Making a movie like this work is a delicate balancing act, and it almost worked, aside from the ending. The movie is really about an upper middle-class family - much like American Beauty - comprised of: a toxic mother, a codependent father, and the two sisters - Grace, and Pauline. Pauline is our lead character, and her story plays out like a coming-of-age indie comedy - like Welcome to the Dollhouse; she's smart, socially awkward, interested in biology, and has no friends aside from her little sister. The major issue with Excision is that there is no tonal center: Is it a drama? No, it's too weird. Is it a comedy? No, it's too dark. Is it an indie dark comedy? Sort of, until it goes off the rails in the third act, and dives headfirst into horror. [spoiler]Okay, consider that aside from the jammed-in fantasy/dream sequences, Pauline is very smart, and cares deeply for her sister. How much better would the ending have been if Grace was shown to have survived the surgery? Pauline would still have been a murderer - of the unwilling donor - yet it leaves us with some sympathy for her, knowing that she was completely misunderstood by everyone, but would do anything to help her sister, despite the consequences.[/spoiler]

Thought I should check this first before seeing King Knight. What a bizzare film. It's a hard-hitting look at the dangers of ignoring mental health, presented in the most disturbing and perverse way. It's wickedly funny, unpleasant, gross, in all the best ways. The surgical themes remind me of American Mary, but in here it examines the life of a mentally disturbed teenager with dreams of becoming a surgeon. The splice of psychosexual horror and dark humor work brilliantly here. The committed central performance by AnnaLynne McCord really elevates this film. The rebellious and morbid attitude of Pauline is perfectly potrayed by her. Also there's some interesting cameos if you're into horror.

Excision - ❤x6 The writing wasn't the greatest, there was some wooden and probably unintentionally funny dialogue in it. The ending was predictable. The gore factor was minimal (IMO). The reason to watch this tho is AnaaLynne McCord. Her performance alone makes this worth seeing. However, I do have a question. Why were Malcolm McDowell, Marlee Matlin, Matthew Gray Gubler, and to a lesser extent Ray Wise and John Waters in this movie? How I rate: 1-3 ❤ = seriously! don't waste your time 4-6 ❤ = you may or may not enjoy this 7-8 ❤ = I expect you will like this too 9-10 ❤ = movies and TV shows I really love!

Wasn't really paying attention to it at the start. Glad I got into it. A lot of weird and funny trash. Some disturbing gore stuff. Some of the dialogue had me laughing. I suppose it's a typical extreme weird outsider character movie, but things are above average. Good setting with an interesting family dynamic. The performances were all good. The dialogue was good. The ending was pretty sad and scary. It's like a gory version of a Todd Solondz movie.

Wow, that was... different. I didn't expect it to be this strange, brutal, and unexpected. Traci Lords acts quite well, and AnnaLynne McCord is stellar and really frightening. The part about her sister's illness hit me really hard because I lost an uncle 30 years ago to the same thing, and it still hurts. I'm not sure if I can suggest this to anyone, but if you like strange and brutal movies on the surreal side, you should definitely try this out!