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Not a typical horror or gore movie. Instead, this is a great pleading for why it is necessary to pay attention to your children, instead of ignoring the unpleasant things because they don't suit you. It's not one I would watch again, but it was definitely worth one trip into the minds of this family, the very kind of family we read about after some tragedy, and notice everyone says "They were such a good family. They seemed like such sweet children. Well, the older one was a little odd, but isn't any awkward girl just a little odd?"

This line is added to convince IMDb's review writing parameters that I have typed enough about this movie to satisfy everyone, including the fact that I was not privileged to see this at any kind of festival and have no obsession with following any particular directors, actors or producers outside of common knowledge.

Film about an 18 year girl called Pauline and her rather shocking dreams or fantasies of sex and death. She is also desperate to lose her virginity. AnnaLynne McCord plays the role and considering she is a model the make up team have done a good job of making her look, frankly, pretty ugly. Traci Lords, Malcolm McDowell & John Waters, a few famous cult names, also help make up the cast. Hard to classify this type of film. My TV guide, Wikipedia & IMDB all describe it as horror and it certainly has a lot of nightmarish stuff and gore going on. But it's also a teen drama, a black comedy and dare I say even a bit of an art movie. But whatever genre you want to label it as it's a shocking, strange but also riveting watch. Perhaps experience would be a better word. Certainly not for everyone & a strong stomach is advised but credit due for pushing the boundaries.

"Excision" is a consistently interesting concoction from the mind of writer / director Richard Bates Jr. Combining straight drama, horror, and very dark comedy, it's twisted to its core, with a very memorable character driving the plot forward.

That character is Pauline (AnnaLynne McCord, in an utterly fearless performance), a strange and off putting teenage girl living with a sister (Ariel Winter) who has cystic fibrosis, a reserved father (Roger Bart), and a demanding mother (long ago porn queen Traci Lords, who finally gets a chance to show some real acting chops) whose love Pauline desperately tries to win, while deluding herself into thinking she could have a career in surgery.

Some of the cast members (Malcolm McDowell, Ray Wise, Matthew Gray Gubler, John Waters (as a reverend!) and especially Oscar winner Marlee Matlin) have what amount to little more than cameo roles, but it's still nice to see all of these familiar faces. Anyway, McCord and Lords do a fine job of carrying the movie, and their scenes are uncomfortable as they're clearly meant to be yet undeniably compelling.

Bates sets his story in a typically placid looking suburbia which serves as an appropriate contrast to the bizarre psycho sexual elements of his plot. He serves up plenty of grotesque, bloody imagery for the horror crowd yet films it all in such a slick way that it's oddly beautiful. He takes full advantage of the 2.35:1 aspect ratio in which the movie is shot, considering the way he arranges actors and objects within the frame.

Adventuresome cult movie lovers tired of the soulless quality of bigger budgeted studio based productions should appreciate the daring with which Bates approaches this material. Once it's all over it's the kind of thing you *don't* easily forget; the ending is not that surprising but it's pretty devastating just the same.

Seven out of 10.

This film played as part of the 2012 Sydney Film Festival's "Freak Me Out" section. Director, Richard Bates Jr, set out to make a movie that he and his friends would have loved to watch in high school. This he's achieved and so much more.

From the outset, Excision seizes your attention, with its deliciously macabre imagery and malevolent audio track. Unfolding amidst the perfect banality of middle class suburbia, the stage is set for a savage assault on your sensibilities.

Annalynne McCord is fantastic as Pauline - the slouched, ragged, blemished, sociopathic, vexed atheist, sangrephile*, virgin with surgical aspirations and necrophilic fantasies.

In fairness, the entire cast is impressive. You need to keep in mind that this film is the debut feature for a 25 y/o and he claims that persistence worked a charm in signing the talent -- including an Academy Award Winner!

