I’m not gonna mess around here and will get straight to the point. I love this movie. Excision is an absolute masterpiece that combines different genres to amazing effect. It’s been a few hours since I have finished viewing it, and I can’t stop thinking about it.

Pauline is an 18-year-old girl who is socially awkward, acne-ridden, disturbed, and delusional. Pauline has some psycho-sexual dreams which provide some of the more visual feast type scenes in the film. Pauline’s fantasies recall some of the weird stuff Alejandro Jodorowski would have thought up at his best. The images are grotesquely beautiful and in some instances, downright disgusting. Some of the depraved and vile thoughts manifested in Pauline’s dreams, are some of the most awe-inducing elements of this film.

Pauline lives with her parents and younger sister. Her little sister has cystic fibrosis, and Pauline seems to think she will one day be able to help her sister with curing this disease. Her sister is played by Ariel Winter of Modern Family fame. Pauline sees herself as a brilliant up-and-coming young surgeon, despite her struggles in high school, where all the students and teachers seem to hate her guts. 

Pauline is played by Annalynne McCord who gives an absolute stunning, jaw-dropping performance here. After I looked her up on imdb, I see that she has been in other tv shows and films, and the actress is an absolute beauty – which is a stark contrast from the character she portrays in the movie.

Another standout performance in this, which took me by absolute surprise, was the terrific work by Traci Lords. She plays Pauline’s over-intrusive, over-bearing, mother, who does all she can to try and love her troubled daughter. She also wears the pants in the family and is a tough bitch to deal with, at least on the surface. Kudos for whoever did the casting for this film; brilliant choices were made for all the characters.

Excision had me engaged with my eyeballs open way wide throughout it’s entire run-time. It reminded me somewhat of films like May (2002) and The Loved Ones (2009), with just the way the main characters had some quirky traits that make you laugh and equally make you feel disturbed.

The final scene in this film was terrifying, heart-breaking, disturbing, and left me nearly breathless. I can’t get it out of my head and I don’t think I’ll be able to get it out of my mind for quite some time. It just wrapped up nicely exactly what had been slowly building up throughout the entire film. It is shocking, yet, not surprising to see how the ride ends.

Writer and Director, Richard Bates Jr., deserves some serious accolades here. I can’t believe this is his first full-length feature as a Director. I can’t wait to see what else he has in store for us in the future. Topping this one will be a challenge!

Excision is easily one of the best films I have watched this year – hell, it probably is the best. I’m fairly certain it will make many best-of lists of genre fans. It is a film that demands to be viewed again to truly appreciate what an amazing piece of art it is. If you haven’t seen it, go see it NOW.

-JP