Been waiting a long time to be able to give you an update on this one,  Jen and Sylvia Soska, better known as The Soska Sisters or Twisted Sisters, have released the first still for their new upcoming film, AMERICAN MARY, to celebrate AMERICAN MARY making its world wide market premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.  This is a huge deal for the Soska Sisters and they worked their asses off to get to this point!!  These two have become the talk of the indie horror scene from their debut feature, DEAD HOOKER IN A TRUNK and now have one of the most anticipated indie horror releases in years!!  Check out the still below, and be sure to visit the gals and show your support on their website, http://www.twistedtwinsproductions.net/

AMERICAN MARY stars GINGER SNAPS star Katharine Isabelle.  Check out the plot crunch:

The story follows medical student, Mary Mason, as she becomes increasingly broke and disenchanted with the surgical world she once admired. The allure of easy money sends Mary into the world of underground surgeries which ends up leaving more marks on her than her so called ‘freakish’ clientele.

Stay Bloody!!!

I’ve been waiting for this for a long time!!  The Soska Sisters’ follow up to DEAD HOOKER IN A TRUNK (my review) have finally released the official first trailer for their follow up film, AMERICAN MARY.  AMERICAN MARY is written and directed by the Twisted Twins themselves, Jen and Sylvia Soska, and stars Katharine Isabelle, Julia Maxwell, and Antonio Cupo.  Here’s the plot crunch:

The story follows medical student, Mary Mason, as she becomes increasingly broke and disenchanted with the surgical world she once admired. The allure of easy money sends Mary into the world of underground surgeries which ends up leaving more marks on her than her so called ‘freakish’ clientele.

Be sure to check out their Facebook page for AMERICAN MARY to keep up with all the news and stills they upload.  No more stalling … here’s the official first trailer for the Soska Sister’s AMERICAN MARY:

This looks very dark with the signature Soska black humor.  I can’t wait to see this one!!  Be sure to cheek out the still below for a taste of what’s to come.

Stay Bloody!!!

I’m very, very excited to be reporting that Jen and Sylvia Soska’s latest film, AMERICAN MARY, has landed U.S. distribution.  I didn’t think it would take that long!!  The Soska sister’s ripped into the indie horror scene with the film DEAD HOOKER IN A TRUNK (my review) and haven’t looked back since!!  AMERICAN MARY promises to be bigger, gorier, and all around more kick ass!!  Check out the press release:

IndustryWorks Pictures announces U.S. distribution deal for what’s being called ‘today’s modern day horror film’ – “American Mary” 

For Immediate Release—Vancouver, BC—December, 2012—IndustryWorks Pictures has an exciting announcement to make as they bring their widely praised thriller/horror feature “American Mary” to the US market. The festival circuit gem, stars “Ginger Snaps” alum Katharine Isabelle and was the recent recipient of 11 awards at top genre festivals across North America, including the honors for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress.

XLrator Media has acquired all U.S. rights to the horror sensation, AMERICAN MARY, produced and represented worldwide by IWP. This female- centric surgical horror-thriller will be released on XLrator Media’s newly announced Screamfest label in Fall 2013.

IndustryWorks Pictures is excited to bring the film to the US market with XLrator Media and their Screamfest label where American Mary picked up five awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Cinematography and Best Makeup. It also won six awards at the Toronto AfterDark festival including Best Director, Best Actress, Best Cinematography and Most Disturbing Film.

Evan Tylor, President of IndustryWorks Pictures says, “American Mary was a risky film to take on but we believed in the talent, the material and our ability to get the film in the right hands and get audiences talking about it. We went for it based on the uniqueness of the creative package. More cool films coming from IWP in 2013.”

“American Mary” stars Katharine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps’ franchise) and Antonio Cupo (Dark Angel, Bomb Girls) in a story of medical student, Mary Mason (Isabelle), as she grows increasingly broke and disenchanted with medical school and the surgeons that she once admired. The allure of easy money and notoriety sends Mary into the messy world of underground surgeries that leaves more marks on Mary than her so-called ‘freakish’ clientele. The film is directed by Jen & Sylvia Soska and produced by Evan Tylor and John Curtis.

Very good news indeed!!  With news like this I’m sure we’ll be getting the official trailer really soon.  When I get it, you’ll get it!!

Stay Bloody!!!

TotalFilm.com scored an exclusive clip to the Soska Sister’s upcoming and much anticipated follow up to DEAD HOOKER IN A TRUNK (my review), AMERICAN MARY. The clip is introduced by the Soska Sisters and one of the film’s stars, Tristan Risk. AMERICAN MARY is written and directed by Jen and Sylvia Soska and stars Katharine Isabelle, Antonio Cupo, Tristan Risk, David Lovgren, Paula Lindberg, Clay St. Thomas, John Emmet Tracy, and Twan Holliday. Check out the press release:

XLrator Media has acquired all U.S. rights to the horror sensation AMERICAN MARY, written and directed by Jen and Sylvia Soska (Dead Hooker in a Trunk). The female-centric surgical horror-thriller will be released on XLrator Media’s newly announced Screamfest label in the fall of 2013.

“AMERICAN MARY is one of the most original, thought-provoking and subversive horror films I’ve ever seen. It has riveted audiences at horror festivals and marks the emergence of the ‘Twisted Twins’ as the most exciting genre directors to come along in years,” said XLrator Media CEO Barry Gordon.

AMERICAN MARY played to highly enthusiastic audiences at LA’s Screamfest Horror Film Festival in October, where it won five awards, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Cinematography and Best Makeup. “Based on the extraordinary audience response at this year’s festival, we knew we had to have this film on our Screamfest imprint with XLrator. Jen and Sylvia Soska are incredibly talented directors. We are so thrilled to bring this film to genre fans all over the U.S.,” said Screamfest co-founder and festival director Rachel Belofsky.

