American Mary (2012)

 

Genre: Horror/Thriller 

Time: 1h 43mins

Directors: Jen Soska, Sylvia Soska

Quick Summary: The allure of easy money sends Mary Mason, a medical student, into the world of underground surgeries which ends up leaving more marks on her than her so-called "freakish" clients.

I didn't expect to like this, as trashy as it is, I found it really interesting to watch, as to my knowledge it's very unique. It focuses on themes of revenge and finding your, I guess passion. Granted, it's a very strange passion for extreme body modification/ torture, but it was so interesting to watch this unfold and I actually enjoyed it. 

Though it's not in your face a lot of the time with blood, it cleverly focuses on the squeamish parts in such extreme ways to hold that body horror factor. There were plenty of times I found myself a bit squeamish, or uncomfortable of the thought of things, even if they didn't actually show it. One thing I will note, it does sexualise a lot of the gore/ body modification parts and use how extreme is it for more of a shock factor.

A few parts of the film fell flat, especially towards the end. With such a great beginning and middle, I was disappointed by the ending. It just came across as very weak, almost as if they gave up and didn't know where to go with it. But I still enjoyed the rest of the film. 

I also felt like the main character's decision to actually start doing body modifications in the start felt too quick, almost like she didn't really think about it. Though it did give her fuel to act out her revenge, the problem is the start of the body modifications came before the act in need of revenge happened. If it had happened before she started and she was on the fence about body modifications beforehand, then it might have been more plausible. I did like her own mental transformation though, her character is fully owned by Katherine Isabelle as she brings such a fierce and headstrong as well as charismatic character to light.

Something I praise this for is that it was filmed in 15 days and they used actual people who have had real-life body modifications. I do think this is well made and very well acted throughout. It's dark and extreme, just a bit disappointing by the end. I wouldn't recommend this to people who aren't really into this side of gore, or extreme things, but it's definitely an interesting watch.

5/10

"Don't you ever devalue what you do, Mary. You make sure they deserve it, and don't waste a minute of your time thinking about them when you're done."