Excision ★★★½

FOR some reason it wasn’t until the last year or so that I started noticing the striking cover for a horror film called Excision.

Perhaps it coincided with a belated release for this 2012 American film on streaming services.

Anyway, Richard Bates Jnr’s debut feature is an entertaining mix of horror and black comedy that punches well above its relatively low-budget weight.

Along the lines of off-beat films like Heathers and Donnie Darko, our protagonist is a precocious goth high school student with a dysfunctional family and unrealistic dreams of becoming a surgeon.

Actually, Pauline’s dreams are more like nightmares with horrific scenes of death and dismemberment, including of people she knows.

Her fascination with blood extends outside the dreams to experimenting on animals and trying to lose her virginity while on her period.

Yep, it’s a little out there, but there is something also light-hearted in not just the overall approach but also the stylistic depiction of gore and AnnaLynne McCord’s playful lead performance that lifts the film considerably.

There’s also a bunch of quirky and engaging supporting characters played by the likes of former porn star Traci Lords, Roger Bart from Hostel 2, Jeremy Sumpter, Malcolm McDowell, Matthew Gray Gubler, Marlee Matlin and John Waters.

It’s a lot of fun and will have me searching for Bates’ subsequent films.

Watched on Prime.