Excess Flesh

At first viewing, Excess Flesh is a story about an obsessed woman who imprisons her sexy roommate in a twisted attempt to bring them together -- a story of self-loathing, jealousy, love-hate, rage and, finally, about revenge and making right all things evil.

Ultimately, it's a scathing commentary on hyper-consumerism, where more is more and never enough. Excess Flesh is the state of the world through the lens of its empathic, embittered interpreter, Director, Patrick Kennelly. This is a world of consumerism, a world where one's identity is determined by what they wear, how they look, who they know and how they measure up to the cruel and impossible standards or abandon all hope. This work is both a seminal work and a masterwork – a view of a dysmorphic world through the piercing mind's eye of the film's creator.

This is not torture horror. This is a cunning complex film and the film reveals more and more the more you watch it. More is more. Consume. More.

The acting in this film is cult status. Bethany Orr's performance places her firmly in the ranks of Isabelle Adjani in Zulawski's classic "Possession." Orr's performance is not to be missed … nor is it to be misunderstood. Take time to indulge in this actor's revelations of character, nuance and the human condition. It is a visceral, infinite, and a deeply instinctive interpretation of one's loss of one's soul to the societal mediation of one's self.

Excess Flesh was a risk to make. Films like Excess Flesh are a risk for investors. Excess Flesh is a smartly produced hybrid genre film and the filmmakers deserve praise. Congrats to Exec Producer Dennis Garcia and Walking to the Moon Productions, for taking a chance on a film that needed to be made and for recognizing the talents of the filmmakers. You're a hero to indie filmmakers everywhere … Make more, please.

Excess Flesh is not for the weak of mind, heart, or soul. Take a look. Take your time and let happen. I recommend that you watch it more than once. Do it in excess.

It's too bad because from watching the preview it looked good. It's very misleading. Seems like they tried too hard to make an "artsy" movie (lots of unnecessary slow motion, close ups and over exaggerated noises). It's a shame because it could've been a really good psychological thriller. I can say that the actresses were somewhat good. Both were annoying and I believe that was their goal in this movie. The downside was, I didn't care about what happened to either of them. They never pulled me in enough to root for one or the other. If you are into slow burning thrillers that have a big time indie feel to them and fall short at the end, you may like this. To me it was a complete waste of time.

Could have been cool. Had many ways to go instead it just wanders into a wasteland of nothingness. Happens. The 2 lead actresses were good. Most everything else sucked.

I think I'm other writers' hands this could be really good. The story is there and the metaphor is strong, but the script is garbage and awkward.

The filming style, while visceral and gross, is perfectly suited to the subject matter. Maybe having this be a horror movie pushed it too far out of the mainstream.

I can tell you from experience that this is an insanely accurate portrait of the realities of an eating disorder. I've seen just about every movie out there that deals with EDs and NONE have ever come as close as this to showing what it's really like. It very much is like having a second person inside you that you despise and that despises you right back. It's not glamorous, it's gross and sad and a hell of your own making.

I wish this was made by a more mainstream director etc because the message is important.

For not the right reasons I might add. And I'm not talking about this being one of the few reviews of mine that have been deleted. As you can see though I'm not entire alone with my opinion on the movie. Still from the top I do think this has a more than fine idea and storyline. Apart from those who may not like movies "sprinkled" or filled entirely with social critisicm, they may have issues already with the movie. But everyone else may not just be intrigued by this.

And that is where I have to say that the movie fails. And it is not so much the grotesque and quite visceral/graphic nature of it all (though you should not be too squeamish about these things either). It is about how the story evolves and how it is edited together. Stretching the viewer patience to the point it'll break for most. Not to mention the incredible straining characters (actor choices/dialog) that you'll either endure to get to the "good parts" or just plain will be annoyed by it ... So well intended but very flawed to say the least