But it's the fantasy sequences that will leave you truly in awe of Excision. Pauline's dreams are tantalisingly lurid, so utterly vile -- yet shot so beautifully. Luminous and vibrant, these scenes impact and leave a stain that won't come out in a cold wash. In fact, at least one person passed out at the screening I attended -- for real.

Far from wallowing in this depravity, Excision succeeds in exploring complex relationships, themes of religious zealotry and how problematic being a self-taught expert can be. All this and a killer soundtrack to boot.

I have to add that I had the extraordinary privilege of enjoying the greatest Q&A session in Sydney Film Festival history! Richard Bates was "slightly intoxicated" and proceeded to share some outrageous stories with us all. It caused a slight scandal, but, given the content of the film we all came to watch, his conduct was completely acceptable. Moreover, it was rare to see a person be so genuine and hysterically funny.

With his next project in the works, Richard Bates Jr just might be a name to keep an eye out for. I mean, if Peter Jackson can start with Bad Taste...I'm just sayin'... ;)

More importantly, for those of you with a taste for twisted film making - Excision is a must see.

*sangrephile - I made this up because I couldn't find a word for someone who loves blood & isn't a vampire!

Excision is an artistically blood-soaked film that will have you squirm in your seat one moment and laugh in the next, thanks to its cleverly dark humor. I've never really seen a film quite like this as it's in its own league of twisted shenanigans. The most unique character study of 2012.

AnnaLynne McCord completely disappears into her character and gives an insanely off the wall, brilliant performance that will leave you bug-eyed. She plays Pauline, a disturbed 18-year-old high school student that has a strange fetish for blood. She desperately wants a career in the medical field and goes to the extreme to practice it, as she tries to get approval from her mother. Traci Lords also impressed me as the over controlling mom Phyllis, who tries hard to get through to her unbalanced daughter to no avail. She has a lot of layers to her character as she can be ruthless in one scene and caring in the next, I really felt sorry for her in the end. The rest of the cast was pretty impressive and you might recognize Ariel Winter from Modern Family who plays the younger sister Grace, who is ill with Cystic Fibrosis. The dad, Roger Bart plays Bob, he plays a helpless role of a guy stuck in the middle of the chaos. There are also appearances from John Waters, Malcolm McDowell and Marlee Matlin, which was entertaining to see them in the film.

Director, Richard Bates Jr. makes an explosive début as newcomer of this genre and has a bold eye that's unflinching. The disturbing style, nature mixed with the dark humor, yet at the same time visceral, is just bloody brilliant. He is one to look out for, as this is an insane first effort! Overall, Excision is not a movie for all tastes, but the bluntness, wit, dark humor, unapologetic attitude and blood drenched, stylishly brooding dreamscapes, made it refreshing and daring. The ending was shocking, but I was kind of unsure what to make of it. One of the more memorable horror offerings of 2012.

In Excision, a high school misfit goes to great lengths to win over her domineering, conservative mother. Although it's presented as a horror film - and opened the Spooky Movie International Horror Film Festival - it's a psychosexual thriller, rife with imagery set against a pastiche of normative teenage angst and desperation. It is a brilliant, provocative, unsettling film.

Pauline (AnnaLynne McCord) is the misfit. Scarred with acne and and overall unkempt look and poor posture, she is the poster child for unpopularity. But, like many cinematic rebels before her, she looks upon the idea of being liked almost with disdain. The opinions of others don't influence her.

Pauline aspires to be a doctor, but she is anything but a model student. She challenges her teachers and plays her classmates against each other for her own gain. She has no friends, and her therapy consists of visits to the local priest, whereupon she notes the hypocrisy of his understanding her moral issues when he's by definition pretty repressed himself.

She's part of a nuclear family. Dad Bob (Roger Bart) is a success at something, but he's under the thumb of his controlling wife Phyllis (Traci Lords). Sister Grace is the favorite of the family, partly because she's so nice and good and sweet but also because she is suffering from cystic fibrosis.

