American Mary (3 Stars)

This is my 20th and probably my last horror film in November 2019. It will probably be a while before I watch another horror film. I have nothing against horror films, if they're well made, but I'm not a horror film fan. I think you know what I mean.

When I watched "American Mary" six years ago I didn't expect to watch it again. I even offered to give away my DVD, but nobody wanted it. Something about it has haunted me ever since. While watching it I felt violated, but I couldn't get the imagery out of my mind.

Before carrying on, read what I wrote about it six years ago. That review contains a plot summary, which I won't repeat here.

I still have problems with the film, but I've raised the rating to three stars. It's not an awful film, far from it. It's very artistic, even if I find many of the images distasteful. It features a strong woman, and I always like films about strong women. There have been other rape'n'revenge films, but there's never been a film in which the revenge goes so far. Mary is strong. Mary is beautiful. Mary is deranged. Everyone in the club where she works is scared of her. When she walks into the bathroom the other women flee. Even the club owner, Billy, is terrified of her, but he can't resist her. He fantasises about her killing him. Didn't Valerie Solanas say that all men have a death fetish? What she meant was that the sexual act involves the woman devouring the man's body, swallowing it up, but some men have a more explicit death fetish.

The film demythologises the surgeon profession. What I mean is, there are certain careers that are held in high esteem, or at least they used to be. Maybe their glamour has been eroded in the last 50 years. The highest career that people look up to is airline pilot, followed by doctors and teachers. It used to be that a character recommendation from any of these people would be accepted as support for a job application.

The film shatters the myth that surgeons are something special. At work they save lives, but after work they're abusive perverts and sexual sadists.

The writers and directors of the film are the Twisted Twins, Jen and Sylvia Soska. They play twins in the film. They don't want to be separated, even if one of them dies before the other, so they pay for Mary's unique services. They each have their left arm amputated and attached to one another. That's real sisterly love.

The problems that I have with the film are my own sensibilities. I don't like films which feature medical operations. They're too realistic. I'd rather see a head being chopped off and flying through the room. I don't like body modifications, and I don't even like piercings. "American Mary" combines all the things that I find repulsive. That makes it a good horror film.

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