Review of American Mary (2013) by Andy H — 27 Jan 2013

Mary Mason (Katherine Isabelle) is a medical student on her way to becoming a surgeon. The path to living the American dream is strewn with obstacles though as her financial woes are not only distracting her from her studies bringing conflict with her tutor Dr Grant (David Lovgren) but also mean the bills are piling up. Taking on a job as a dancer through sheer desperation she meets club owner Billy (Antonio Cupo). A chance to make some quick money using her skills patching up a torture victim in the basement of the the club is further compounded by a brutal and disturbing encounter at a party. Mary soon finds opportunities for both work and revenge in the body modification community, and is soon altering her aspirations whilst altering her clientele and taking Dr Grant's lessons to heart.

Sometimes something comes along which completely blindsides the unwary viewer. Fresh off the back of a sold out screening tour of the UK and a screening at Film4 FrightFest. The latest from from Jen and Sylvia Soskia aka the Twisted Twins is a memorable deconstruction of the American dream, an engrossing character study, a twisted tale of revenge and introduces one of the most iconic characters in horror in years.

Katherine Isabelle already known to fans of cult horror for her role as Ginger in the memorable Ginger Snaps films eclipses her previous character here and is sure to be remembered as 'Bloody Mary' from now on.

With an endearing and powerful performance Isabelle's Mary starts off a naive student desperate to please, whether it's her Nana who is constantly calling Mary for updates on her progress unaware of the bleak reality of her financial hardship or her tutor the arrogant Dr Grant (an antagonistic and callous turn from Lovgren) and becomes something entirely different.

Generally when a film has vengeance on perpetrators of a brutal sexual assault in it's DNA its makers tend to be more interested in portraying the sexual assault, the more explicit the better than the vengeance which is generally an afterthought justifying the former. Here things are handled differently with no flesh on display but the harrowing image of isabelle's head hanging off the end of a matress eyes glazed over, jerking up and down. It's a powerful and disturbing image and feeds into what happens as the story unfolds. With Mary returning galvanised and wreaking vengeance on her tormentor and finding acceptance from those that others would look down upon.

The Soskia twins themselves feature as clients of Mary's, playing the gothic styled hosts of a well regarded body mod website wanting more work done to compliment their filed teeth and corset piercings.

With her sheer black hair, bright red lipstick and ice-cool demeanour along with her fetish inspired wardrobe it's not hard to fall for Mary and Cupo's Billy quickly becomes enamoured but doesn't act on it through fear as Mary asks him over a drink at the bar one night "People say I scare you is that right?".

There's more going on besides body horror though with some black humour to be found, one scene has a client in Mary's appartment/bodyshop stating "I want something unique I think I'll get some piercings and a tribal tattoo" prompting her to have him thrown out and also being justified in her actions by hulking doorman and muscle Lance (Twan Holliday) relating a tale of how a relation was callously murdered and how he wishes he knew Mary back then.

Shot on a low budget but still looking slick and polished there's shades of Takashi Miike's Audition, Mitchell Lichenstein's Teeth, Mary Harron's American Psycho and David Cronenberg's body horror all shot through with the Soskia twins aesthetic vision.

Whilst it's ending seems a little clunky American Mary is without doubt one of the most original and engaging horror films in years and deserves the cult admiration it will undoubtedly get and more besides and the Soskia twins are definitely ones to watch.