Day 9: American Mary (2012)

Can a once-prolific blogger who hasn't written 31 posts all year find it in his soul to review 31 previously unseen horror films in 31 days of October? Let's find out...

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I had read a little something about this one and it's sister director team (Jen and Sylvia Soska) last year. Then our good friend Poppy reminded me about it recently, and mentioned it was available on Netflix Instant. Go time!

Mary is a medical school student with a massive pile of debt. To make some quick cash, she gets into the underground body modification game. EXTREME body modifications. As in, I know this movie is gonna make me sick to my stomach. But there are no lengths that I won't go to for my art. You're gonna owe me one after this. Yes, you.

After an impromptu bit of emergency surgery performed in the basement of a strip club, Mary gets approached by a body-mod fetishist who throws some serious cash her way to do some work on a friend of hers. Another fetishist who wants to be de-sexualized by having her nipples removed and her vagina closed up as much as possible. Basically, she wants to look as smooth as a Barbie doll underneath her clothes. Kooky, right?

After the surgery, she gets drugged at a party and is raped by her former teacher and mentor. She gets her revenge by practicing her new art of extreme body modifications on him. The whole affair obviously affects her deeply, so she drops out of medical school and creates a niche for herself as an underground body mod specialist. Makes a big name for herself amongst that community as someone who is willing to things for her clients that no other doctor would do.

Things eventually go bad for Mary, as things do. Besides being investigated by the police for the disappearance of her former professor, she also has the husband of one of her clients after her. He was none-too-thrilled with the work that she did on his wife and he's looking to take it out on her. Wackiness ensues.  

It's interesting to see how the subject matter of men sexualizing women was handled by the Soska sisters rather than your typical male writer/director. It's a brutal film, but they brought a certain deft touch to it. They certainly showed some skill as filmmakers, and I'm looking forward to whatever kind of craziness that they come up with next.

Verdant Dude rating: 3.5 out of 5 pumpkins