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Feminist Film Club: American Mary

December 4, 2015

It’s really, really hard to be a feminist and a horror movie fan. It’s not very often you can enjoy a horror movie where feminist themes are explored. I don’t think we’ll ever find the perfect feminist horror movie, but American Mary is a good start.

 

**TRIGGER WARNING** This film and review includes references to sexual assault and rape.

SUMMARY

 Mary Mason is lured into a world of freakish surgeries for easy money.

REVIEW

Rape is a topic that unsettles many and rightfully so; it’s a horrendous act. But like other things that make us uncomfortable, they need to be represented and explored. Otherwise, we’d never know how to deal with them and it’s important that survivors know they are more than just ‘victims’. Of course, it is very easy for me to say this as this has never happened to me, but I do think it’s a good thing when life after horrendous acts is represented.

 

For too long now, rape has been used as a trend in both cinema and television, by which I mean it does nothing to drive the plot forward. I’m talking about Game of Thrones and American Horror Story, where there is rape scene after rape scene. It’s just there for the sake of it and can be triggering for some. This rape scene is different for two reasons: there is a lack of nudity and it plays a big part in Mary’s character development. The lack of nudity is important here because by focusing on Mary’s face, directing duo The Soska Sisters are highlighting the disgusting nature of this act.

 

I think a lot of us can relate to Mary in a way, she faces so many obstacles and refuses to give up. The Soska Sisters both identify as feminists, so it’s very easy to take Mary’s story as a comment on society. Mary, The Soska Sisters, and myself aren’t going to wait around for sexism, racism, or whatever obstacle to subside or get in the way of opportunities. For too long, horror has been known as man’s game and The Soska Sisters are changing that with their feminist Final Girl.
WHAT DID OTHERS THINK?

ALEXMy love affair with American Mary began the day it appeared on my “suggested” Netflix feed, my only point of reference being Katherine Isabelle – the menstruating teenage werewolf from Ginger Snaps. Obviously, I gave it a go.

I hate torture-based horror. I don’t jive with needle gags, slicing open of achillles tendons, scalpel cuts – you know the stuff. I had no idea who The Soska Sisters were, and a general fear of director teams that go by odd monikers.

As it turns out, they were the auteurs of one of the most original and brilliant pieces of horror filmmaking I’ve seen in the last decade. And richly, fabulously feminist, too. I was, and am (with five viewings under my belt), entranced by its blood, guts, gore, and elegant wave of the scalpel. It hasn’t changed my mind about the torture sub-genre (and for many fans, this is a light entry), but it has shown me what the best of it is capable of.

The movie is brutal and bloody, but balanced with a kindness toward its characters (at least, those it deems deserving of kindness) that I haven’t seen before. Mary is not an altogether “together” girl – one might say, she’s the bad guy. But she is also the final girl, the hero, the victim, and a self-employed chick trying to get by. She is all of us. Her story is universal. Except maybe for her fantastic way with medical equipment.

Anyone can write horror. But women are often only victim to it, not in charge of it. Mary’s story isn’t just about a surgical student coming to terms with, and becoming the boss of, her own reality – it’s the story of its own creators. I have to believe, as a film writer and horror fan, that what The Soska Sisters are saying in American Mary is that enough is enough. Women deserve their place in filmmaking, in the workplace, in life. And if they won’t give it to us, who’s to say we can’t stand up, put on the black leather apron, and do it ourselves?

Even if you don’t love horror, put on your blood-and-guts blinders for 90 minutes and give this one a shot. Its confrontational attitude and body positive atmosphere will surely give you a bunch of feminist feels.

– Alex Landers (@1CriticalBitch)
One Critical Bitch

 

FFC PhotoI love horror films, but American Mary doesn’t seem like one to me. The film seems more like a dark drama with gore. The film’s protagonist, Mary Marson, is a medical student who studies her craft day and night. Although she is dedicated, there is an air of vulnerability present – especially when she is around her Professor.

Mary’s determination is a driving force of the film and something I love about her. When her debt is rising, she takes things into her own hands. After falling into underground surgeries, she starts her own body modification business.

Even when Mary is brutally attacked, she doesn’t play the victim. Instead, she proves to her Professor that she is an excellent surgeon and gets her revenge all at the same time. The best example of her determination comes at the end of the movie, when she tries to sew her wound before bleeding out.

I believe that filmmakers in this genre could learn something from The Soska Sisters and American Mary. The film is a brilliant example of how women don’t just have to be the victims or there for the male gaze.

However, I’d like to see less sexual assault please.

Lynell Marie (@lynellmarie)
The Sun Glasses Effect
AmericanMaryIllustration

taylorAs a survivor of sexual assault myself, I usually repudiate any film or television programme that shows a rape scene. Nine times out of ten, it isn’t pertinent to the plot and is very triggering to those who have experienced similar traumas. However, for American Mary, it is the turning point of the film that leads us into the world of revenge against her assailant.

