If there were ever a film to make me never want to watch another film again, this is it. It's the sickest film I've ever seen. It's not as explicit in its gore as films like "Hostel", but the whole atmosphere of the film and the implied but unseen horror were devastating. Twice during the film I felt like turning it off, but the feelings of disgust were mixed with a morbid fascination that made me want to see more. After watching it to the end I wish I had been strong enough to press the power button. I feel that by watching it my soul has been raped.
Mary Mason is a highly talented medical student in Seattle. The problem is that she's broke and unable to finance her studies. She applies for a job at a strip club, but when the owner, Billy, finds out that she is training to become a surgeon he has a special job for her. He's been torturing someone in his club, but he got carried away and has almost killed the man. He pays Mary $5000 to operate on the man and close his wounds. One of the strippers hears about this and asks Mary to perform a special operation on her friend Ruby. Ruby wants to become a real life Barbie doll, so she wants her nipples to be removed and her lower area to be sealed up and made smooth. This is "Nip/Tuck" gone bad.
Now the second plot element sets in. Mary is invited to a party of her university's surgeons, where she is drugged and raped by her professor. Billy, who is falling in love with Mary, kidnaps the professor, and Mary operates on him, removing his arms, legs and other body parts. She keeps him alive so she can practise her skills as a surgeon. This is rape'n'revenge gone bad. Or rather gone worse.
Ruby posts photos of her body modifications on her website, which wins public interest in Mary's form of extreme body modification. She uses the strip club's back room as an operating theatre. Nasty stuff for twisted customers willing to pay a lot of money.
I've described the plot in such detail for therapeutic reasons. I want to cleanse my mind of it. Now I need to go through the second step. If any of my readers who live in Birmingham want the DVD they can have it. No need to pay, you're doing me a favour. Just let me know when we can meet, I want to hand it over in person.
The film was directed by Jen and Sylvia Soska, twin sisters who are already making an impression in the film industry after creating a series of horror films. Normally I like women who are beautiful and insane. And yes, judging by the picture above they really are beautiful. But judging by "American Mary" they're too twisted for me. They scare me. And somehow I think that if they read this review they would take that as a compliment.
I'll take the unusual step of adding something to my review a day after my original post. The film has been haunting me, I was lying in bed thinking about it for hours. What I couldn't get out of my head was Billy's fatal addiction to Mary. He feared her, and he had dreams about her killing him, but as a result he begged her to spend more time alone with him. I can relate to that.
I really dug it. I thought Mary was a pretty strong character but most of all it was the atmosphere and overall vibe the picture had that won me over. Oh, and the subject matter. Neat stuff.
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