Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Pauline, a disturbed, outcast teenager, has a fascination with surgery and experiences violent, psychosexual fantasies, all while aspiring to a career in medicine.
Excision is a genuinely singular piece of transgressive horror-comedy anchored by AnnaLynne McCord's fearless, fully committed performance as Pauline — one of the most memorable teenage protagonists in recent genre cinema. The psychosexual fantasy sequences are stylistically bold and grotesquely beautiful, giving the film a distinct visual identity. The plot is deliberately slow-burn and character-driven rather than event-driven, which is a mild weakness for some audiences. The ending lands with devastating, almost blackly comedic finality that recontextualizes everything before it. Its tone — clinical, darkly funny, genuinely unsettling — is unmistakably its own, earning it high Novelty.