Excision (2012)

Excision is the kind of movie that grabs you by the collar because it refuses to behave: a viciously funny, skin-crawling coming-of-age nightmare that turns teenage longing into full-body horror with a strange, bracing honesty. AnnaLynne McCord is fearless and mesmerizing as Pauline, making her delusions and desperation feel uncomfortably human even when the film veers into the grotesque, while the suffocating family dynamic gives the madness a sharp emotional edge. Director Richard Bates Jr. keeps the vibe teetering between suburban satire and fever-dream splatter, so you’re laughing one minute and recoiling the next, not from cheap shocks but from how committed it is to Pauline’s warped logic. It’s absolutely not for the squeamish or anyone allergic to aggressive, transgressive imagery—but if you want something bold, disturbing, and genuinely memorable, this one lingers like a bad dream you can’t stop replaying.

Excision is clearly trying to mash up coming-of-age misery, dark comedy, and body-horror provocation into a twisted character study about a girl desperate for control and approval. The problem is that it often plays like a technically slick dare: lots of grotesque imagery and taboo swings, but not always the emotional or thematic payoff to justify how far it goes. If you’re hoping for smart, slow-burn psychological horror or a Cronenberg-level idea behind the gore, you may find it more cartoonish and juvenile than insightful. That said, AnnaLynne McCord commits hard, and if you enjoy abrasive, mean-spirited satire with extreme surgical visuals and don’t need “meaning” to match the shock, it might hit your wavelength.