Of all the people with whom Pauline interacts on a regular basis, she cares only for Grace. She despairs of her sister's imminent death and wishes the same on her mother. Typical for a teenager, to an extreme perhaps.

Throughout the movie, Pauline sets particular goals for herself and then completes them, in opposition to her attitude toward school and life in general. When her mother forces her to be (at an advanced age) part of a cotillion, Pauline understandably ruins the affair. But when she wants to pursue a career in medicine, she goes to the library (cutting school) and researches her sister's condition.

You may well ask what the title implies. Something is being excised. We've already established that Pauline wants to be a doctor, but what is to be excised is something I cannot reveal here. On a less literal front, Pauline wants to excise her mother's influence from her own life and the pain and suffering from that of her sister.

This is not a movie for the faint of heart. It is not dripping with blood and contains no projectile vomiting, but Pauline's dreams - which include impromptu surgeries that equate to intercourse in her mind - are erotic, disturbing, grisly, and symbolic.

McCord nails the role of Pauline. Dolled up for the cotillion, she looks almost presentable, but even when she's her slovenly self you can see her beauty - eyes, wit, intelligence, smile - even if no one else in the movie can. McCord sells the film by subtly morphing Pauline from an outcast to a sociopath; at first, you take her for just another weird kid in the hall, but over time you see her as clearly losing her grip on reality.

And I didn't think I'd say this, but Lords is really good - in an ironic role - as the pushy, moralizing mom. Traci, you've come a long way, baby.

It's very hard to believe this is writer/director Richard Bates Jr.'s first film, feature or otherwise. The writing is tight, and he gets a lot out of his cast - which includes John Waters and Malcolm McDowell. It's a stunning debut.

I wasn't sure how the movie was going to end, although it was clear I was being led in a particular direction. I wasn't misled, but the conclusion is still a knockout; leaving just enough unresolved to be satisfying.

Excision is thrilling, a movie that will resonate with anyone who's felt unloved and with anyone who likes tales of revenge and redemption. It wisely picks a course and never goes too over the top with its set pieces. It's not a mild-mannered film, but it's also not an overwrought, ham-fisted gorefest. It's cleverly nuanced, achingly acted, and a mind- blowing masterpiece.

Excision feels like a threadbare short film padded out to feature length and low and behold it's an expanded version of the director's short. It's an annoyingly angsty film about a social misfit who wants to be a surgeon and the whole film is just filler until the final scene. Perhaps that would be fine in the short film, but this is unbearable. We are also subjected to an atrocious performance by AnnaLynne McCord who seems to be juggling tics, facial expressions and acting with a capital 'A'. A terrible 'look at me acting' performance, made even more cartoonish from her over the top zit makeup. This is the kind of character that needs a strong director to modulate the performance and reign it in to be effective. The film is fine to look at. It's shot in a very classy way -- slow, well composed moves -- which makes McCord's performance at even more right angles to the film. Everyone downplays their role and the look of the film is very grounded and then here's this ridiculous actress who couldn't have played her role any more broad. It tries to be edgy and artful - it really does try, but Excision is immature junk.

What a deserved change from the same old recycled junk out there. Now Im no professional movie critic, and I wouldn't even know what category Id place this movie, but to me it wasn't a horror. Whatever the genre is, Id like to see more like it. McCord did an excellent job and I hope she stays out of the mainstream roles. The cast delivered in a big way and sucked me in to the story. For some reason McCords character makes me think of Napolean Dynamite, but a sick, twisted and female version. I don't want to say much, you can form your own opinion. But it is a solid movie with good acting, great visual dream segments and a decent plot. So check it out if you want to see something weird and different and get some really good laughs along the way.

I know you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, but this one's especially misleading. Sure the surrealistic horror imagery does make an appearance in the film, and it's as enjoyably grotesque as the cover suggests. However, it's relevance to the plot is merely as dream sequences which are sparingly peppered throughout the film.

