Struggling for money to pay her tuition fees at medical school, trainee surgeon Mary Mason seeks employment in a local strip club. After an incident involving the club’s owner, Mary’s surgical training is called into use and the Gothic doors to the body modification community open, her willingness to undertake fringe procedures in great demand. When betrayed and brutalized at a college party, Mary turns her new found skills on those who have wronged her.
‘American Mary’ is the second film from The Twisted Twins, Jen and Sylvia Soska, who made their directorial debut with mega-low budget ‘Dead Hooker in a Trunk’ in 2009. I wasn’t a huge fan of their first feature but there was little doubt that the sisters had an understanding of the genre and a willingness to work at its boundaries. With ‘American Mary’ they have not only produced one of the most original and haunting horror movies of the last decade, but also my favourite genre flick of the last twelve months. Mary’s descent into the more niche areas of the body modification scene throws up some of the most arresting and striking images in modern horror; Dee Snider flirted with this idea in 1998’s ‘Strangeland’ but had nowhere near the sensitivity or compassion for its subject that the Soskas display. It would have been easy to simply put the body modification scene on screen as a modern freak show, made up of individuals whose appearance would terrify the majority of society. The fact that each person’s quest for their own personal beauty is handled so delicately is in turns admirable and, in genre movies, remarkable.
The central cast is extremely small and is fleshed out (pun intended) by various cameos and short appearances by members of the body mod community. The real coup for ‘American Mary’ is Mary herself, played by Katharine Isabelle. No stranger to genre films, Isabelle is perhaps most well known as Ginger in 2000’s ‘Ginger Snaps’ although her body of work is much larger and more varied. It is difficult to imagine anyone else in the role of Mary and she inhabits it completely; her portrayal is so nuanced and layered that she is entirely believable and sympathetic even as the film becomes more ragged toward its conclusion. Isabelle has skirted around the edges of mainstream success for what feels like forever but her portrayal of Mary Mason will surely bring the widespread acclaim she deserves; she is a far better and more subtle actress than genre movies are used to, and it is her casting in the title role that gives the film its beating, and bloody, heart.
‘American Mary’ is a genre classic. It is well shot, well scripted and well-acted; the imagery is startling at points, and it offers that rarest of things – something unique in a genre increasingly used to well-trodden paths. It has been available in the US for a while* and is now also on release in the UK and Europe. If you have any interest in horror films, you absolutely should not miss ‘American Mary’; the Twisted Twins live up to their name and offer us the most fascinating, dark and beautiful horror film in recent memory.
5/5
@Dr_Catsu
* – EDIT: turns out that this is not the case and that we, in the UK, are blessed with a much earlier release of ‘American Mary’. Many apologies to US readers if your hopes were inaccurately raised. I’m sure the release over there is imminent – Dr C
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