8/18/2013
*Contains Spoilers*
"Excision" is an exercise in angsty teen horror. A shocker with many disturbing images in the shell of a well-worn story. Actress AnnaLynne McCord goes "ugly" for her role as Pauline, a frumpy social outcast at school and at home. Her younger sister Gracie is the favorite daughter who gets all of her parents and not just because she has cystic fibrosis. Pauline's parents are pretty well cast with Traci Lords and Roger Bart (Hostel Part 2) chewing the scenery. Lords play the frosty evil bitch mother to Bart's weak and emasculated father to great effect. Overall the movie is very well cast.. "The" John Waters plays a small part as a repressed Catholic priest to dry comic perfection. There is also a cameo by Malcolm McDowell as a high school teacher.
Most of the horror and gory bits come from Pauline's demented dreams and fantasies. She bathes in blood, microwaves a fetus, you know regular teenage stuff. Although she gets bad grades and has no college plans, she dreams of becoming a surgeon with the ultimate goal of saving her sister. Along with the gory and surreal dream sequences, there are also cutaways to her in a church kneeling and talking to God, not really confessing her sins, but trying to defend her actions.
Pauline seems to hate everyone and everything except her sister. She openly provokes her classmates Although she does have a bit of sick fun in the process. She is eighteen and decides she wants to lose her virginity so she makes a no strings attached offer to a popular boy at school and they meet up at a motel. She happens to be on her period and has the guy go down on her. Needless to say, the guy is mortified. The movie revels in any kind of vulgarity it can think of with Pauline being the queen of gross.
When Gracie's condition takes a turn for the worse, Pauline must put her final plan into action whether she is ready or not. All those dreams and fantasies are now turning into reality and we see just how crazy and delusional she really is. A last-ditch effort to win the love and approval of her parents. "Excision" is an extreme version of the outcast teenage girl seen in countless other movies, but with pitch-black humor and a complete disregard to tastefulness. I applaud the boldness of director Richard Bates Jr.'s decisions and if you're a fan of the films of John Water's you will probably like this one.