What actually transpires is a dark family drama focusing on the coming of age of a teenage sociopath. Once I got my brain to switch gears from the abstract terror I was expecting, there was still plenty to enjoy. It still has many of disturbing elements, it's fixation on blood, surgery and STDs is enough to make anyone a little squeamish. AnnaLynne McCord totally nails her role, delivering a uniquely awkward and horrible character.

Even with a lean runtime, the film does start to drag at points as there's a redundancy to the cringey scenarios. It's a curious stylistic blend given how the extreme nightmare imagery often gives way to aggressively dry high-school minutia.

However, they really pull off an impressive finish. It's obvious the whole time that it's building up to something, though it's hard to guess exactly what. The finale does a great job walking the tightrope of delivering something shocking that still makes sense to the character arcs they had developed throughout the film.

The casting is also a riot. Googling AnnaLynne McCord makes you realize how far they went transforming this potential runway model into a grotesque teen. Also, the puritanical mom is played by former teen pornstar Traci Lords, it's my first time seeing Ariel Winter outside Modern Family and I am always pleased with a nice John Waters cameo.

Not a horror movie nor a comedy just BOREDOM I cannot find a better description of this movie the wife & I suffered through.

While it had an occasional funny line or scene they came too far apart to keep our attention.

We are left wondering what the movie was about? a family struggling with a sick child? A child that didn't fit in well at high school?

The dysfunctional American family?

We like everything from gore fest to comedies this movie was just boring leaving us both in a discussion afterwards.

The wife & I agree Pauline (AnnaLynne McCord) was awesome in her role after just watching her play the opposite type role in 68 Kill probably the only thing that kept us from giving up.

A paradoxical myriad of influences and styles runs through Excision, the feature debut from NYU graduate Richard Bates Jr. A development of his 18 minute short which played the festival circuit in 2008, the film charts a brief spell in the life of Pauline (AnnaLynne McCord), one of the most dysfunctional teenagers to hit the screen since Todd Solondz's Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995). Far less fetishized than Terry Zwigoff's teenage female outcasts, Pauline is the epitome of awkward. Her gait eschews any form of grace, leaving her a hunched over, lumbering mess. Even keeping her mouth closed appears, at times, to be too much effort. In short, she's the perfect representation of the unfathomable levels of apathy and brooding that exist within the mind of the troubled teen.

McCord, better known to television viewers as the star of shows such as Nip/Tuck and 90210, is almost unrecognisable as the scowling girl with greasy hair and bad skin. It was not, however, an easy part for her to attain. In a recent interview both Bates Jr. and McCord stated that it was a difficult process. From the offset, the director refused to entertain McCord's persistent applications to be associated with the feature. Luckily for us her tenacity paid off and she was granted an audition. Bates' scepticism continued until the young actress showed her commitment to the feature by responding to the statement that she would have to cut her hair for the role by hacking at her locks right there and then. Seeing more of Pauline in the glamorous actress than he could ever have imagined, the partnership was made and the process began.

One of the aforementioned paradoxes within the film is the drafting in of a delightful range of the Hollywood bad boys (and girls); Traci Lords, John Walters, Malcolm McDowell and Ray Wise all appear. All of these characters could have been utilised as the outsiders and freaks of the movie with whom Pauline connects and finds solace, yet in a clever play against type, it is this motley crew who comprise the upstanding, conservative and unprogressive adults in the movie. Lords plays Pauline's God-fearing mother Phyllis with her trademark vigour and wit, clearly loving the experience of taking the moral high ground over the rebellious youth. Waters plays a chaplain and Wise and McDowell both work at the school as headmaster and teacher respectively.

Pauline aspires to one day become a successful surgeon, something which is greatly hindered by her lack of academic capability. Experimenting on roadkill and dreamily pondering over medical textbooks culminates in bizarre fantasies which range from brutal eviscerations to necrophilia.

