Friday, December 28, 2012

Movie Review: Excision (2012)


So, Excision is like, a really weird movie. Like, seriously REALLY weird. It's so weird that... what, wait a minute... Screw that, I love weird movies! Oh yeah! In that case, Excision was not only really weird but also really awesome at the same time.

Seventeen-year-old Pauline has got some problems. Her odd interests and fantasies isolate her from her classmates, her mother is a controlling bitch, and her little sister is dying of cystic fibrosis. After taking care of some little personal things like losing her virginity, Pauline works on a plan that will both save her sister's life and finally gain the approval of her mother.

The movie starts off cold, with just a quick title card, that then goes right into one of Pauline's fantasies. You see, Pauline has a pretty serious case of haematophilia. She likes to lie in bed and have these bizarre fantasies that always have something to do with blood or cutting people up or some crazy shit like that. The first one we see (and the one I liked the most) is Pauline sitting in a chair across from herself, basically having an orgasm while watching her other self vomit up blood and bleed from her nose. From then on, what Pauline can conjure up just gets more and more bizarre and graphic, until she manages to think of something much, much worse for real life.

All of these bizarre fantasy scenes are shot beautifully and make for very striking images. Pauline and anybody else who appears in her messed up mind are always wearing white, and in a room with blue tiled walls, both of which make a great contrast against the very pretty red blood. Hey, wait a minute - red, white and blue? Are they trying to say something with that? Eh, maybe. Anyway, these scenes are sadly too short sometimes, but it was good that they didn't focus so much on them and stuck more to Pauline's twisted story. There is a ton of dark, sadistic humor throughout to keep you laughing and creeped out at the same time.

Everybody and their brother loves AnnaLynne McCord in this thing and I don't feel the need to add to the pile-on of praise. She is beyond awesome in Excision and that's all that needs to be said. I'm also not going to praise her for being all "brave" in taking this role and making herself ugly in a movie. I really kind of hate it when people do that. Goshdarnit, these people are actors and it is their freaking job to do whatever is necessary to bring reality to a role. On that note, I will totally give McCord praise for being a freaky bitch and committing 100% to every crazy and freaky thing she had to do for this movie. She rocks.

And Traci Lords? Forget about it. She is really wonderful as Pauline's mother, who is obsessed with manners and her daughters being proper ladies. I'm glad that Lords has managed to make a (small) name for herself in mainstream movies because she is a great actress. She gives Phyllis all the hoity-toity mannerisms of a woman with a real stick up her ass, but also shows a real desire for a connection with her daughter. It's a wonder that she can be so accepting of Pauline's behavior, while in hindsight she should have done more than just send her to talk to the local priest  (played by John Waters - which cracked me up) instead of a real psychiatrist.

Now the ending, while still pretty shocking, actually comes as no real surprise. Take into account Pauline's obsession with blood, her desire to be a surgeon, the revelation that her sister needs a lung transplant, the title of the movie... are you putting the pieces together yet? Yup, that's what happens. However, the scene is still a shock because, considering Pauline's genuine love for Grace, you don't want to believe that she would actually do that to her, knowing the probable outcome. With all the dark humor, the movie makes you completely forget that Pauline is insane, and was totally capable of this act the whole time. You like Pauline - to a point, maybe - and you don't want to see her fall so hard and commit any atrocities, even though it was inevitable.

Excision is, as they say, perhaps not a movie for everyone, but it sure as hell is for me. I kind of loved it, and all those insane images have been in the back of my head ever since I saw the movie. AnnaLynne McCord gives a performance so good that it's ridiculous and the other actors (John Waters, Malcolm McDowell, Marlee Matlin, and Roger Bart) all bring their own dose of awesome to the movie. It's an interesting film to say the least, and one you should give a chance if you think you can take it.

18 comments:

  1. The second half of this film really disappointed me as it suffers from being caught up in the spectacle of it all. It really is the sort of which seems to really divide folks opinions.

    Still while it might seem like a random series of increasingly disgusting and shocking events, it was a couple of days after seeing the film, that it dawned on me that what we are witnessing here is the birth of a psycho only shot from the psycho’s perspective, something only furthered by the slowly graduating between the levels of psycho behaviour, as Pauline moves from fantasies to dissecting dead animals to ultimately moving onto human dissection, all under the guise of her desire to be a surgeon. Further evidence of this theory for myself was seen in her ever growing desire to break social norms, as her world view twists to suit her personal outlook such as her blasé reaction to having her period while clumsily seducing her high school crush Adam (Sumpter) with the prospect of easy sex. Sadly director Bates chooses for some reason to not give us a big insight into why Pauline does what she does and instead gives us an ending which seems more sudden than conclusive.

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    1. It's true that there is no real analysis of why Pauline is the way she is; if there was something in particular that contributed to her haematophilia and psychosis. I don't think the ending was sudden at all - it was really inevitable - but I'm also still wondering just what the ending means for the relationship between Pauline and her mother. Is her mother going to just send her to jail and try to forget she ever existed or is she finally going to do what Pauline needs her to do to help her?

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    2. I personally just thought that she was going to kill some classmates or maybe ONLY that girl that picked on her. I never thought she would kill her sister..

      Maybe it hits home because I have cystic problems as well as a lot of other diseases, and I have an abusive older sibling with growing mental issues.. plus my mom acts the same. Oh, geez. Inb4 I die.
      Hey, at least it'll make a good gender-bender version of the movie. Eh? Eh? ..eh.