AMERICAN MARY follows the story of medical student Mary Mason (played by Katharine Isabelle of the Ginger Snaps franchise) as she grows increasingly broke and disenchanted with medical school and the surgeons she once admired. The allure of easy money and notoriety send Mary into the shady world of underground surgery and body modification. The film co-stars Antonio Cupo (“Bomb Girls”), Tristan Risk, David Lovgren and Paula Lindberg.

AMERICAN MARY was produced by IndustryWorks Pictures, Evan Tylor and John Curtis.

“AMERICAN MARY was a risky film to take on, but we believed in the talent and the material and went for it based on the uniqueness of the creative package,” said Evan Tylor, president of IndustryWorks Pictures.

Here’s the plot crunch:

This metaphor for the Soskas’ own journey through the independent film industry follows medical student Mary Mason as she becomes increasingly broke and disenchanted. The allure of easy money sends Mary into the twilight world of body modification and underground surgeries where obsessed flesh artists will pay anything and go through any pain to get their unusual procedures done. But Mary soon finds that her new “profession” leaves more marks on her own psyche than on her freakish clientele.

And now here’s the clip:

And in case you missed it from an earlier post, here’s the official trailer for AMERICAN MARY:

Stay Bloody!!!

Jen and Sylvia Soska. Don’t ask about the Glory Hole.

Readers of Anythinghorror.com know that Scott and I have been supportive of the Soska Sisters, ahead of many others in the field. Their debut film DEAD HOOKER IN A TRUNK (read Scott’s review here) was an astounding first effort, made on a shoestring budget, but still, could their second movie, AMERICAN MARY, match the potential they showed with the first? Many haven’t.

Thankfully, MARY proves that DEAD HOOKER wasn’t just a one-off for Jen and Sylvia.

The title character is Mary Mason (Katherine Isabelle, GINGER SNAPS), a Seattle medical student living alone, her only seeming relative her grandmother with whom she has to hide her dire financial problems. Her teacher Dr Grant (David Londgren, COOL RUNNINGS) recognises her talents, but isn’t prepared to cur her any slack. Desperate for cash, she answers an ad at a strip club, and such is her naiveté that she brings along her resume, a fact which amuses the club’s sleazy manager Billy (Antonio Cupo), though he thinks she’s attractive and fit enough for the work in mind. But he’s barely starting to audition her when he’s called away on an emergency – and soon offering her five thousand dollars to use her nascent surgical skills in patching up one of his men, no questions asked. Given that she was prepared to offer ‘massages’ for much less, Mary agrees – and it’s also a chance to practice her cutting and stitching on something other than supermarket chickens.

Beatrice. No, the picture is not distorted.

Soon after, she is approached by Beatrice (Tristan Risk, DARKEST HOUR), a prostitute who has fulfilled her dream of looking like Betty Boop via cosmetic surgery. She makes herself a nuisance, finally cornering Mary and, having heard of her skills on behalf of Billy, offers her money for another job: extreme cosmetic surgery on a friend (and if a double mastectomy and a stitching up of female genitalia to ‘desexualise’ a woman isn’t classed as extreme, then I’m Michael Jackson). Mary resists, but when her regular job ends completely, the call of the scalpel is unignorable.

Soon she’s rolling in the money, learning about the world of body modification. But she still longs to be a regular surgeon, and during her residency she is invited to the home of Dr Walsh (Clay St Thomas, THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE) for a party with other surgeons. However, on her arrival she is drugged and raped by Dr Grant (the implication is that, having been seen in new clothes and conversing with Beatrice, Mary must be a prostitute as well, and therefore ‘a legitimate target’, and I really wish so many assholes in the real world didn’t agree with such an assessment). Upon waking up the next morning and discovering what had happened to her, she drops out of medical school and turns herself full-time towards illegal surgery, getting involved again with Billy and Beatrice and using her skills to exact a suitable revenge, all the while feeling her grip on reality erode.

They call her Bloody Mary. I don’t know why.

I don’t know how much AMERICAN MARY cost. I’m expecting not much (that’s not meant as an insult, by the way). But it looks like a big budget movie in every single respect. It’s been compared to David Cronenberg’s “body horror”-themed movies (especially given the shared Canadian heritage of Cronenberg and the Soskas), and I can mostly concur, but I would lean away from the likes of THE FLY and THE BROOD and more towards CRASH and DEAD RINGERS, with psychological destruction playing an equal role with physical destruction. Or rather, modification (as the Chinese used to say, “Nothing ever ends, it merely becomes something else”). The people who come to Mary (or “Bloody Mary” as they soon call her) for alteration (including a cameo from the Soska Sisters themselves) may seem alien and perverted to the average viewer, especially when details about what they’re looking to get done (including tongues being forked, teeth sharpened, subdermal implants, amputations) are revealed. But to Mary, they prove to be more honest and approachable than the arrogant, egotistical male doctors who ultimately betray her and cast aside her original ambitions. In her own way, she modifies herself, though the direction she takes is not necessarily healthy.

There is a definite neo-noir feel to AMERICAN MARY: a dark, seedy world of characters in shades of grey. Billy, for instance, starts out seemingly as a sleazeball minor character but proves to have strength and sympathy as his attraction and affection for Mary grows, as does his enforcer Lance (Twan Holliday, STAN HELSING), who has a poignant and revealing scene where he shows his support for Mary’s skills and empowerment. There is also a tragic sense of inevitability, where life for these people could be so much better, if only they could speak up and change the course their lives are taking.

Ouch.

And fortunately the Soskas recruited performers equal to the script, and through them I felt for the principal characters more than I have for those in other movies for quite a while. Katherine Isabelle gives a truly amazing performance, full of depth and subtlety. There are scenes where she says nothing and offers no facial expressions, but her eyes speak volumes. The woman’s got chops! Antonio Cupo, who plays Billy, also excels, and makes what could have been a one-dimensional gangland thug into something much more.