You would think it would be difficult to sport the term “feminist” when the genre of the film is horror and sexual deviancy. Usually we rally so hard against the glorification of violence and the exploitation of women. But American Mary flips the script from the usual horror trope of helpless girl to strong, intelligent, and powerful woman. 

Shortly after beginning her residency at a hospital with seemingly reputable and integrated medical professionals, she is invited to a “surgeon party”. Surgeon, being a predominately male profession, she finds herself in a high rise surrounded by established male doctors and presumed sex workers. You instantly get a gut feeling of intuition that Mary is not safe and these surgeons are not as clean cut as they appear to be. After her drink is drugged by another doctor, her main instructor then proceeds to take advantage of Mary and films the assault.

This is where the plot unfolds. Mary returns to the club and takes revenge on her rapist by performing every obscure body modification she can scheme. Including genital mutilation, a metaphorical power switch against the atrocities that have been done unto her and other unsuspecting women.

Past this point though, the movie begins to get muddled. There is no furthering of the plot by having her work in a rundown strip club, she seems to become obsessed with torture and the body modification of consenting and paying clients. Mary’s personality seems to go from 1 to 100. Obviously this is a horror film and what fun would a horror film be without the twisted gore we have become all too accustomed to? Although going from completely well adjusted to a state of psychosis is not completely unheard of, I felt it took away the power Mary once held and turned it into her life becoming out of control.

Although not stated, she is presented in a way that seems as though, psychologically, she has developed intermittent explosive disorder. This leads to stigmas about mental health issues needing to be punished. As it seems the more aggressive she gets, the more she has to pay for her actions presenting themselves outside of the body mod and torture business she has become a celebrity in. She has left her promising life as a potential surgeon and although done in a metaphorical and extreme manner, the rape that was inflicted upon her has made her lose her sense of self, health, and happiness.

– Taylor Irezumi (@wifidevil)

 

This has been our most interesting Film Club post yet! Massive thank you to Alex for this ace painting of Mary herself.
EDIT: The Twisted Twins themselves enjoyed our write-up!

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Feminist Film Club · 14 Comments

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Comments

  1. Acadiana'sThriftyMom (@acadianathrifty) says

    December 4, 2015 at 12:57 pm

    WOW! I love all of the great insight from these women about the film.

    Reply
  2. Jessica Beal Harlow says

    December 4, 2015 at 1:50 pm

    I like horror genre films, but you are so right, there aren’t a lot that have strong female leads. I really enjoyed reading the different perspectives of this film and it sounds like a movie I’d enjoy. American Mary is on my viewing list!

    Reply
  3. serenityyou says

    December 4, 2015 at 5:21 pm

    I have actually watched this film and although it was quite strange I really enjoyed it.

    Reply
  4. Sarah Bailey says

    December 4, 2015 at 10:10 pm

    I have to admit I found American Mary quite hard to watch, not because of the horror but because of what she was put through that took her to that point – it is quite a good film though I have to say. x

    Reply
  5. fashionandstylepolice says

    December 5, 2015 at 10:32 am

    I am off to check this movie out on Netflix.

    Reply
  6. Ana De Jesus says

    December 5, 2015 at 10:40 am

    I do like the horror genre but as a feminist shows such as AHS make me feel very uncomfortable because it seems that women are sexualized even when they are being raped and tortured which in my eyes is fulfilling a perverse patriarchal fantasy.

    Reply
  7. Meg Siobhan says

    December 5, 2015 at 12:10 pm

    I’ll have to check this out sometime as it does sound like an interesting film, especially with the fact it actually has a female lead! Also, love Katherine as Margot in Hannibal.

    Reply
  8. Fuss Free Helen says

    December 5, 2015 at 12:38 pm

    Horror really is not my thing at all, but you have raised some interesting points to think about and mull over.

    Reply
  9. Rachel says

    December 5, 2015 at 5:45 pm

    Really good point about horror movies and the female role, I hadn’t really put much thought into it x

    Reply
  10. themummybalancingact says

    December 6, 2015 at 12:11 am

    I have seen this movie with my husband a while ago. I think after reading other peoples opinions I might need to watch it again. x

    Reply
  11. Ali says

    December 6, 2015 at 8:07 am

    I’m not sure I like the idea of this film. Since I have become a mother I can’t stand horror films. Sounds like it brings up some interesting issues though.

    Reply
  12. Ickle Pickle (@IcklePicklex) says

    December 6, 2015 at 7:15 pm

    I don’t think this is my sort of film – but you write a great review and explore the film so well. Kaz x

    Reply
  13. Agata @ BarkTime (@AgataPokutycka) says

    December 6, 2015 at 9:53 pm

    I haven’t seen the movie but it sounds like something I should watch… I would like to see how she is dealing with it all.

    Reply
  14. Rebecca Smith says

    December 8, 2015 at 2:37 pm

    I haven’t seen the movie but I think it is something I would like to watch having read your reviews.

    Reply

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