outrage that precipitates revenge and pushes emotions beyond the norm into some annex of Magic Realism. The whole look of the film, beginning with and follow- ing the party sequence, is argu- ably delirious because it is post-traumatic. This aspect is nowhere better illustrated than in the case of Mary’s surreal meet- ing with two wealthy “Demon Twins from Berlin,” played by the Soskas themselves, who are al- ready experienced at body modi- fication—their teeth are filed, their backs are hooped and laced, as in the manner shown by Björk’s “Pagan Poetry” video— and want to prove their devotion to one another by surgically swapping left arms, while going under the knife for a more deco- rative procedure involving the addition of horns.
If the film has any fault at all, it’s in the almost random se- quence of events (practically a sequence of event) deciding Mary’s fate. While beautifully (in- deed, operatically) staged and shot, the events of the finale are related to too tenuous an earlier scene to be fully meaningful. An attempt is made to underline it with a hasty flashback, but in terms of the story told, it’s more of a dropped stitch than the flam- boyant bow this film deserves to have tied around it.
It seems diminishing to chart the Soskas’ stylistic debts, but there are certainly elements of AUDITION, Clive Barker’s HELL- RAISER (Billy’s surname was “a shout-out”), David Cronenberg’s DEAD RINGERS, Georges Fran- ju’s EYES WITHOUT A FACE and Koji Shiraishi’s GROTESQUE to be found here, to name a few. Brian Pearson’s 2.40:1 cinema- tography, which made use of two Red Pro 5.0 cameras, is remark- ably well-textured and filmic, and Bruce MacKinnon’s editing is confident and non-obtrusive,
favoring single set-ups as much as possible to allow the perfor- mances their integrity and the production its economy. Peter Allen’s score leans on effective, original variations of “Ave Maria” and contemporary source music often laceratingly romantic or sexual in nature (Luisa Pepe’s “My Suicide”, Kevin James Maher’s “Want Your Body”). The DTS Master Audio 5.1 mix is lim- ited in its uses of surround and rear channel effects, seldom more than mild accenting to a central strong stereo mix, but hardly detracting from the im- pact of one of the most accom- plished sophomore acts since Tarantino’s PULP FICTION. XLRator/Anchor Bay’s do- mestic BD/DVD releases were preceded by Universal/Indi- Vision’s UK edition by six months and the two releases are surpris- ingly different. The IndiVision BD gives the film its definitive pre- sentation, with sexy, luminous colors and the kind of blacks you’d find in a velvet painting. It looks gorgeous. It’s a shame to report this, because I want very much to recommend the domes- tic disc, but XLRator’s version tones the colors and blacks down to a duskier, pastel template that robs the film of a great deal of its seductive impact. The blood, too, looks pastier and less con- vincing. Both discs offer the aforementioned 5.1 DTS sur- round mix and English subtitles, with the import also including a 5.1 German DTS surround dub. The two discs share only one supplement in common, an en- joyable “Behind the Scenes” montage (17m 32s), which cap- tures the atmosphere of an ap- parently joyous film set as well as some revealing footage of the Soskas undergoing their full- body makeup for their acting scene. The UK disc adds “AMERI- CAN MARY In London” (11m 52s),
which documents the Soskas’ attendance at Frightfest, where the film had its UK premiere in August 2012. Meanwhile, the US/ Canadian disc includes a full- length audio commentary by Jen and Sylvia Soska, Katharine Isabelle and co-star Tristan Risk. It’s not always obvious which Soska is speaking, and not al- ways easy to hear Isabelle (who phones in her portion with a bad connection and laryngytis), but it’s a light-hearted, funny and in- structive talk all around. Risk ex- plains that her voice came from Ellen Greene in the LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS musical, not Betty Boop (or Butterfly McQueen), but she was evidently the Betty Boop authority on the production and steeped the Soskas in her lore, which explains a passing refer- ence to “Jippo”—the magical all- purpose drink sold off the back of a truck by the character in the cartoon “Betty Boop M.D.” (1932). No budget is mentioned, but it is confided that much of the crew donated their services for hugs and a credit, and one of the Soskas admits to waiting tables until two weeks before pro- duction and rewarding the only co-worker who didn’t scoff at her talk of prepping a feature film with a small part. While there’s some indulgence in gushing over favorite scenes, shots and ward- robe (“Honey, you look like tits on toast!” they praise their star in one of her best scenes), the directors are forthcoming about their influences and subtexts, pointing out—among other things—that Mary first drinks bourbon at the rape party and only drinks bourbon thereafter, and that Lance’s dialogue scene is as impressive as it is because it contradicts assumptions the viewer has made about him be- cause of his imposing body type, biker hair and leathery presenta- tion. (The advertising tagline for
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