But what about the horror? It’s there, though more from implication and explicitness. There’s blood aplenty spilt, and scenes of surgery, though the Soskas don’t linger, at least not too closely (but when we do, the impact is all the more effective for it). And the soundtrack is eclectic, from Schubert and Bach to Rod Stewart to some hardcore numbers I want to find later on Spotify…

The film isn’t perfect. At nearly 105 minutes, it loses its pace towards the end, and the ending itself is for me abrupt disappointing – not that it was unrealistic, more out of left field, and with all the plot threads to take, it certainly wasn’t one I would have taken.

More ouch.

But then I’m not a filmmaker. And the Soska Sisters definitely are. They’ve crafted a superior movie that could find its way on my Top Ten Best Horror movies of 2013. The movie is available on DVD in the UK with a behind-the-scenes documentary with cast and crew and a feature titled An American Mary in London, detailing the world premier at the Film4 Frightfest in August 2012, but as yet I can find no details of a North American release. What the hey, Soskas?

Deggsy’s Summary:

Director: The Soska Sisters (also writers)
Plot: 4 out of 5 stars
Gore: 6 out of 10 skulls
Zombie Mayhem: 0 out of 5 brains
Reviewed by Derek “Deggsy” O’Brien. The D is silent.

I was a big fan and supporter of the Soska Sister’s debut film, DEAD HOOKER IN A TRUNK (my review).  The film was daring, gory, had great characters, and was just fun to watch.  So when the sisters’ sophomore film, AMERICAN MARY, became available I was excited to see what influence time and experience would have on the Soska sister’s talents.  Plus Anything Horror’s very own Deggsy reviewed this film back in January and really liked it (Deggsy’s review).  Sure there were problems with it, but overall Deggsy enjoyed it and even predicted that it would make his Best Of list at the end of the year.  Now I was really stoked to see this.  It’s pretty damn rare when Deggsy and I have opposite opinions about films.  If anything we usually fight over who enjoyed or hated a film more!!  That’s why after watching AMERICAN MARY I was so shocked by how much I hated it.  This was the most disappointed I’ve been in a long time after anticipating the release of a film.  That’s why I’m posting my review as well (I rarely, if ever, post two different reviews about the same film).  I’m of course not going to tell you Deggsy’s review is wrong, but I definitely wanted to give you the flip side of the coin.

Despite it all, ya gotta admit that Katherine Isabella looks great covered in blood!!

AMERICAN MARY is about surgical intern Mary Mason (Katharine Isabelle from GINGER SNAPS fame) who between being constantly broke due to the expense of medical school and having a rather nasty run-in with one of her professors, leaves the medical field in order to pursue a career in the glamorous world of underground fetish body modification.  Believe it or not, it was rather easy for her to become the Queen of Underground Body Modification.  We join Mary as she’s already becoming disenchanted with the medical field.  Her professors are arrogant and demeaning, the doctors at the hospital are assholes and even more arrogant, but everyone sees a bright future for Mary.  She’s a talented surgeon who stays up late at night spending what little money she has on turkeys so she can practice sewing the skin back on the fowl.  But she finally breaks down and decides to get a job to supplement her income.  You’re probably guessing she goes to the local restaurant to get a hostess or waitress gig, right?  Nope.  The first place she goes is to the local tittie bar.  Really?  This was the only place in town that was hiring?  Maybe I was wrong all those times I laughed at strippers who told me they were putting themselves through college!!

At the tittie bar she brings her resume (??) and gets an ‘interview’ with the owner, Billy (Antonio Cupo), a pretty sleazy guy who immediately gets her down to her underwear so he can see her body (some guys just have ‘The Gift’).  But while she’s there one of Billy’s cronies is injured and he sees that she’s in medical school and offers her $5,000 cash to fix up his buddy.  We never learn what the injury was and we don’t see any of the actual operation.  This is a trend that curses the entire film.  The audience is often in the dark on various plot points and the gore is always done completely off screen.

The Betty Boop-ish Beatress.

Then before you can say, “Bad career move,” Mary has a life-changing run in with one of her professors, Dr. Grant (David Lovgren), and drops out of medical school and becomes the aforementioned Queen of Underground Body Modification.  She has an entire hospital set up in her apartment and a long line of patients willing to go through the most fucked up procedures like amputations, creating devil horns, penis modifications, and cutting tongues in half.  All this seemingly overnight, according to the timeline in the film.  But the thing is, if you’ve ever had a tattoo or a piercing, there’s nothing in AMERICAN MARY that is going to shock you.  I think the Soska sisters need to get out more.

I’ll be completely honest (as usual).  This film lost me about fifteen minutes in.  The fact her first job she sought out was at a tittie bar just didn’t make sense.  But what really lost me was the terrible writing.  The plot is so unfocused and all over the place I couldn’t believe this script was written by the same sisters who wrote DEAD HOOKER IN A TRUNK.  I know when it comes to horror films that you need to suspend disbelief, but there’s a limit.  Nothing Mary did seemed to fit the personality that was developed early in the film.  There was no developing her character to becoming the Queen of Underground Body Modification.  One day she wasn’t, the next day she was.  And Mary’s complete lack of medical ethics was also astounding.  She would perform any operation, no matter how disfiguring, as long as the pay was enough.  The first operation she performed was on a woman named Ruby Realgirl (Paula Lindberg).  Ruby wanted to completely de-sexualize herself and make herself look like a doll by having her nipples removed and having her fuzzy fish market sewn up to look like a dolls.  Mary’s response:  “Do you really want this? … okay.”  Seriously??

This is what it would take for me to smile during this film!!

