Tuesday 22 January 2013

American Mary (18)

So what do you want from a good horror film?

Lots of screaming and running about?

Chainsaws/axes/cutty-up gloves?

Blood washing over the set in scarlet waves?

Well, jog on. This is not the film you are looking for.

However, if you want a psychologically-tense ride that will have you squirming in your seat, eyes glued to the screen despite half your brain screaming at you to look away, then this is the badger for you.

Although it probably started out as a moose before Mary got hold of it.

The story is a simple one. Mary (the amazing Katharine Isabelle - check out Ginger Snaps if you don't believe me) is a student surgeon whose finances are in need of a desperate life-saving procedure.

Her need to pay the phone bill - and rent, and then eat - leads her to apply for a job as a stripper. She leaves the interview, cash rich, having instead carried out some emergency work on a bloke strapped to a table.

I'm guessing the interview process is slightly less arduous at McDonald's.

One thing leads to another, and Mary is soon helping the somewhat disturbing Ruby achieve her dream of becoming a doll.

And she thought practicing on a turkey wouldn't come in handy, eh?

Having already crossed one line, she is then dragged across another having been drugged by a man she previously trusted.

And that's when her life really starts getting weird.

Isabelle is the absolute star of the film. Not just because she's the lead character, not just because she's in pretty much every scene, but because her performance is so mesmerising she draws you in from the moment she appears and holds you in her thrall throughout.

But let's not take anything away from the Soska sisters (who also make a delightfully twisted appearance).

Much has been said about how in American Mary they are turning the tables on the horror genre, making Mary the heroine rather than the victim. But their real skill is in how they make the audience wriggle and squeal.

It would be easy in a film that centres around the body modification business to go big on the surgery. Scene after scene of limbs being cut up, tongues being split and the red stuff spurting would have been an obvious choice.

Instead, Ms Soska and Soska (aka the Twisted Twins) take great delight in what they don't show you. They draw you in, and at the last minute let your imagination do the rest.

And that really hurts.

Yes, there's the odd quibble here and there (the surgeon suddenly being dumped in Mary's apartment happens with so little fanfair as to be almost puzzling), but it doesn't detract from what is a wonderfully gripping, compelling, twisted, squirm-inducing delight.

(After the briefest of runs at the cinema, American Mary is now out on DVD)

2 comments:

  1. Good work Sir... those Soska Twins are likely to be a force to be reckoned with sooner rather than later. I really hope that a sudden influx of cash (very likely after this) doesn't spoil the chemistry.

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  2. I'm confident a bigger budget won't change the approach

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