American Mary (2012)

Mary is a top-of-her-class surgical student who finds herself struggling with her finances and her overbearing lead professor. A chance encounter with a minor crime boss who needs someone to perform an emergency procedure leads Mary into a world of high-paying unliscenced surgeries.

Before long, Mary leaves medical school behind for a successful underground surgical practice in which she becomes something of a celebrity among "body modification" enthusiasts. But along with the money and noteriety comes a downward spiral paranoia, a detachment from humanity, and murder.

Despite some horrific imagery, particularly for the prudish out there, and unflinching closeups of surgical procedures, it's hard to classify American Mary as a "horror" movie. It's more of a crime thriller with a dash of "body horror" thrown in for flavor. But in this case, you can't reflexively attach the adjective that is most associated with body horror - "Cronenbergian."

American Mary eschews Cronenberg's otherworldly mutations and twisted plasticene flesh for a more down-to-Earth, realistic sensibility. After all, as unusual as the body modifications may be to most viewers, they are grounded in the real world. Somebody out there is into each of the modifications we see, I'm certain.

American Mary reminds me most of the 1993 oddity, Boxing Helena, for reasons that become obvious throughout the course of the movie. Beyond just the bizarre and grotesque surgeries, both movies share a theme of taking the power and control of your life in even the strangest, direst of circumstances. 

American Mary is a movie about owning yourself and choosing your own path. When we first meet Mary, her mind and talent for surgery are being held back by the societal conventions of school and the process of paying your dues. Only when she doesn't play by the rules does she come to embrace what she wants out of life. After too long a life of other people having power over her, she takes that power for herself and thrives. Of course, there are consequences for every action, and when those consequences come her way, the question becomes, "was it worth it?" It's up to you to decide.