Then through the course of the film, which is 103 minutes but felt like 203 minutes, we get some subplots thrown at us that go nowhere and some that are forgotten as soon as they are introduced.  It was almost as if Jen and Sylvia Soska didn’t have enough meat to make their meatloaf so they started filling it up with corn flakes and breadcrumbs.  And then there’s the acting.  On a positive note we get solid acting from some of the supporting cast.  Antonio Cupo (Billy) was fantastic in his role.  He was a sleazy guy but didn’t play the character so one-sided.  There was certainly the danger of “Billy” becoming a stereotypical scumbag, but Cupo put a lot more depth into Billy’s character (something tells me this was due to Cupo’s acting ability and not the way his character was written).  Tristan Risk, who plays the Betty-Boop-ish Beatress, also does a really nice job.  She plays a perfect balance of someone who is essentially crazy but who is also trying to maintain a sense of stability in her life.  Twan Holliday, who plays Lance, is also very strong but his character comes and goes quicker than a winning streak in Vegas.

And then there’s the rest of the cast.  Wow.  The majority of the cast isn’t bad, per se, but they also don’t leave any impression on you.  The strongest actor should’ve been Katharine Isabelle, but unfortunately she just wasn’t able to successfully carry off paying the lead.  Her acting was inconsistent at best.  Sure she was smoking hot and nice to look at, but she lacked the acting chops to carry the film.  I’m being pretty nice right now.  Let’s face it; Isabella was pretty awful!!

Then to make matters worse, the Soska sisters themselves make a cameo as, get this, sisters!!  What a stretch!!  They go to Mary to get a very controversial body modification surgery which was very unclear.  But the Soska sisters decided to speak using the worst Eastern European accents I’ve ever heard.  I was sitting there watching their scene actually getting embarrassed for them.  And it wasn’t bad enough that their surgery was done off screen, but we never even got to see what they looked like after the surgery.  But at least we get to see Mary’s sketch of what they looked like post-surgery.  Really??  And don’t tell me that they couldn’t show the gore because of their budget.  I call bullshit.  The indie flick, LONG PIGS was made for an estimated $250,000 Canadian and the recent film SLEDGE (look for my review soon) was made for roughly the price of  two tacos at Taco Bell, and both these films were excessively gory and had exceptionally done gore!!  I’m not sure of the exact budget of AMERICAN MARY but I’d bet that it was higher than both of these films combined.

Now we get to possibly the most disappointing aspect of AMERICAN MARY.  When you think of the content and the plot, this was a perfect set up for two women writer-directors to really have something to say.  The lead is a woman who’s studying to become a surgeon, which is largely a male-dominated profession.  Things get tough and she simply drops out.  Good message.  Then she gets involved in body modification.  Again, this is a great opportunity to get a uniquely female/feminine perspective that is usually lacking in the horror genre.  So what do the Soska sisters do with this opportunity?  Nothing.  There’s absolutely no female/feminine perspective in this film.  Mary is treated like shit in the medical field and instead of fighting back against the oppressive male cock-centric patriarchy, she quits.  And if anything, Mary contributes to the objectification of women by quite literally transforming one woman into a doll to be shown off.  If you’re familiar with my writing and reviews here at Anything Horror, you know that I think the horror genre needs a stronger female voice and perspective.  You definitely won’t find that in AMERICAN MARY, and what’s so disappointing is that there’s a golden opportunity to do so here.

AMERICAN MARY, when it comes right down to it, is a mess.  It starts off with a solid enough premise, but before the halfway mark it completely runs out of things to say.  Add to this the fact there’s no gore, inconsistent acting by the lead, bad writing and character development, the fact that it’s pretty boring, and tack on a truly shitty ending and you’ve got yourself one hugely disappointing and terrible film.  Save your money on AMERICAN MARY.  Hell, even if you get the chance to see it for free I’m telling ya to pass.  I’ll really be watching the Soska sister’s closely with their next film to see which film was the fluke:   DEAD HOOKER INA TRUNK or AMERICAN MARY.  Definitely pass on this one.

My Summary:

Directors:  Jen & Sylvia Soska (& writers)

Plot:  1.5 out of 5 stars

Gore:  1 out of 10 skulls

Zombie Mayhem:  0 out of 5 brains

Worst Eastern European Accents EVER:  10 out of 10

Reviewed by Scott Shoyer

I was a big fan and supporter of the Soska Sister’s debut film, DEAD HOOKER IN A TRUNK (my review).  The film was daring, gory, had great characters, and was just fun to watch.  So when the sisters’ sophomore film, AMERICAN MARY, became available I was excited to see what influence time and experience would have on the Soska sister’s talents.  Plus Anything Horror’s very own Deggsy reviewed this film back in January and really liked it (Deggsy’s review).  Sure there were problems with it, but overall Deggsy enjoyed it and even predicted that it would make his Best Of list at the end of the year.  Now I was really stoked to see this.  It’s pretty damn rare when Deggsy and I have opposite opinions about films.  If anything we usually fight over who enjoyed or hated a film more!!  That’s why after watching AMERICAN MARY I was so shocked by how much I hated it.  This was the most disappointed I’ve been in a long time after anticipating the release of a film.  That’s why I’m posting my review as well (I rarely, if ever, post two different reviews about the same film).  I’m of course not going to tell you Deggsy’s review is wrong, but I definitely wanted to give you the flip side of the coin.

Despite it all, ya gotta admit that Katherine Isabella looks great covered in blood!!

AMERICAN MARY is about surgical intern Mary Mason (Katharine Isabelle from GINGER SNAPS fame) who between being constantly broke due to the expense of medical school and having a rather nasty run-in with one of her professors, leaves the medical field in order to pursue a career in the glamorous world of underground fetish body modification.  Believe it or not, it was rather easy for her to become the Queen of Underground Body Modification.  We join Mary as she’s already becoming disenchanted with the medical field.  Her professors are arrogant and demeaning, the doctors at the hospital are assholes and even more arrogant, but everyone sees a bright future for Mary.  She’s a talented surgeon who stays up late at night spending what little money she has on turkeys so she can practice sewing the skin back on the fowl.  But she finally breaks down and decides to get a job to supplement her income.  You’re probably guessing she goes to the local restaurant to get a hostess or waitress gig, right?  Nope.  The first place she goes is to the local tittie bar.  Really?  This was the only place in town that was hiring?  Maybe I was wrong all those times I laughed at strippers who told me they were putting themselves through college!!

