American Mary

Some good ideas and build up, let down in the second half, when, instead of intensifying audience unease and horror, a fairly conventional revenge/tragedy narrative is played out across a subcultural celebration that may work for those fascinated by the phenomenon, but becomes a little tedious for viewers who are not so interested in receiving a guided tour of the way-cool world of what is, essentially, simply an unconventional variation on the theme of mainstream, consumerist, cosmetic surgery.

There's not a lot to make this movie stand out to people who aren't fans of the subculture it covers, but the practical effects are all incredibly impressive for an independent movie (no CGI whatsoever, so I'm told), and Isabelle rocks the lead role. Feels like it's trying too hard at times, especially with the music, but I was interested the whole way through which is very rare for a horror. Loses a few points for the rushed, cliched ending and atrocious pseudo-feminist dialogue.

Very weird, very captivating. Nice to see some fresh horror coming out amongst all the remakes and sequels!

With a highly intriguing premise about a rogue surgical school dropout, and a fine hot young female lead to lust over, this low-budget horror movie is a winner on paper. The first reel is solid enough but tragically it comes up sorely lacking in intelligent writing, deep characters and script structure. I can think of so many horror directors who could take a premise like this and cut right to the core, but I believe the Soska Sisters were too inexperienced. Hot but only in a softcore porn way.

They really named her professor in this Dr. Alan Grant as if that isn't the main character in Jurassic Park

Didn't expect to like this as much as I did but I think its a very good film. I'd put it more towards the drama thriller side than horror although there is definitely some gore. none of the jump scares that come with a lot of modern horror though. Glad they explored an often overlooked area in the body modification scene and I think overall it was well executed and I'll likely revisit the film again at some point.

American Mary is a fun, thoughtful, stylish, icky, tense, and engrossing movie. I'm sure its premise alone will turn off a lot of people. However, if you can get past that, you uncover a stronger-than-expected character study and more restraint than a lot of horror films would offer when it comes to the gross-out moments. It suffers from a rushed ending that will linger negatively in some minds. Its first three quarters are fantastic and it's, on the whole, worth seeing.

A promising student surgeon, struggling financially, is lured into clandestine surgery by easy money. She falls victim to her debauched instructors and goes into the underground world of body modification, and also to a dark place with surgical revenge. Overall a decent horror movie with an unfortunate ending, and many missed opportunities to be better. Some confusing disjointed scenes near the end. Katharine Isabelle was good and quite beautiful.

The Sockas did not know how to end this movie, making the protagonist both less coherent and yet also more conventional and less interesting before killing her off at the hands of someone stupid, or just nothing, for something stupid, and there it is. The first hour is much more interesting, even if partly because it suggests possibilities that do not eventuate.

Too much going on and little of it makes sense.

Great movie that lifts what could have been an exploitative torture film into a heartfelt and tragic story with its strongly drawn and compelling protagonists.

more concerned with sexualised pandering to the alternative crowd than surgically deconstructing either the appeal of body modification or the american dream. the characters' reactions against type are just as reductive and unlikely as the types themselves (boop was kind of awesome as a stylistic device, granted), the metaphors are all old hat, and the twin directors never generate anything approaching the invasive chill of dead ringers. awesome line though: "it wasn't an *eating* turkey".

What the directing sisters lack with quality, they top with gore and the pervert story of their own kind. Katherine Isabelle was nice on a lead and the story was way something I was not expecting. Ave Maria.

Entertaining enough, with a decent concept. Shame that it sort of forgets what sort of film it wants to be towards the end and just tries nearly everything to get back on track before ending horribly....

I'm a massive Katharine Isabelle fanboy. Like, to the point where I was basically foaming at the mouth during the fantasy sequence. Katie on the big screen, coupled with the future of horror: the Soska sisters (who I happen to be good friends with, so I might be a little biased) there was just no conceivable way I wasn't going to enjoy the hell out of this. It's not without its flaws but I still consider it an important addition to the genre and an inspirational piece of indie film-making.

it completely turned around so many times it leaves you wondering if you didn't just watch a collection of shorts. It started out novel and made me want a movie about someone trying to balance school and illegal surgeries. But it ended up less interesting and fast. The very central body mod angle seemed done poorly, as if not very researched and almost pearl-clutching in nature. The so-called extreme is barely run of the mill and unspectacular. It doesn't amount to much in the end

It started out quite well, I was enjoying it, but then it kinda turned into mostly torture p*rn and the characters just became so uninteresting, and the story so extra and non-sensical; too much.

w/ Busra, Gunes & Bahar

Takashi Miike's Audition but for mallgoths who think liking Marylin Manson and Rammstein makes them ultra-hardcore and/or Katharine Isabelle fanboys.

SHIT!

It wants so badly to be edgy and subversive but fails tremendously. The attempted mix of humor with horror comes off merely obnoxious. A big letdown.

Pretty silly. Not a horror nor a suspense film.

I liked the Beatress (Betty Boop) character. Wish someone'd make a sequel or a prequel all about Beatress. Really didn't give a crap for the rest of this though. An interesting idea that went no where interesting.

A fun, dark and bloody blend of horror, drama and black comedy, American Mary surprises both in its tone and in its execution. Katharine Isabelle is a marvellously complex lead here.

Boldly and entertainingly raised a bunch of issues -and drew some interesting parallels- before retreating into an unsatisfying thriller. Worth a watch.

The body-mod scene gets a film to call its own...albeit with spots of broken dialogue and flow-jarring scene choices. As for genre, it slates somewhere in between a pure grindhouse and a subculture fan film. From a technical perspective it sounded like the dialogue was almost entirely dubbed for whatever reason & yea the script missed a few tricks in it's pacing & dialogue choices. You Fucked up Mason.

Gorey, brutal, body horror fun

59.000

I fucking love this movie. It's David Lynch via some serious Cronenberg body-dismorphia horror. It's sexy, it's macabre, it's amazing.

okay

Amateurish, and borderline unwatchable. It had a glimmer of an interesting premise for a horror story, but it went absolutely nowhere because it couldn't stop being a love letter to a ridiculous "subculture". The acting was mostly wretched, and the plot/ending made very little sense. It tried to be deep and artful and utterly failed at both. Do not watch this movie.

Intriguing setup with lots of opportunity for both gore and general subversiveness (which the tired old Rape-And-Revenge story really needs), promising to be a dirtier "Dead Ringers"... but unfortunately overdoes it a bit before losing both direction and guts towards the end, and more or less fizzles out. On rewatch, liking this a fair bit more. Promises catharsis, delivers tragedy.

Touches on themes like body image and objectification in an intriguing manner, but the script feels unfinished and squanders a lot of the promise the story has. Still worth a watch for the little moments of potential scattered about. (3.5/5)

What I learned from this movie: one-dimensional characters work in an environment that is short two dimensions. Who needs arcs when, from the get-go, you have a hawt med student, a sexless woman, Betty Boop, and a not-for-eating turkey.

Bloody Mary is a better title, but still doesn't make it a good film.

I think these chicks were watching the revenge scene in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and thought "Let's make a whole movie like this" and failed miserably. Katharine Isabelle is very attractive, tho.

Body mod is an intriguing fetish, but it's really not enough to keep a movie going. Little things like a decent story arc are needed, and I think good characters aren't too much to ask for. The Soska sisters seem like able enough directresses, but they got so wrapped up in fetishism and iconifying their heroine that the result is more like a skin corset than a scripted movie.