Horror Film Review

American Mary
Film review one of six

After watching the movie I decided to look at other reviews of the film, for the most part reviews were consistent on what were plausible for garnering criticism. For example, performances from some actors were not at a calibre best suited for the film.  For me I looked at what the story was trying to unveil and where this journey of Mary Mason was heading.  I honestly enjoyed this movie, An argument that some people felt that the gruesome scenes just scratched the surface especially covering the topic of body modification, I think it was just enough and perfectly executed; to just show more and delve further into to physical world would detract from Mary's Journey, We know she's slowly embracing this world and the balance of her morals has been incredibly shaken up. 

Let me go back a bit, for those who have not seen this movie.  Mary is a medical student who like many become increasingly broke and deeper in debt. While on the phone with her Nana the idea of exotic dancing as means to inject a desperate form of revenue appears to be an option, While auditioning and reviewing her resume, a backroom dealing requires her medical surgery skills, as per her resume, and thus opens the door for underworld medical surgeries. Not a far fetch premise; as proven from other shows like Royal Pains, and the movie Playing God with David Duchovny, having all explored this idea which is loosely based on real life incidents.

  It’s safe to say the term  American Mary is sort of a metaphor of the American Dream,  One by one Mary's dreams, the people she looked up to in the medical profession, her ability to succeed in world of medicine has been disappointingly taken away,  And the first appearance of her covered in blood was three underworld surgeries into the movie and was not even blood, but I believe the pouring of the drink a called "A Bloody Mary",  Everyone will agree Actress Katherine Isobelle, who plays the lead character does an amazing job, even in her descent she has sense of self and what she is doing is by the wishes and needs of those she is works on.  The movie turns the corner when that to gets taken away by a rape scene, followed by revenge.  What makes this storytelling more intriguing is that it’s just a door to explore the character's psyche and how does one gather themselves, In this case she allied herself with some muscle, so being just a victim, emotionally destroyed and vulnerable would not be an option,

All acts have consequences, it’s been scientifically proven over and over again, the writer and director twins of Jen and Sylvia Soska, who makes an appearance in the movie, really demonstrates this as the third and final act of the movie.  At some point in the movie I had to ponder how will all this end, Critics will take apart the performances, but my argument is, in real life nothing is as smooth and forthcoming as seen in films in general, The behavior and the people we interact with, are all not as consistent as we all like them to be, and I found more realism in the fact that bodyguard had a moment with Mary, when Mary questioned what she was still actively doing. The best part for me was realization from others that she commanded a sense of fear, that unbeknownst to her she was full tilt crazy dangerous, and not to be messed with in the inner circles of the underworld.  Of course she was not naïve, when she takes out a hacksaw and the Dexter Morgan tool set in the women's washroom, to dispatch one of the stripper’s social climbers, then pauses for a particular reason. A catharsis ending is not happening nearing the final 15 minutes of this movie.  It’s a subgenre type of Horror movie and not a movie for everyone, but regardless, a well crafted and thoughtfully devised feature film