At the tittie bar she brings her resume (??) and gets an ‘interview’ with the owner, Billy (Antonio Cupo), a pretty sleazy guy who immediately gets her down to her underwear so he can see her body (some guys just have ‘The Gift’).  But while she’s there one of Billy’s cronies is injured and he sees that she’s in medical school and offers her $5,000 cash to fix up his buddy.  We never learn what the injury was and we don’t see any of the actual operation.  This is a trend that curses the entire film.  The audience is often in the dark on various plot points and the gore is always done completely off screen.

The Betty Boop-ish Beatress.

Then before you can say, “Bad career move,” Mary has a life-changing run in with one of her professors, Dr. Grant (David Lovgren), and drops out of medical school and becomes the aforementioned Queen of Underground Body Modification.  She has an entire hospital set up in her apartment and a long line of patients willing to go through the most fucked up procedures like amputations, creating devil horns, penis modifications, and cutting tongues in half.  All this seemingly overnight, according to the timeline in the film.  But the thing is, if you’ve ever had a tattoo or a piercing, there’s nothing in AMERICAN MARY that is going to shock you.  I think the Soska sisters need to get out more.

I’ll be completely honest (as usual).  This film lost me about fifteen minutes in.  The fact her first job she sought out was at a tittie bar just didn’t make sense.  But what really lost me was the terrible writing.  The plot is so unfocused and all over the place I couldn’t believe this script was written by the same sisters who wrote DEAD HOOKER IN A TRUNK.  I know when it comes to horror films that you need to suspend disbelief, but there’s a limit.  Nothing Mary did seemed to fit the personality that was developed early in the film.  There was no developing her character to becoming the Queen of Underground Body Modification.  One day she wasn’t, the next day she was.  And Mary’s complete lack of medical ethics was also astounding.  She would perform any operation, no matter how disfiguring, as long as the pay was enough.  The first operation she performed was on a woman named Ruby Realgirl (Paula Lindberg).  Ruby wanted to completely de-sexualize herself and make herself look like a doll by having her nipples removed and having her fuzzy fish market sewn up to look like a dolls.  Mary’s response:  “Do you really want this? … okay.”  Seriously??

This is what it would take for me to smile during this film!!

Then through the course of the film, which is 103 minutes but felt like 203 minutes, we get some subplots thrown at us that go nowhere and some that are forgotten as soon as they are introduced.  It was almost as if Jen and Sylvia Soska didn’t have enough meat to make their meatloaf so they started filling it up with corn flakes and breadcrumbs.  And then there’s the acting.  On a positive note we get solid acting from some of the supporting cast.  Antonio Cupo (Billy) was fantastic in his role.  He was a sleazy guy but didn’t play the character so one-sided.  There was certainly the danger of “Billy” becoming a stereotypical scumbag, but Cupo put a lot more depth into Billy’s character (something tells me this was due to Cupo’s acting ability and not the way his character was written).  Tristan Risk, who plays the Betty-Boop-ish Beatress, also does a really nice job.  She plays a perfect balance of someone who is essentially crazy but who is also trying to maintain a sense of stability in her life.  Twan Holliday, who plays Lance, is also very strong but his character comes and goes quicker than a winning streak in Vegas.

And then there’s the rest of the cast.  Wow.  The majority of the cast isn’t bad, per se, but they also don’t leave any impression on you.  The strongest actor should’ve been Katharine Isabelle, but unfortunately she just wasn’t able to successfully carry off paying the lead.  Her acting was inconsistent at best.  Sure she was smoking hot and nice to look at, but she lacked the acting chops to carry the film.  I’m being pretty nice right now.  Let’s face it; Isabella was pretty awful!!

Then to make matters worse, the Soska sisters themselves make a cameo as, get this, sisters!!  What a stretch!!  They go to Mary to get a very controversial body modification surgery which was very unclear.  But the Soska sisters decided to speak using the worst Eastern European accents I’ve ever heard.  I was sitting there watching their scene actually getting embarrassed for them.  And it wasn’t bad enough that their surgery was done off screen, but we never even got to see what they looked like after the surgery.  But at least we get to see Mary’s sketch of what they looked like post-surgery.  Really??  And don’t tell me that they couldn’t show the gore because of their budget.  I call bullshit.  The indie flick, LONG PIGS was made for an estimated $250,000 Canadian and the recent film SLEDGE (look for my review soon) was made for roughly the price of  two tacos at Taco Bell, and both these films were excessively gory and had exceptionally done gore!!  I’m not sure of the exact budget of AMERICAN MARY but I’d bet that it was higher than both of these films combined.

Now we get to possibly the most disappointing aspect of AMERICAN MARY.  When you think of the content and the plot, this was a perfect set up for two women writer-directors to really have something to say.  The lead is a woman who’s studying to become a surgeon, which is largely a male-dominated profession.  Things get tough and she simply drops out.  Good message.  Then she gets involved in body modification.  Again, this is a great opportunity to get a uniquely female/feminine perspective that is usually lacking in the horror genre.  So what do the Soska sisters do with this opportunity?  Nothing.  There’s absolutely no female/feminine perspective in this film.  Mary is treated like shit in the medical field and instead of fighting back against the oppressive male cock-centric patriarchy, she quits.  And if anything, Mary contributes to the objectification of women by quite literally transforming one woman into a doll to be shown off.  If you’re familiar with my writing and reviews here at Anything Horror, you know that I think the horror genre needs a stronger female voice and perspective.  You definitely won’t find that in AMERICAN MARY, and what’s so disappointing is that there’s a golden opportunity to do so here.

