Under the Knife

Obsessing over her looks, a woman decides to visit a cheap plastic surgery center while visiting her cousin in Korea as a means to help fix her supposed aesthetic problems, but after the surgery, a series of strange visions cause her to learn he's implanted a means to make her kill for him.

Overall, there's a lot to like about this one. Among the best features here is the setup that touches incredibly heavily on the concept of a woman's standards of beauty. The early part of the film with she tries to explain the thought process behind wanting surgery to fix her appearance offers a pointed series of commentary on the issue. Not only is the boyfriend offering points against by saying that extreme reactions are potentially problematic but also her cousin touching on unrealistic standards from the media is a great counterpoint to everything. The constant attempts from both to try to talk her out of the surgery with their pointing out the hypocrisy in the state of the world about the issue offers a nice grounding point for the genre qualities to emerge from. That there's a pointed lack of argumentative points from her about the benefits compared to both of their arguments against it make the upcoming genre thrills that much more worthwhile. With this in place, the horror that unfolds here is obvious but no less effective. The sketchy clinic where she receives the operation has all the hallmarks of a place to be avoided, with no staff, a hole-in-the-wall main location, and the procedure being done the next day after the consultation. Moreover, the rushed nature of their meeting reeks of trying to pressure a reluctant patient into getting something they shouldn't need like a master sleazy salesman completes the series of red flags that are ignored and the surgery can proceed. This offers a couple of fun scenes here with the attacks of her and the other patients he's operated on attacking and brutally killing those around them in brutal fashion. As well, the flashes of bizarre and avant-garde imagery that is used to highlight the mind-control tactics generate some trippy visuals as well, making for a lot to like. While there are some positive aspects, the film does have some stumbling blocks. Among the major ones is the decidedly off-kilter pacing established that focuses on areas of disinterest for far too long. A series of back-and-forth conversations between the two about the differences in their culture tend to be quite dull and not as interesting as their surgical issues are and just feel like excess padding. Her trip through the city is also a major problem, focusing on decidedly uninteresting travelogue-style scenes just wandering around the city looking at various tourists spots and attractions with bland rock music in the background for way too long before anything happens and in general, this causes the film takes until near the hour mark to really start on its main story which makes for a somewhat slow start. With some limitations from the low-budget on display also holding it back, these issues are what keep this down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Brief Nudity, Language, and a sex scene.

The acting was very cool , the story was inventive but the editing was a bit long stretched !!

The main girls girlfriend was ridiculously hot and cute wich made the movie way better

Both their acting was great , the male acting could have been better

Its a bit of an older movie so the pace might take some time getting used to.

Don't let the horror/ thriller fool you. This is more like a horror comedy. A poorly done horror comedy.

This film deals with some serious topics in a really fun way. There is plenty of social commentary and food for thought, but the vibe is quite light. The mood gets much darker in the second half and there are some pretty intense sequences with psychedelic visuals. Stunning cinematography and editing and the doctor is fantastic. The awesome ending left the theater talking all through the credits.

If you enjoy fun, indie horror, this movie is for you. It hits on contemporary global zeitgeist, while not taking itself so seriously, yet with lot of passion for playing with genre tropes ultimately for the payoff for the audience. I find that refreshing given the self-importance of so many films, with unnecessarily large budgets.