LOGIN
REGISTER
RSS
HOME
Its nice to see Traci Lords playing against type...
Pauline has other desires and immoral doesn’t begin to describe them. Pauline longs to be a surgeon someday but it’s hardly a dream of hers to help mankind. Pauline’s dreams are filled with psycho-sexual imagery of necrophilia. When she asks her biology teacher if you can contract a sexually transmitted disease by having sex with a dead person, it tells you just about everything you need to know about her. Her dreams become more debauched, as she sees herself among masses of corpses, bathing in pools of blood, sending her into orgasmic glee.
Those around her that bully and treat her bad soon become the subject of her dreams and hallucinations. Her mother constantly berates her while her brow-beaten father generally tries to ignore everything. The only affection that Pauline has in her life is for her younger sister who suffers from Cystic Fibrosis which is getting worth by the day, finally leading to her requiring a lung transplant in order to survive. This leads into one of the most indescribable shock endings you are ever likely to see.
Excision boasts a remarkable cast of supporting actors including Traci Lords as the mom; Marlee Matlin as the Cotillion teacher; Malcolm McDowell as one of Pauline’s teachers; Ray Wise as the school principal; and John Waters as the church Pastor. While their roles are relatively short, they are all spot on and add their own unique influences. Lords is outstanding as the exasperated mother who is trying to turn Pauline into the perfect daughter. Wise also shines as the smiling, used car salesmen of a Principal. And John was a brilliant casting choice as the snarky Pastor who engages Pauline in tit-for-tat debate over ambiguous morals.
Still despite these outstanding supporting roles, the film hinges on the performance of AnnaLynee McCord as Pauline. It’s her film from beginning to end. She is almost in every scene in the film and without a strong performance from her, the film would collapse. She plays the role to perfection…never going over the top to become a caricature. She brings a sense of both dogged determination and childlike vulnerability to her performance. In her everyday life she is unappealing and frankly a bit repellent. Yet when she is in her dreams she becomes an object of adoration, a stunning, immoral dark beauty of gore that captivates the senses. While she is an extremely attractive woman she goes throughout the film sans makeup, face dotted with acne, hair dirty and unkempt, all of which makes her transformation that much more stunning.
Excision can be a bit slow paced but first-time Richard Bates, Jr., Director quickly rocks you back to attention. Not a film for the squeamish and definitely not a date night horror, but one those who are interested in quirky cinema should not miss.
So I see you corrected the mistakes, but strangely my comment about them is missing.
You know...just watched it and...sure it's a bit out there and lots of blood and it isn't for the faint of heart but one thing kept popping up in my mind during the movie...predictable.
The review talks about a shocking ending but in my mind...it's as if it was extremelly predictable.
Without giving out the ending, it was an interesting movie and the acting was suprisingly good (say what you will but Tracy Lord was excellent in this role) but a tad easy to guess in my book.
hey Jedi...well actually i did say "shock" ending...not surprise ending. I guess I wasn't referring to the surprise as much as I was the sheer visceral nature of the ending. The whole cast was very good but I really loved AnnaLynne McCord...she makes the whole thing go
Hey Tim,
No worries, I didn't mean my comment as a negative one but more of a comparaison that from my perspective, it wasn't as ''shocking'' as I though it would be.
AnnaLynne was great as mentionned...waaaaay too skinny but very good.
I was going to watch this for my 31 Fall Frights blog, but watched V/H/S instead. Wish I would have changed my mind. Aside from 2 pretty cool segments, the only thing I got from that flick was a severe case of nausea. :P