Susan Granger’s review of “American Mary” (Anchor Bay/IndustryWorks)
If you’re into feminist-themed horror, this dingy medical thriller could be up your dark alley.
“You’re going to be a great slasher,” her supervisor Dr. Grant (David Lovgren) tells eager, aspiring surgeon Mary Mason (Katharine Isabelle), whose plans to continue in medical school are disintegrating because of her lack of funds. Answering an ad for a stripper, she meets sleazy sex club owner Billy Barker (Antonio Cupo), who takes one look at her impressive resume and immediately offers her $5,000 cash to stitch up a mutilated knifing victim. Soon, Mary builds a reputation as an ‘undergound’ surgeon who’s particularly adept at bizarre body modifications, coolly tackling impromptu operations that no reputable surgeon would consider. Having been drugged and raped at a doctors’ private party, Mary then quits medical school – and takes a grisly revenge on her attacker.
Meanwhile, Bloody Mary’s patient list grows. There’s a deluded doll collector who doles out
$10,000 to have Mary modify her external sex organs so she can resemble a perfectly neutered Barbie, much to the dismay of her husband. A man pays her for a new penis and then ignores her warnings about masturbation. Tongue-splitting and genital alteration is routine.
Written and directed by Jen and Sylvia Soska, the “twisted twins” who previously collaborated on cult favorite “Dead Hooker in a Trunk” (2009), this murky, low-budget schlock was made in 15 days in their hometown of Vancouver, British Columbia – with the Soska sisters playing fetishistic lesbian lovers who wish to exchange left arms, among other alterations. Actress Katharine Isabelle, who built her reputation starring in “Ginger Snaps,” wields her scalpel and buzz saw wearing a blood-spattered butcher’s apron over black lace undergarments, stiletto heels and black latex surgical gloves.
This is just the latest in the demented doctor genre, including “Dead Ringers,” “Audition” and
“The Human Centipede.” And a modicum of credit goes to “True Blood” prosthetics artist Todd Masters.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “American Mary” is a creepy, perverted 3, a disgusting
fright flick filled with horrific imagery.
