American Mary

Yes, a new American Pie movie.....or wait....maybe the title just sounded like some college movie. Since college are released in so many different titles, it would be easy to think that this is another one. But the fact is that American Mary is a completely different story. From the Canadian twin sisters Jen Soska and Sylvia Soska, who debuted with Dead Hooker In A Trunk, comes a new motion piture, with a surgery theme on our hands. Actor Katherine Isabelle, who i remember mostly from Insomnia with Al Pacino, seems to try a completely different character than we would have thought. Does America Mary bring anything fresh to the horror genre, or is this just another try to make disturbing images to make profit ?

Mary Mason ( Katheryn Isabelle ) is a medical student, studying to become a surgeon. Since she is having problems with paying bills, she decide to begin work at a strip club. She meets the club owner Billy Barker ( Antonio Cupo ) who agree to give her a job. But first he offers her 5000 dollars, if she can save a man they have tortured with her surgeon skills. She finish the job, and gets paid. Mary is disgusted as she returns home. A few days later, a stripper at the club named Beatress Johnson ( Tristan Risk ), approach Mary, asking her if she can help her friend Ruby Realgirl ( Paula Lindberg ). Beatress will pay her a big amount of money, if she remove her nipples and labia. Mary doubts this at first, but considering she needs money, she agrees. The word of surgeon Mary hit the streets, as she begin to take more customers. But one night, at a party with some surgeons from Medical School, Mary is drugged and raped by her teacher Dr Grant ( David Lovgren ). Mary wakes up, when she realise what happened to her. Now things will never be the same again, and Mary start a new way of Life where surgery gives her the Power to Control anyone who wants to hurt her.

If you thought this would be like Hostel, or The Human Centepide, you will be dissapointed. On the other hand, if you love intelligent film making, American Mary delivers a disturbing fascinating image of a dark world, where torture goes deep within sexual minds. Katheryn Isabelle gives us her best performance in a motion picture so far, she really found a great balance in character between insanity and emotions. One detail i love is that we don´t get to see all the brutal murders in full details, because you ase supposed to imagine how mentally sick a surgeon can become after a devastating trauma. The scenes where Mary cut in bodies, to make them even more perfect, makes me think of how todays society is. So many women want a perfect body, but is it worth it? The Soska Sisters delivers a horror movie, with so many ideas put together in such a stylish way, i have to say i love this. The acting is really good but most of all, i love the sexual disturbing images, because they feel so honest. It´s easy to make sexual content in a horror movie, but to make it stylish and very disturbing is a complete different chapter. American Mary is out now in the UK on dvd and blu ray, i bought my copy from there, and so should you. A feast for us who love the work of David Cronenberg inspired directors with their own touch.

Rating: DDDD