10 Hidden Gem Body Horror Movies

4. American Mary

Tetsuo II Body Hammer
Evolution Pictures

From Jen and Sylvia Soska, and starring genre fave Katharine Isabelle, American Mary centres on the titular Mary Mason.

A medical student with spiralling bills to pay, aspiring surgeon Mary ends up turning her hand to body modification work in order to help ease her financial woes.

How does one end up in such a seedy profession? Why, this all started after Isabelle's character applied for a job at a local strip club. With the club's basement housing a bloodied, dying man, Mary's skillset sees her talent utilised to patch the fella up in exchange for a cool $5,000.

While she feels extreme guilt and paranoia after having become involved in this shady underworld, Mary's finances (or lack thereof) outweigh the moral dilemmas that come with such work. Before you know it, our headline act is turning people into human dolls or making the infamous Demon Twins of Berlin very much live up to their name.

There is a whole lot more going on in American Mary than just twisted bodies, mind, for there's themes of sexual abuse, abuse of power and absolutely some gory revenge as the picture plays out.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.