American Mary
American Mary (Jen and Sylvia Soska, Universal 2012)
What makes a normal person become a monster is just one of the questions posed by the Soska twins for ‘American Mary’, their follow-up to Horror Channel staple ‘Dead Hooker In A Trunk’. It may be only the twins’ second feature film, but they strike gold by digging deep into the body horror sub genre popularised by fellow Canadian David Cronenberg to deliver a dark, twisted horror thriller that lingers in the memory long after the credits roll. The story begins when broke but beautiful trainee surgeon Mary applies for a job at a scuzzy stripclub in order to keep a roof over her head and complete her education. Any notion of shedding clothes for cash is quickly forgotten when the sleazy owner discovers Mary’s surgical skills and offers her $5,000 to treat the wounds of a naked, bloodied man who is being held captive in the club’s basement. Justifying it as a one-off and asking no questions, Mary reluctantly agrees, immediately throwing herself back into her studies to try and block the incident from memory. When she is approached by one of the club’s strippers with an offer of $10,000 for some unusual cosmetic surgery work, Mary begins a lucrative secret career within the shady world of illegal body modification, all while maintaining a respectable public life. With her bank balance blossoming, her grades improving and her doctor tutors praising her skills, everything looks rosy for Mary. But normality comes to a crashing halt when she suffers a life-changing trauma, and before long Mary has abandoned her studies to embrace her dubious new found fame as a body change specialist while she plots a hideous revenge… Said revenge forms only a small part of the film’s overall plot, but trust me when I say that it’s not something you’ll be able to forget in a hurry! The body modification angle of the story recalls elements of Dee Snider’s ‘Strangeland’ in places, and the Soska sisters themselves provide a memorable cameo as deviant German twins who pay Mary to amputate and exchange their left arms as a sign of their sick devotion to one another. Special mention must also be made of Katherine ‘Ginger Snaps’ Isabelle who plays Mary with style and menace and delivers a truly great performance, especially in the bone-chilling scenes where she calmly executes her vengeance. ‘American Mary’ is a dark, twisted treat that knows how to balance its horrific elements with (split) tongue-in-cheek black humour, and uses both to great effect. On the basis of this, the Soska twins’ next horror film, ‘Bob’, is definitely going to be one to watch out for. Liam Ronan