AMERICAN MARY, when it comes right down to it, is a mess.  It starts off with a solid enough premise, but before the halfway mark it completely runs out of things to say.  Add to this the fact there’s no gore, inconsistent acting by the lead, bad writing and character development, the fact that it’s pretty boring, and tack on a truly shitty ending and you’ve got yourself one hugely disappointing and terrible film.  Save your money on AMERICAN MARY.  Hell, even if you get the chance to see it for free I’m telling ya to pass.  I’ll really be watching the Soska sister’s closely with their next film to see which film was the fluke:   DEAD HOOKER INA TRUNK or AMERICAN MARY.  Definitely pass on this one.

My Summary:

Directors:  Jen & Sylvia Soska (& writers)

Plot:  1.5 out of 5 stars

Gore:  1 out of 10 skulls

Zombie Mayhem:  0 out of 5 brains

Worst Eastern European Accents EVER:  10 out of 10

Reviewed by Scott Shoyer

In 2006 the slasher film SEE NO EVIL produced by WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) and distributed by Lionsgate hit screens in the U.S. On an estimated budget of $8mil, the film opened to a meager $4.5mil and went onto to earn a worldwide gross of around $18.5mil. Not exactly a Cinderella story, but not a failure either. Obviously WWE thought that was good enough to warrant a follow up, SEE NO EVIL 2, eight years later. The original film was nothing special as far as slasher films go. In it a killer, Jacob Goodnight (Glenn “Kane” Jacobs), who is abused as a young kid by an overly religious zealot of a mother (Nancy Bell), decides he is God’s little helper to rid the world of sinners. He proceeds to take his fury out on a group of delinquents sentenced to cleaning up an old building. Overall the movie was pretty forgettable. The cast is unimpressive, the director was unimpressive, and the writing offered the standard fare of slasher cliches. But it had two elements going for it. Firstly; it had good energy. It didn’t take itself too seriously and the story moved along at a nice pace. Secondly, it had great gore!! Kane killed the twenty-somethings in creative, bloody ways and this was SEE NO EVIL’s only saving grave. Since the producers had eight years to think about it, I’m sure SEE NO EVIL 2 corrected all the sins of its predecessor to deliver a better product. Right?

I’d like to say that happened, I really would. Unfortunately SEE NO EVIL 2 is more stale and formulaic than the original and it lacks the energy and gore that made the original one moderately fun. So what the hell happened?

SEE NO EVIL 2 begins like many horror sequels of yesteryear … with the “dead” body of the killer being delivered to the morgue. Working the nightshift is Seth (Kaj-Erik Eriksen) and Amy (Danielle Harris). Amy is the sweet girl who is always cheery, always helpful, and not a big partier. In other words, she’s the “Final Girl.” This night also happens to be Amy’s birthday but when dead bodies start pouring into the morgue, Amy decides to stay late and help out Seth. The dead bodies are the victims of the first SEE NO EVIL and I liked how this one picks up right where the second one left off. But wow the writing is lazy!! Amy’s friends weren’t happy that she couldn’t go to her own party so they brought the party to her. That’s right, they’re partying in the same morgue where the “corpse” of serial killer Jacob Goodnight is resting. Holden (Michael Eklund), the nighttime morgue supervisor, okay’s the party. Which again is in the morgue. The city morgue. uh, okay. What is this, 1985?

When the cast looks bored in the movie you know you’re in trouble!!

Amy’s friends are more dull than listening to thirty minutes of Jerry Seinfeld’s stand-up routine. There’s Amy’s older brother Will (Greyston Holt), Amy’s best friend Tamara (Katharine Isabelle), Tamara’s boyfriend Carter (Lee Majdoub), and the vapid blonde Kayla (Chelon Simmons), who has a crush on Will and seems to only be in the cast to fill the role of the “dumb blonde.” These supporting cast members are, simply put, awful. Their acting is wooden and their dialogue is laughable and cringe0-inducing. Now I know what you’re going to say: “But surely Katharine Isabelle is the standout actor among them all.” You couldn’t be more wrong!! The Soska Sisters directed the 2012 film AMERICAN MARY, which made my “worst of” list of that year, which starred Katharine Isabelle. In that review I noted that Isabelle was completely out of her league and was unable to carry that film as it’s lead. So I was happy to see that Isabelle took a supporting role in SEE NO EVIL 2. Except her performance here is one of the worst performances I’ve seen this year. She is truly awful and brings the entire film to a grinding halt whenever she appears on screen. It was one of those performances where as the viewer you actually get embarrassed for her. Yikes!! In her defense, Isabelle didn’t have much to work with as far as her character went. “Tamara” is a horribly conceived and fleshed out character. Tamara loves death and dead bodies and when she finds out that Jacob Goodnight’s body is in the morgue she drags her boyfriend to check it out. First she gets half naked, straddles Jacob’s dead body, and then kisses him. Then she gets horny so she and Carter have sex next to it which disturbs old Jacob and proceeds to wake him up. That is pretty much the extent of Tamara’s character arc!! It’ll be no surprise that she’s one of the first victims of Jacob and she has an onscreen death scene that makes William Shatner look like Sir Laurence Olivier!!

Yes … that’s Katharine Isabelle straddling & making out with a corpse!!

After Jacob wakes up, the writer really kicks it into “standard slasher fare” gear. Jacob chases them around the morgue killing them one by one. In the first film, Jacob was sans a mask, but writers Nathan Brookes and Bobby Lee Darby wanted to make sure they hit every slasher cliche and they have Jacob wear a mask … which he proceeds to remove for no reason!! The gore is largely done off screen so we don’t even get that element. There’s a couple decent kills but the majority of them are pretty boring and uncreative. I think the writers originally wanted SEE NO EVIL 2 to be set in the woods and there must have been a last minute change. Why? How else can you explain why the hallways of the city morgue are so dark and foggy?? And you’re going to tell me that out of this group of twenty-somethings, not one of them has a cell phone? The script is full of noticeable holes due to lazy writing. And speaking of “lazy,” even Danielle Harris looks extremely bored as she goes through the motions of being chased around by yet another masked killer.

It’s good to have choices!!