All of this is heavily coincides with the social dilemmas which she faces on a daily basis (ranging from puberty to friends and relationships). Modern Family's Ariel Winter plays Grace, Pauline's younger sister, who is suffering from Cystic Fibrosis. The strain which her illness puts upon the family often trivialises the nature of Pauline's growing pains. This parallel makes for one of the most interesting aspects of the movie, alluding to the insular and self- absorbed nature of the teen mind.

There is a great deal of dark humour on display in Excision. Humour as pitch black as coal and as sharp as surgical steel. The nightmarish surrealism which is achieved will resonate for days afterwards. A well written and enjoyable debut which manages to balance a sinister side with a tender character study, resulting in an exceptionally strong feature, Excision is well deserving of the praise which it is currently receiving.

Excision is available now through Monster Pictures UK. You can find out more about the movie on the Official Website, Twitter or Facebook.

Colin McCracken writes extensively for zombiehamster.com as well as a number of genre publications. He can be found on Twitter as @zombiehamster

More of a very dark black comedy than the horror film it is often credited as being, 'Excision' revolves around a teenage social misfit whose dreams are full of gore and who conducts surgery on roadkill in her spare time. Conflict comes with her conservative mother's attempts to get her to conform to social norms and be more like her pretty and popular sister. This is a film far less predictable than it might sound though. The sisters actually get on with each other very well despite being near complete opposites. The protagonist also believes in a higher power and is often seen praying despite her repeated denunciation of their church and priest. It is also hard to know what to make of the abrupt ending. Some have called this a film about a teenager doing all she can to impress a never-satisfied mother, but the more prominent themes seem to be individuality and the effects of a religious upbringing on a mentally unbalanced teen. AnnaLynne McCord is fantastic in the lead role, whatever the case, delivering droll lines left, right and centre, often oblivious to her own social awkwardness. She is never quite a likable character though, and with some pretty detestable supporting characters, it is sometimes hard to get engrossed in the story, but this is certainly a daringly different film about growing up, plus the ending lingers in the mind long afterwards.

This is a fairly entertaining movie that kept me invested. i was starting to lean away from a positive score because i thought it went a little too far a couple times. it seemed to be gross-out shock factor for no purpose. but it was only two of moments, i was good with the rest of the weirdness. it was mostly the right kind of weird for me.

the acting was great, the directing was creative, the cinematography was pretty and fitting. well-made movie overall. yet i'm not sure i'd watch it again

the direction they took this movie is so unexpected yet so perfect. everything lead to this point, yet i could have never guessed that's where they'd go. when the credits rolled, i was stunned. it kind of messed me up, in a good way (1 viewing, 3/16/2021)

In Pauline's fantasies she is beautiful, confident and strong. In reality, she is greasy, sullen and an outcast. The only person who shows her any kindness is her younger sister Grace, who is suffering from Cystic Fibrosis.

Pauline has a form of blood-lust and has aspirations of one day becoming a surgeon, though she doesn't do well in school and goes out of her way to annoy her teachers and peers. The thought of blood sexually excites her and she thinks and dreams of it constantly.

Her overbearing mother and apathetic father are oblivious to the extent of their daughter's problems and treat her with disgust and derision.

When she overhears her mother describe her as "impossible to love" Pauline retreats further into her delusions and does the only thing she knows to prove her worth to her family.

The much talked about ending is shocking but not just in the ways you'd be expecting. For me, the shock value doesn't come from her delusions but how calmly she succumbs to them.

I think this film struck a chord in me because, whether intentionally or not, it highlights society's attitude towards mental illness in comparison to physical illness. The daughter suffering from a physical ailment is treated with kindness and sympathy while the daughter struggling with mental illness is ignored and treated as a burden. Grace is given the best in medical treatment, but when Pauline begs to see a psychiatrist, she is brushed off.

It's a shame that the movie went to such extreme lengths to make Pauline so unattractive (actress AnnaLynne McCord is very pretty in real-life), almost making her look like a Neanderthal because it takes you out of the movie. I think there were more subtle ways to make her 'ugly.'

