Excision
Starring: Analynne McCord, Traci Lords, Ariel Winter, Roger Bart, Jeremy Sumpter
Director: Richard Bates, Jr.
Rating: 1/5
Excision is being billed as a horror as well as a comedy and if I am being totally honest it isn't really either.
It is a dark comedy but even that is a big of a stretch and while there is some gore I wouldn't go as far as calling it a horror - or maybe I just have a stronger stomach than some.
Excision is the story of Pauline (McCord), a delusional teenage outcast. Pauline picks scabs. Pauline dissects road kill. Pauline fantasizes about performing surgery on strangers.
Her fascinations disturb her schoolmates and her parents, Phyllis (Lords) and Bob (Bart). No one understands Pauline except for Grace (Winter), her younger sister who suffers from cystic fibrosis.
An outcast at school and at home, Pauline is convinced that the best way to repair her estranged relationship with her family is to perform a risky operation to save her
sister’s life...
This movie is just flat out odd and it really will not be to the taste of everyone however it is a great central turn from Analynne McCord.
The actress is almost unrecognisable as the downtrodden and yet slightly psychotic Pauline, who has very unrealistic dreams of becoming a surgeon.
McCord really does carry this movie as she tries her best not to fit in at school as well as having a poor relationship with her mother.
This central relationship between Pauline and her mother really does drive this movie forward and Traci Lord is fantastic as the overbearing mother - it really is a great turn from the actress.
While the issues are a little over the top in the movie Excision does explore themes of being an outsider, teenage angst, as well as difficulties at home.
The film flicks between Pauline's everyday life and her rather violent and sexual fantasies - and this really lets the audience into the mind of this incredibly troubled girl.
However the climax of this movie is a little rushed, predictable as well as a little disappointing - it doesn't quite have the knockout punch that the director was looking for.
Excision is a movie that does have cult hit written all over it but it was a movie that just did not work for me.
The pacing was rather laboured and it felt long for a movie that has a run time of less than ninety minutes.
There is not doubt that this movie is bold and brave but it loses momentum less than half way through and peeters our rather than ending with a bang.
Excision is out now
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw