Mary Mason is training to be a surgeon. Short of cash she applies for a job as a stripper, but before the interview is over, she is taken to a room where a man has been severely tortured and she is offered a lot of money to patch him up. Mary is fairly revolted by this and is even more disgusted when a stripper approaches her a few days later and asks her to transform her pal into a real life human doll - relieving her of her labia and nipples. Mary cannot afford to turn down the cash and she goes through with performing the operation. At the hospital where she is training, there is a shindig for surgeons, one of whom - Dr Grant - who trained Mary, drugs her and rapes her. She goes to the strip club and gets her pals to abduct Dr Grant and do all sorts of painful body modifications upon him. Mary quits surgery and goes into body modification full time, gaining great stature in her field but she still has Dr Grant in her 'care'. A security guard spots Mary tormenting the doctor and Mary has to kill the security guard to keep her secret. Nonetheless, the police investigating Grant's disappearance are closing in on Mary and the surgery she performed on the human doll lady comes back to haunt her.. Technically American Mary - which is unusual, dark and comedic with a strong emphasis on women's themes and issues - was made in 2012 but it wasn't given a wide scale release until 2013. Directed by the Soska sisters, the film shows a strong love of horror films and a great instinct on what makes an intelligent and quirky movie. Mary goes from broke medical student who detests doing all the body modification work to being a powerful dominatrix, which is brought about by her rape. Thankfully, she uses the horrible experience to grow stronger and evolve as a character. This could class the film as a rape revenge movie, but there are so many issues in the film - such as women's body image and the autonomy we have to change our appearance. A very unusual horror film that deserves to be widely known and appreciated.
My first film watched was Carrie aged 2 on my dad's knee. Educated at The University of St Andrews and Trinity College Dublin. Fan of Arthouse, Exploitation, Horror, Euro Trash, Giallo, New French Extremism. Weaned at the bosom of a Russ Meyer starlet. The bleaker, artier or sleazier the better!