Did little to advance their career by being in Excision. Lots of gratuitous sickening bloody scenes, short choppy, boring dialog and in general, little plot to hold my interest. I must quit watching these obscure Amazon offerings. They remind me of cheap Cinemax Friday night knockoffs.

First I thought this movie would be purely splatter and gore but it turned out to be quite good yet tragic film. AnnaLynne McCord and Traci Lords gave strong performances that really carried the movie, particularly Lords who successfully left the Adult Industry and became a credible actress. I mentioned it was tragic as I really felt for the family struggling with a delusional elder daughter and a dying younger one. Kudos to the makeup artist(s) who worked on McCord making her character (Pauline) look like a really out-of-sorts teenager. There were scenes (in the Unrated version) where a lot of blood was involved coupled with some perverted scenes, but it worked in looking inside the mind of Pauline.

While the characters lacked development and dimension, 'Excision' is a quirky domestic comedy with a healthy dash of David Cronenberg-style body horror that surprisingly thoughtful, genuinely disturbing, and riveting to watch.

I loved every minute of this blacker than black, bloody, comedy, horror, weirdfest. I'm sure some will be shocked by certain scenes in the movie but they exist in an almost familyguy-esque fun cutaway way where there's little gross out value (well not for me anyway) but......try describing to someone some of the scenes included and see their reaction! On paper they sound quite shocking indeed (I'm not going to spoil them you'll have to see for yourself). Traci Lords (a bit of a strange childhood herself) plays Paulines mother really well as she creeps around uttering whatever thoughts pop into her (spotty) head. Her dreams (day and night) are filled with gallons of blood and bizarreness hard to imagine. I look forward now to recommending this rancidly funny little gem to those of my friends who watch pathetic romcoms or flicks with Adam Sandler in. Something much more strange to me than anything this movie threw up.

A very different horror movie, Excision stars Annalynne McCord as Pauline, a troubled outcast and high school student, with aspirations of a career in medicine. Her little sister, Grace, is awaiting a lung transplant, and Pauline hopes to help her sibling live a long and healthy life. Mom is controlling, neurotic martyr, played surprisingly well by the former teen porn star, Traci Lords. The unusual cast also includes Malcolm McDowell as a teacher, and the director John Waters as a preacher who is drafted into being a counselor to the disturbed adolescent girl. Pauline has fantasies filled with blood, and at one point, carves a cross on to her arm. She asks a fellow student to relieve her of her virginity, and he obliges in an extremely original "first time" scene. McCord is impressive, as is the entire cast, and the ending is not a disappointment. The bizarre dark aspects of the script reminded me of some of David Lynch's work, in a positive sense. Check out Excision, for an entertaining black horror film.

A quite bizarre and uneven movie that whilst not all bad is certainly massively overrated on this site.

The main character of Pauline is terribly played by someone who has clearly never been awkward or an outcast, it's a distracting, unbelievable pantomime of gurning and over the top nihilism. This could and should have been reigned in and allowed to simmer and explode. Others who review this film seem to rate this performance as something special but it's not, it's actually the films weakest part. The characters behaviour would have been addressed and confronted a long time ago but is seemingly ignored by every oblivious idiot until far too late.

This is made more apparent by the performance of the rest of the cast which is downplayed and understated, whilst this may be a conscious decision it certainly wasn't a good one. It removes all art from the movie and leaves it clearly in the trash pile. Not a bad thing for a film of this type but the film wants you to believe that there's more here. There's not.

The film itself is well shot, it looks and feels expensive, which is testament to the filmmakers. It may have been better served without this level of gloss but it's impressive. Again this may have been a conscious decision, but this film is trash and instead of revelling in that it tries to move away from it.

It has nothing to say and an unbelievable plot and characters yet it portrays itself as something deeper. Had Pauline played people off against each other instead of being so openly dramatic it could have added a level of intrigue into the proceedings. Instead we get a couple of hours a teenage Bart Simpson staring through her oh so greasy hair.