AMERICAN MARY

I have huge respect for Canadian twin sisters, The Soska Sisters (Jen and Sylvia), not just for their talent but in their persistence in making the type of films they want to make and actually finding an audience for them.  Female directors are few and far between, but female “horror” directors are like hen’s teeth.  The Soska Sisters’ burst onto the scene back in 2009 with their directorial debut, and ode to 1970’s grindhouse features, “Dead Hooker In A Trunk”.  That film was incredibly amateurish with shoddy photography and performances but what it did have was an incredible sense of fun and because of this, the experience of viewing the film was a hugely enjoyable one.  Sure, it is a seriously flawed film but it showed to the world that the sisters did indeed have a lot of talent, and showing us what they were capable on no budget, it got you excited thinking about what they could do if they actually had a budget.  “Dead Hooker In A Trunk” is almost like a home movie because both Jen and Sylvia Soska seemed to have a hand in every facet of making the film.  They wrote, directed and starred in the film, not to mention were set decorators, assistant editors and camera operators.  Three years later and the sisters have returned with their sophomore directorial effort, the body modification horror film “American Mary”.

The film stars Katharine Isabelle (of “Ginger Snaps” fame) as Mary Mason, a med student with eyes on becoming a great surgeon.  She is incredibly studious and knows that she has immense talent in the field however she is forever finding herself with serious money issues and is struggling to not only pay her tuition but even her phone bill.  In desperation, she applies for a job at a seedy nightclub hoping to make some quick cash without having to show too much skin.  Noticing all of the medical training on her resume, Billy (the owner of the club) asks Mary if she would like to make five grand in cash, the only catch is that she is not allowed to ask any questions.  Mary agrees and is taken downstairs to the basement where she is presented with a man who has been seriously beaten up.  Billy asks Mary to make sure that the man does not die and if she succeeds she will be paid.  After leaving the club, Mary is propositioned by one of the dancers (who has seen Mary’s work), Beatress, to perform some body modification surgery on a friend of hers.  Mary is confused as to exactly what body modification is but after being told she would be paid $10,000 in cash if she did the operation and even just $2,000 if she shows up and talks to her friend, Mary accepts.  She assumes that this is going to be a one off deal, but after a serious incident happens at a party Mary is attending, she turns her back on the world of professional surgery for good and enters into the world of body modification.

Despite all of the positive press “American Mary” has been receiving particularly in horror circles, I hate to say that I thought it was a bit of a mess.  Do not get me wrong, I thought that there was a lot of good stuff in it, but as a cohesive whole, the film just did not work for me at all.  I found that the film lacked momentum; it just seemed to plod along for the entirety of its running time.  It was really slow moving and seemed to lack focus.  The problem I think is that there are too many narrative threads within “American Mary” and The Soska Sisters had a problem balancing them all and to give each the desired screen time needed to make them worthwhile.  My favourite aspect of “American Mary” was the body modification part because it was so interesting and is not a subject that you see represented on screen a whole lot.  I recently read an interview with the sisters where they stated that they wanted to portray body modification as honestly as possible and not treat it like it was something abnormal.  They even pointed out the hypocrisy of society’s views towards body modification while being so excepting of “cosmetic surgery” because it fits into an image that is considered the norm in society.  This is all fascinating stuff and really got me thinking, and in this regard the sisters have succeeded enormously, but I just wished “American Mary” focused a whole lot more on this world than its other side plots.  Instead of wasting time on Billy’s obsession for Mary, we could have spent more time with Beatress and Ruby who are infinitely more interesting characters.  Another problem with the film that I had was the way the Soska Sisters handled the disintegration of Mary’s mind.  I understand that it was important to the story and needed to be in the film, but it just needed to be integrated much more seamlessly.  

Sadly something that seems to be inherited from “Dead Hooker In A Trunk” is the poor performances on display here.  Every horror fan I know (me included) seems to have had a crush on Katharine Isabelle since her breakout role in “Ginger Snaps” back in 2000 and it is so good to see her in another horror film but unfortunately I thought she gave a terribly flat performance.  She looked like she was sleep walking through the whole thing and she looked dead behind the eyes.  She still looks as great as ever but I was shocked at how little she seemed to emote (or convincingly emote, I should say) throughout this story considering how much she goes through.  I also thought her relationship with her grandmother was incredibly forced and never rang true once.  The rest of the actors I know nothing of, but I will say that none of them stood out at all which is never a good sign.

Where the Soska Sisters have improved dramatically is in the look of the film.  “American Mary” is a great looking film and cinematographer Brian Pearson does a great job of creating this dark and creepy world.  Gone is the amateur shaky cam and poorly composed look and in its place is a visual style that is seriously impressive.  The compositions within the frame are gorgeous and look to have been thought out well in advance; they really add to the atmosphere of the world (a world not dissimilar to the one Takashi Miike created in “Audition”).  One shot I loved was when Mary returns home from the party, her surgical books in the foreground as she enters the door in the background.  She slowly stumbles towards her books that she thought so highly of previous before pushing them all off the table, symbolizing that she is now done with that world.  

I must admit for a film dealing with a topic that is full of extremities, I was expecting “American Mary” to be a much bloodier and gorier film than it actually is.  One of the main promotional stills used for the film is of Katharine Isabelle wearing a black apron, her face covered in blood, so this was what I was expecting constantly throughout the film.  I was pleasantly surprised that the Soska Sisters didn’t exploit their subject for some unnecessary gore, in fact the surgery scenes are presented quite tamely without ever losing their impact.  Jen and Sylvia Soska themselves actually turn up as a couple of twins who want to never be apart even after death in one of the best scenes from “American Mary”.

 Overall, I wanted to love “American Mary” so much, I really did, but it sadly left me cold.  I do have a feeling that the film would play better with a packed audience where you are able to feed off of one another but unfortunately there was only me and one other guy in the screening I attended.  While I still believe in the Soska Sisters and think that they have a truly great horror film in them, this is not it.  It is filled with poor performances and it is a plodding affair.  It seems as the sisters have improved on the visual quality of their films, inversely their sense of fun has been affected.  I understand this is not the same type of film as “Dead Hooker In A Trunk” but I still think “American Mary” lacked an internal momentum needed to keep an audience interested.  Within a number of narrative threads, I really enjoyed the look at the world of body modification, which is an aspect of the film that the girls have really handled well.  I also really enjoyed the ending of the film even if it I don’t think it had been layered properly into the story beforehand.  While I still look forward to whatever the Soska Sisters make next, at the end of the day I found “American Mary” to be a real disappointment, however there are parts of it that are quite good, it’s just that as a complete film it did not work for me (although I seem to be in the minority here in regards to “American Mary”).

2.5 Stars.