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  2. Yes, fucking yes! Your reviews kicks ass! Almost everything you wrote about it, is exactly what I thought about it.
    Also, great analysis of Pauline's character. Love the part you wrote about her being insane and that she was totally capable of doing the surgery. Many people didn't get that.

    Woot woot, dudette!! :)

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    1. Hehe, thank you, dude! Glad you liked this one too - I was really wondering what you might think of it.

      Pauline is totally insane! I knew she was going to do something big and nasty for the finale and as the clues kept coming in, I was all, 'Oh gosh please don't do that Pauline!' But, yeah, of course she did 'cause she's a sick puppy. Still loved it though. Really fantastic movie, I'm so glad I saw this!

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    2. Gave it a 9/10 and it'll pop up very high in my Best Horror 2012 list which I'll post on Jan 2 :)

      Haha, a sick puppy indeed :D I also loved the fact that her sister is dying, but looks completely healthy - while Pauline seems to be healthy, but often looks like she's already rotting :)

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  3. ...So I take it there's a lot of blood in this movie?

    Eh, whatever. Thanks to video games I'm no stranger to festivals of blood (ever heard of Killer7?), but it's good to hear that there's something more to it. And even better to hear that you enjoyed it.

    So thanks for this little write-up. I just hope the people in the movie have lots of Band-Aids on hand...

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    1. There's actually not a whole lot of blood in the movie, at least not in the way that you might be thinking. The blood is used very specifically in Pauline's fantasy scenes and trickled in there in some other scenes too, so it's not like there's people getting chopped and sliced everywhere or anything. It's done in a more kind of arty way.

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  4. This was a WEIRD movie!

    I got it for free to review and I kept putting it off because it just sounded bad to me. I was surprised at how well AnnaLynne acted in this though.

    Although a bit predictable and very disturbting, it wasn't as bad as I was expecting, but I doubt I'll watch it again.

    Here's my review if interested: SOH's review of Excision (2012)

    Kat Webmistress of Shivers of Horror

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    1. Did you see any oxygen tanks? or BP Monitors? This movie was freaky but I liked it, the ONLY scene that really disturbed me was with the Tampon,,,YUCK!!!!!!!! and every time I was going to shut this movie off, OUT popped out another recognizable, respected actor, I said WTF !? You REALLY hard up for the money??? HA HA, just another sick and twisted art film as far as I'm concerned... :)

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  6. I actually think the original short film did a better job at (what the director claims) is the central story: Pauline's attempt to gain her mother's approval. In the full-length version her mom rarely passes up an opportunity to make herself come off as dislikable (except for one scene where she tries to apologize and mentions her own mother), and Pauline shrugs off the (rather accurate) designation as a sociopath. This makes it less believable that Pauline is genuinely hurt by overhearing her mother's despair over her and actually wants a better relationship with her.

    I have to admit, the Jodorowsky inspired fantasy scenes in the full-length version are miles and away superior to those of the original short when taken in isolation, but in the original there is a definite progression: Pauline is disturbed at first and gradually buys in more to the fantasies. It's a descent into insanity which doesn't really leave warning signs until too late.

    I don't want to be completely down on the full-length movie. It's entertaining, I enjoy a lot of the performances, particularly Pauline talking to a God she doesn't believe in. Also, the implied relationship with her sister is better, which avoids a cliche of Pauline disliking her as a reaction to her approvals approval of her fitting norms Pauline. That small amount of humanization is necessary for a character like Pauline.

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  7. I just saw it. I'm stunned. I thought Annalynne McCord was just another skinny it-girl with an outtie bellybutton. I actually think this is (possibly) Oscar material. Her performance was outstanding. Great review! I thought that, in the last scene, there were two ways you could end up feeling about Pauline, depending on how she acted when her mother hugged her. If she had smiled and cackled evilly, it would have been "ok, Pauline was a nut, we knew...too bad." But she broke down and started crying, showing she loved her sister deeply and just wanted to help her. Amazing, heady stuff.

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  8. Oh man, I just watched it, though I was a little disappointed at the farse of being weird for weird sake. Although I thought AnnaLynne McCord's performance was fantastic, Pauline was an unlikable character and actually the only characters I warmed to was her sister. I was actually a little shocked at the end. It's true that the movie almost takes you away from the fact that Pauline has severe mental health issues and its only in that last scene when they're both crying that this really comes to fruition and she realises how bad she fucked up, killing the only person that really loved her back regardless of her imperfections. What I don't understand is, why didn't the parents just get her the help she needed in the first place and why didn't she just donate her own lungs for her sister, which is where I thought the movie was going. Also how comes Leland Palmer is now the headmaster... I though 'Bob' killed him a long time ago

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  9. Very disturbing but poignant tale of a true sociopath. It has undertones of "American Beauty". Especially the dinner scenes. This movie is what "American Psycho 2" should have been instead of that aweful dreck with Milla Kunis.

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  10. Its possible the transplant was a success and Pauline saved grace right? I like to think that is how the film ended.

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    1. I think that's being a little overly hopeful!

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    2. Ummm no, since blood pouring out of your mouth during a lung tranplant can't be good...and the fact that she just laid the lungs in the bodies and sewed them back up.

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