective is investigating the
disappearance of the professor.
Mary
is played by Katherine Isabelle, well known to horror fans for her
portrayal of Ginger in werewolf trilogy, Ginger Snaps and in the
horror mashup Freddy Vs Jason, Katherine gives a stunning
performances as the damaged back street surgeon, she's both sexy and
frightening at the same time and it's this sex appeal that sets Mary
apart from most scream queens, if you can call her that. There is a
strongness to her character, a willingness after doubt to venture
into the world of body modification and the eventual downfall of
Mary. Mary has this very vintage look, like a fifties pin-up but with
added gothic appeal, her long black hair, her fringe, the pencil
skirts and high heels, she exudes sex and apart from the rape, it's
never really prominent part of the film.
The
film reminded me of the great German thriller Anatomy which starred
Run Lola Run actress Franka Potente and the film Pathology from the
guys who made Crank, but this is only because it's a medical horror
because American Mary takes the medical theme and takes it to a
twisted extreme transplanting it smack dab in the middle of a sub
culture filled with “freaks”. It's this direction that for me
made this stand out and it was an original and rather eye opening
direction to take.
The
Soska sisters seriously up their game from Dead Hooker, Mary is
beautifully shot in 2.35:1 Scope and the framing and Lighting really
adds an atmosphere to the film. Some people may look at American Mary
and consider it “torture porn” but is far from it, the one scene
that could be considered torture is never actually shown. It's a very
cleverly edited film as well.
American
Mary is a glimpse into a world us 'norm' dare to enter and it's a
fascinating look into the extremes people will go to to achieve a
desired effect, do these people do this to get attention or is it
more of a mental need to change your appearance to truly express
yourself. I've done a bit of research into BM and I've not come
across anything as insane as what is in the film so whether the twins
elaborated the world of BM I don't know but it's still a fascinating
look at a world I knew nothing about.
I
was absolutely floored by American Mary, I didn't really know what to
expect, it's less or a horror film an more a dark dark dark comedy
with horror elements and it just blew me away, it's one of the most
original horror films I’ve see in a while and I’d like to see
what these twins come up with next, which I hear is a sequel to the
WWE film See No Evil and a segment in ABC's Of Death 2. American Mary
is one of my top horror films of the year (came out in Jan in the
U.K). If you want to see an original, intriguing horror film, I’d
highly recommend American Mary.
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