Scalpel happy hottie in gross movie shocker!

Director: Sylvia Soska, Jen Soska
Year: 2012
Stars: Katharine Isabelle, Antonio Cupo, Tristan Risk

Ever wanted your tongue split in two? What about get your nipples removed? No? Uh-oh I probably shouldn’t have invited you to my ‘fun activities’ weekend away. Shit, I’m gonna have to cancel the genital modification workshop. Anyway, I got all of these ideas from watching American Mary so if any of that grossed you out then don’t read on. No really, don’t continue.

American Mary tells the story of medical student Mary (Katharine Isabelle) who instead of living the normal student lifestyle of watching Bargain Hunt and trying to complete Zelda: Ocarina of Time (f**k, it’s been a long time since I was a student) gets sucked into the world of body modification. Hence the knob slicing and facial upgrades mentioned before.

This sounds horrible and yes it is but even a squeamish person like me enjoyed the movie. This is mostly because it of the performance of Katharine Isabelle. She’s absolutely brilliant and elevates a one dimensional character into someone you can’t take your eyes off and not just for the obvious reason that she’s super hot. Mary goes from normal student to cold, clinical, butcher and portrays it perfectly.

However here my biggest problem with the film manifests itself – the change in Mary is too sudden. Instead of letting the character progress slowly, the filmmakers have decided to drop this for some superfluous plot strands including an unwanted romantic subplot.

Apart from that this is definitely a must see for those who can stomach it. Some weird shit goes on but we always have Mary to root for even when she goes waaayyyy too far. Yes, your sympathies lie more with her and her body modifying subjects than with the actual medical professionals.

So the moral of the story is – don’t go to a real surgeon with your problems, choose a sexy backstreet butcher to sow up whatever it is that bothers you. I think that was the message, if anything goes wrong don’t blame me.

Give American Mary a go of you don’t mind lot’s of blood, amputations, or needles. There’s a great performance to see and some really twisted sights to behold. You have been warned!

7/10

American Mary is available now on the US version of Netflix