Excision (2012)

July 27, 2018

Directed by: Richard Bates Jr.

Written by: Richard Bates Jr.

Starring: AnnaLynne McCord, Roger Bart, Ariel Winter

Quote:"Solely based on the definition, I don't know a teenager that doesn't profile as a sociopath."

Trivia: AnnaLynne McCord really did shave her head for the final scene.






Excision is one of the grossest and weirdest movies in the best possible way. At its heart, it is a coming of age story of a high school girl named Pauline (AnnaLynne McCord) who wants to become and surgeon and has sexual fantasy's of blood and death. The fantasies are extremely gory with excessive amounts of blood mixed with sexuality and power. The power and beauty that Pauline possesses in her fantasies are in stark contrast to the isolated world that she has created for herself in reality. While much of the film is intended to horrify, there really is something beautiful to the shots.

The movie opens one of Pauline's fantasies where she is staring at another version of herself that at first is spitting up blood but quickly becomes a torrential vomit of gore. During the fantasies, the filmmakers use a mostly unadorned set with a vividly blue background and everyone is dressed in clean white. This really brings out the red of the blood and makes for stunning imagery. It reminds me somewhat of Dario Argento's film with the almost technicolor vividness of the primary colors.

In the real world, Pauline's mom (Traci Lords!) is a bossy woman who seems to be at her wits end of what to do with Pauline while her sister is slowly dying of cystic fibrosis, and her father demurely submits to his wife's demands. Pauline doesn't have any friends and seems to go out of her way to push people away with her odd comments and bizarre behavior. Pauline ends therapy with her shrink (John Waters!) because she feels that she knows his field better than he does. Later she decides she wants to lose her virginity while on her period. She finds a guy and tricks him into going down on her which he of freaks out about. Eventually Pauline gets kicked out of school when the kid she beats up the ex-girlfriend of the guy she had sex with after she vandalizes her house.

It is great seeing Traci Lords and John Waters, two of my favorite actors/director in the film. Traci Lords is incredible as the overbearing mother and wife. Her performance makes it apparent that she is unable to handle the stress of her situation and vents in not-so-positive ways. John Waters is, of course, incredible as the psychologist. Pauline's delusional state makes it impossible for him to help her and he is forced to sit back and watch as she self destructs.

The movie climaxes when Pauline's delusions become more extreme leading her to drugging a neighborhood girl and her sister, shaving her own head, and performing a lung transplant as an attempt to save her sister's life. This, of course results in two dead bodies, a garage covered in blood and a heartbreaking scene with the mom holding Pauline while both scream and cry.

This final scene really is heartbreaking because Pauline was trying to save her sister and seemed so proud of the work she did on the girls' bodies. Upon being discovered by her mom, Pauline asks her to look at the sticking. As the mom hugs her and screams histerically, Pauline at first seems proud. Slowly the pride in her face turns to sobs and she realizes what she did. This moment of clarity is painful to watch.

The blood, guts, decapitations, and other gore of Pauline's fantasies are meant to be disgusting and shocking but they are shot in such a way that they have a fascinating almost beautiful quality to them. The fact that they are the fantasies of a teenage girl make it that much more fascinating.

The disturbed nature of a teenage girl whose brain associates visceral bodily gore with sexuality make the film a bit difficult to watch at points but certainly will be a movie I will never forget. Writing this three days later, I find myself thinking about certain scenes. The movie is well written, well acted, well directed, and the art department did just an brilliant job with the fantasy sequences.