But perhaps most disappointing of all is the directing. There’s absolutely no energy in this film. The Soska Sisters exploded onto the scene back in 2009 with the indie micro-budget film, DEAD HOOKER IN A TRUNK. That film was funny, bloody, action-packed, and energetic. They followed that up with the horrible AMERICAN MARY, a completely forgettable entry in the horror anthology, THE ABCs OF DEATH 2 (“T is for Torture Porn”), and now SEE NO EVIL 2. What they hell are these sisters doing to their career? They’re either making terrible career choices or else DEAD HOOKER IN A TRUNK was a fluke. There’s nothing notable as far as the directing goes. Any schmuck could’ve directed this film; it’s so generic!! As the opening credits rolled and the “Directed by” the Soska’s filled the screen, the twins made a cameo as two dead bodies on slabs in the morgue. Unfortunately that’s exactly how they directed SEE NO EVIL 2. It’s lifeless and boring. Skip this one!!

My Summary:

Directors: the Soska Sisters

Plot: 1 out of 5 stars

Gore: 4.5 out of 10 skulls

Zombie Mayhem: 0 out of 5 brains

Reviewed by Scott Shoyer

Stay Bloody!!!

I can’t stress enough how stupid Katharine Isabelle’s character was!!

Isabelle’s entire role here was to get half naked & tongue-fuck a corpse!!

Well here we are at the end of yet another year. 2014 was full of surprises and, unfortunately, huge disappointments in the horror genre. The bad horror films were absolutely horrible while the top horror films were fantastic. There were very few films that were “middle of the road.”

But here’s my list for the Worst Horror films of 2014. I know all these year end lists are subjective, but I think I explain in my full reviews exactly why I think they openly suck (I included the link to the full review). As always, I love all your comments!! This list is in no particular order … I hated all these films equally!!

WOLF CREEK 2

I loved the original WOLF CREEK!! I couldn’t wait to see this follow up and see how writer-director Greg McLean evolved the character of Mick Taylor. The answer: He turned Mick Taylor into a racist xenophobe. This film was so bad that it took me about four drafts until I was semi-happy with how I articulated my hatred for it. The dialogue was ridiculous, the plot was silly, and the ending was just plain stupid. WOLD CREEK 2 proves that lightening rarely strikes twice!!

I, FRANKENSTEIN

My note to any and all studios who want to reinvent/remake the classic Universal monsters: STOP MAKING THEM ACTION HEROS!!! This trend is worse that the sequel, remake, and 3D trends put together. DRACULA UNTOLD did it, but the worse example by far is I, FRANKENSTEIN. An unnecessarily convoluted script with Frankenstein’s monster as a handsome, square-jawed, athletic, and agile action hero. And I won’t even mention the over-used, shitty CGI!! I hated every second of this film.

BIGFOOT WARS

If the intention of the filmmakers here was to take one of the bloodiest, goriest, violent novel series about a war between humanity and Bigfoots and turn it into a thrill-less, blood-less, boring, terribly written and acted movie, then the “brains” behind BIGFOOT WARS succeeded!! This movie, in addition to being one of the worst films of 2014, was the biggest disappointment I experienced of the year. The series of books this is based on, “Bigfoot War” by Eric S. Brown, is an amazing series. What did the filmmakers do to it? They turned that series of books into a Bigfoot version of HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP. I’d rather be violated by a fish monster than watch this shit-fest again!!

SEE NO EVIL 2

The Soska Sisters are back and they once again prove that DEAD HOOKER IN A TRUNK was a fluke. After last years highly disappointing AMERICAN MARY, the Sisters have teamed up with WWE Studios to prove that no matter where they go generic story lines and predictable plots follow. There’s just nothing interesting going on in this film. I thought Kane, the pro-wrestler, was decent in the role of the killer but the surrounding story was just so yawn-inducing that he had nothing to work with. Even the presence of a very bored looking Danielle Harris couldn’t save this one. This film also has the distinction of having the worst  performance in any horror film of 2014. Katherine Isabelle’s performance is so bad that I was embarrassed for her. Yikes!! It looks like the Soska Sisters’ next two films will be action flicks. Good. They’ve proven they have no business being in the horror genre!!

OCULUS

OCULUS us one of the rare films that Deggsy and I disagreed on this year. Deggsy loved it (his review here) and I hated it. My main problem with it was that I was bored to tears. Nothing happens in this film and it takes writer-director Mike Flanagan a long time to do nothing. I just don’t find mirrors scary and I find entire films based on ‘evil mirrors’ even less scary. I hated 2008’s MIRRORS and I hate 2014’s OCULUS. I’d rather watch DEATH BED: THE BED THAT EATS PEOPLE again rather than sit through OCULUS!!

WRONG TURN 6: LAST RESORT

This one hurt … a lot. It hurt so much because I love this franchise. Previous entries proved to be excessively gory and violent and a whole lot of fun. This sixth film was just boring. The kills were mildly gory but we’re also pretty standard. They story was also a snoozer. Both writer Frank H. Woodward and director Valeri Milev completely missed and screwed up what makes a great WRONG TURN film. I’m hoping they make another one and get back to what made this franchise so much fun to begin with!!

LATE PHASES

I can just hear the pitch for this film:

Filmmakers: we want to make a werewolf film about an aged, handicapped protagonist who has to fight off a werewolf but no one believes him and he’s not exactly sure who the werewolf is.
Studio: uuhhh … that kinda sounds like SILVER BULLET. Actually it sounds exactly like SILVER BULLET.
Filmmakers: what’s your point?

Go watch SILVER BULLET instead.

BLOOD WIDOW

What do you get when you take a group of stereotypical, cookie-cutter characters, put them in an isolated location in the woods, and give them a killer with a motivation that’s thinner than Karen Carpenter? You get BLOOD WIDOW. But the biggest sin this film commits is that it’s sooooooo slow and boring. At one point during the film I actually started dusting my family room as I watched this film because I was so bored.

MOCKINGBIRD

From the same director (Bryan Bertino) that gave us 2008’s, THE STRANGERS (which I also didn’t like), comes MOCKINGBIRD. The film starts off promising enough but soon evaporates into … nothing. This is yet another film where nothing happens. Seriously … literally nothing happens. There’s not even enough action in this film to fill a fifteen minute short, nonetheless an eighty-one minute feature. Add to this some really dumb characters and dialogue and you have yourself a feature length yawn. Blech!!

DON’T BLINK

DON’T BLINK is another film with a promising set up that ultimately goes nowhere and leaves the viewer feeling more empty than after a high colonic. A group of friends get stranded in what seems to be an abandoned resort and turn on each other faster than a fat guy jumps on a brownie. Then they all start disappearing one by one. But the filmmakers here have the last laugh as they never even give the viewer a hint of either the explanation or cause of the disappearances. This one has a great set up but is horribly executed!!

Special Mentions:

I usually don’t do this, but there were two films in 2014 that deserve to be singled out for their crapulence (is that even a word?). Here they are:

ALMOST HUMAN

This film was made in 2013 but was released in 2014 and gets my award for the most shameful film of 2014. This film steals so heavily from other sci-fi films that I’m surprised writer-director Joe Begos hasn’t been sued!! I’m not talking about Begos borrowing themes from other sci-fi films. No no no. Begos steals entire scenes from other better films. You’ll immediately recognize whole scenes from FIRE IN THE SKY, THE X-FILES, THE THING, and INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, to name a few. It’s shameful and Begos shouldn’t be rewarded for his blatant plagiarism. As I wrote in my review, “ALMOST HUMAN should be titled, ALREADY SEEN.”

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE MARKED ONES

I don’t blame writer-director Christopher Landon, I really don’t. I blame myself for thinking … no, expecting … something different from this franchise. I enjoyed the first two PARANORMAL ACTIVITY films even though they were pretty much identical. The third was ridiculous and was yet another remake of the first film (the same shit happens all over again). The fourth film was, I thought, completely forgettable altogether. So why the hell would I expect the fifth film, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE MARKED ONES, to be any different?

It isn’t.

My bad.

There it is. That’s my list of the worst horror films of 2014. Of course these are just the films I’ve seen. Now that I have Deggsy also watching and reviewing horror films I don’t have to watch every shitfest out there!! What shitty horror films of 2014 did I miss? Which films shouldn’t be on my list at all? Leave me your comments below.

Stay Bloody!!!

They’ve made their mark on film and now  (a.k.a., the Soska Sisters) are hoping to make their mark on the world of graphic novels. Check out the press release:

Needless to say, we’ve been at it again. It’s no secret that a major influence on us and our work have been graphic novels. We truly feel some of the greatest stories ever told have been through them. They exist, by in large, without censorship and without budgets, allowing some of the most provocative, unapologetic, honest, and unforgettable story telling there is limited only by their creators’ imaginations. 

Today is a glorious and happy day for us as we announce our very first original graphic novel, KILL-CRAZY NYMPHOS ATTACK!, our collaboration with one of our favorite and most inspirational graphic novelists of all time, Daniel Way.Kill-Crazy Nymphos Attack! is an original graphic novel presented in a grindhouse/exploitation film style. It’s irreverent and raw but, at the same time, it’s a story–an actual story with a beginning, middle and end–that’s infused with relevant social commentary. 

The story centers upon Purvis Gunt, a malcontent and pervert who works at a pharmaceutical lab. Purvis is obsessed with having rampant, porno-style sex with nearly every woman he sees but it’s never gonna happen for him because, in addition to the fact that he’s married, he’s revolting in every possible way. So he turns to science for a way to cheat the situation, using the resources of the pharmaceutical lab to create something that will cause women to lose any and all inhibition or restraint and fill them with uncontrollable lust. Purvis, however, is a terrible scientist. What he cooks up is a virus that fills women with not only a lust for sex…but for blood.

When the virus gets out and infects the female population of the small town where Purvis lives, carnage ensues and it’s up to Purvis, disgraced priest Father Osorio and super macho but sexually ambiguous SWAT officer Mack Diesel to contain the situation before woman-hating US President Pole drops a nuke on the whole goddamn mess.

Interior art by Rob Dumo, cover by Dave Johnson, and colors by Joe Totti.

As with our films, you’ll see us tackle some serious social and gender issues in a loud, take no prisoners, whimsical, and altogether maniacal manner. The graphic novel will be filled with iconic, complex, cosplayable characters, including ourselves, for the first time, appearing in graphic novel form as the “Sister Sisters“.

This project is in full creative control of ourselves and the brilliant Daniel Way, so we’ll be launching it via Kickstarter. The Kickstarter is more of an online store where we are offering exclusive items and experiences that are only possible by donating. Our incentives are our way of giving back to our fans who have been so incredibly supportive of us and our work. 

And KILL-CRAZY NYMPHOS ATTACKS! is exactly the unadulterated insanity free from any restrictions, creatively or budget wise, that our audiences have been waiting for. 

Our campaign launches tomorrow, but you’re special, so you get a sneak peak (lucky you), so here’s an advanced look at our campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1556892230/602405601?token=2b2927cf

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Daniel Way: After being awarded a Xeric grant in 2000 for his first self-published work, “Violent Lifestyle”, Daniel Way was immediately approached by Marvel Comics and asked to contribute to the Spider-Man series, “Tangled Web”. Over the next 14 years, Way wrote nearly all of Marvel’s major characters, including lengthy runs on “Wolverine: Origins” and “Deadpool”, a series for which he wrote a record number of issues. In addition, Way was the lead writer for Activision’s Deadpool videogame, released in 2013. A lifelong fan of horror and exploitation films, Daniel is excited to bring his wildly irreverent, darkly humorous and action-packed style of writing to this project.

Stay Bloody!!!