Weird, dark, disturbing, funny and bloody! ***Excision*** is a twisted psychological coming of age body horror with themes of mental illness, family values, religion... I was going to say it's about identity too but not really. From the very first scene we see Pauline she knows exactly who she is, it's less about figuring it out and more about living it. Because of that her character feels more mature than it maybe should be sinse she's a teen. Still, this was a great character study and AnnaLynne McCord was great from start to finish. Great dark comedy and the dialogue surprised me a few times.


I'll keep it vague but the last scene; [spoiler]it was predictable but it didn't matter to me that it was predictable, because it's the perfect ending to give to this movie. The last few seconds though, the execution could have been better. A character's reaction felt forced/unrealistic to me and the acting faltered in that critical last shot. Maybe focusing on the other character's face would have been the solution.[/spoiler] For that it loses some points but it was still a great journey of a movie and something I won't forget for a while. A very tragic story on many levels but the symbolism and social critique at the end was the biggest gut punch, a shocking reality i've rarely seen put on film.

The last cut is the deepest!

AnnaLynne McCord stars as Pauline, a disturbed high school misfit who has delusions of becoming a surgeon. Dominated by her over bearing mother, Pauline battles with her sanity and unhealthy obsessions.

Superb, a teen based horror that’s pungent with everything from necrophilia, growing pains, peer pressure, sexual anxiety, parental strife, mental illness and horror – real horror. Writer/director Richard Bates Junior does a brilliant job of filling an 80 minute movie with so many thematic smarts but never once over egging his bloody pudding. He gets excellent performances out of McCord and Traci Lords (as Pauline’s mother), whilst the blending of surreal imagery via Pauline’s dreams and the real world awkwardness – with some dry humour in the mix too – produces a picture that is in equal parts oddball and emotionally shattering.

When Dead Ringers collides with Ginger Snaps, Excision will stay with you for days afterwards. 9/10

Making a movie like this work is a delicate balancing act, and it almost worked, aside from the ending. The movie is really about an upper middle-class family - much like American Beauty - comprised of: a toxic mother, a codependent father, and the two sisters - Grace, and Pauline. Pauline is our lead character, and her story plays out like a coming-of-age indie comedy - like Welcome to the Dollhouse; she's smart, socially awkward, interested in biology, and has no friends aside from her little sister.
The major issue with Excision is that there is no tonal center: is it a drama? no, it's too weird. is it a comedy? no, it's too dark. is it an indie dark comedy? sort of, until it does off the rails in the third act, and dives headfirst into horror.
[spoiler]Okay, consider that aside from the jammed-in fantasy/dream sequences, Pauline is very smart, and cares deeply for her sister. How much better would the ending have been if Grace was shown to have survived the surgery? Pauline would still have been a murderer - of the unwilling donor - yet it leaves us with some sympathy for her, knowing that she was completely misunderstood by everyone, but would do anything to help her sister, despite the consequences.[/spoiler]