First of all, don’t blame me if this isn’t very horror like, but IMDB has it as Drama Horror. It has a great cast including Malcolm McDowell, Ariel WInter (Modern family), John Waters, Marlee Matlin, Jeremy Sumpter (Frailty), and Ray Wise (XMen First Class). You can’t blame me for hoping that it’s good.
We start off with what I assume is a dream. There appears to be the same person sitting across from themselves. One is bleeding a lot. The other one seemed excited. It was a dream. We have an overbearing mother, that much is sure. She has irritated the older of the 2 daughters, and she is thankful for the second girl.
Hey, it is sex ed day. Pauline, our lead asks if you can get an STD from having sex with a dead person. We see 2 “popular” girls talk about how small her boyfriend’s dick is and Pauline tells him aboiut it when he comes to visit. I am not going to do play by play. Too much.John Waters is a priest and he serves as Pauline’s somewhat psychiatrist, and he looks dapper. She is just a rebellious teen who gives zero fucks. She prays for forgiveness because she plans to have per-marital sex. Malcolm McDowell the math teacher. Awesome. He is so awesome. And Marlee is the principal. Marlee has her own funny line, good for her. Pauline’s mom wants Pauline to take Catillian classes. Something about how to be a proper lady. Dad is in a shit situation, he sleeps on the couch and I don’t blame him.
He a dream about a dead guy with half a head getting mounted by a hot looking blonde. I hope that she was of age, but fuck it, she looked hot either way.
Pauline approaches some kid named Adam telling him that she wants to lose her virginity to him and gives him her number in front of his buddies. Pauline wants to lose her virginity on her period and tells her sister this. Grace, the younger sister has some sickness. Think that it’s cystic Fibrosis. This new dream had so many times, and he dreamed of being in a tun of blood and it made her toes curl. Interesting. Pauline pierced her nose. Mom is beyond pissed.
Pauline tries being nice to some girl jump roping, but the girl is a bitch, and Grace sticks up for her. Pauline gets a call from Adam and he wants to take her up on her offer. Yay, a bloody tampon. Traci Lords is the mom and has become quite the actress. More boobs in a dream. I will say we are up to 4. I am only sticking with this for the breast count. Mom did Pauline’s makeup at least. That was nice of her. And Adam drives her to a motel. Classy, as always.
It’s motel room time, and he brought some of his brother’s condoms. She has him pull down his pants. She doesn’t want any condoms anyway as she is on birth control. This Adam is a smart dude, despite her just saying that he’s not big enough for the big condom. She rides him, and she daydreams about him being all bloody. Did Ryan Murphy write this? She wants him to go down on her. Not cool. He realizes that she was bleeding and is naturally freaked out by it. He brings her home and she thanks him and he is not happy with her.
She has lots of prayer sessions, this time she says that if she got pregnant, she’d get an abortion, then we see an over the top dream of an abortion with Satan microwaving the fetus. One of Grace’s friends died from CF. Apparently Grace will need a lung transplant at some point. HAHA. Pauline approaches Adam who is with his 2 buddies and Natalie and some other girl. Natalie is Adam’s girlfriend. Prior to this scene, Pauline looked under a microscope to see if she had an STD. Well she goes up to everybody, asks Natalie if she has any STD’s, and Natalie says no, and Pauline says “Good, then neither do I” and just walks away. NICE. Remember when Traci Lords was in Roseanne? John Waters cracks me up.
She prays for Grace and wants to do everything in her power to help her, and asks God to kill her mom. Jump rope girl comes to ask from money for some charity and while mom gets money, Pauline threatens her. The 2 girls from earlier, Natalie and friend are in the locker room making fun of how Pauline looks like a lesbian and she counters “Funny, cause your vagina looks like a diseased axe wound”. BOOM. Mean girls be mean. Pauline wants to reshape her navel on her own via surgery, Grace is like, boys don’t care about navels, they care about tits. We see that Pauline got herpes because Dad gave her CPR after a pool incident. Haha. Pauline tells her mom that she will get married to a black guy and the mom says that black dudes are notorious adulterers. Fact? Dream of ripping out a girl’s tongue. Pauline thanks dad for the new cold sore, and poor dad is pissed.
Abagail is the name of Natalie’s friend. Pauline sits next to Abagail in math class, and then asks to go to the bathroom. She goes, and downs some liquid in a weird container and rushes back. McDowell is such a dick, he won’t let her go to the clinic, as she expected. Yup, she puked all over Abagail. It was well done. Mom knows that Pauline took the ipecac syrup from the medicine cabinet and is scolding her for abusing her body while her sister is so sick. Fair point mom. I feel like I have seen this before. Bloody hell. I think my brain is acting up again.
She has to go to Catillian class, and most everybody is like 5+ years younger. Hahaha, she calls the girls “overly made up cum dumpsters”. Pauline almost made a friend. Pauline is 18. Hahaha, Grace was making out and mom is pissed. Some boy asks Pauline to dance, then asks about her cold sore, and he was kinda a dick, so she kissed him. Mom is pissed and embarrassed. Pauline dragged dirt through the house, so poor dad is stuck cleaning, mom is moping, Grace is coughing badly, and Pauline is chewing her nail. Pauline skips school to go to the library and read up on the lungs and chest. Mom asks her where she was, Pauline tells her, mom don’t believe her, so she dumps the books on the floor, mom slaps Pauline. At dinner, Pauline flings her food at dinner. Dad is taking his daughter’s side, and mom says that she has tried and tried, but it is impossible to love her, and Pauline overhears this and cries. She also threatened divorce. Yeah, that’s the absolute best thing that could happen to him…..or any guy. Pauline finds a dead bird on the sidewalk, puts it in her bag, and jump rope girl sees it. Anyway, she brings it home to dissect it basically. Pauline licks her bloody fingers.
Pauline with a good weight diss on mom. Hahaha. Another payer, another dream, and 2 more pairs of tits. Up to 6. Sweet. Mom admits that maybe some of the problems are on her end, trying to be a better mom, but Pauline doesn’t listen, and ends with an “Are you finished”. Well, somebody spray painted over the house that Pauline is a…. and slut and I see a crudely drawn penis that is just way too big. Let’s be realistic. Anything more than 3 inches is just wasted, am I right ladies? No? Back to drinking. Oh, and they TP’d the house. Ohhh shit, Pauline is fucking pissed. She goes into school, shoves Adam to the ground. She grabs Natalie by the head and bashes her skull into the locker and scares Abagail. She gets called into the principal’s office, and she is claiming psychological issues. She got suspended. Hey, just like I did.
Pauline has carved a cross in her arm. At dinner, everybody is all pissy, even dad. Dad says that Pauline is delusional if she thinks that she can get into medical school acting like this. Hey, the parents decided to break the bank and take her to a psychiatrist. Grace’s doctor recommends that they put her on the transplant list. That sucks. Grace is looking at a bridal magazine and says that she hopes to one day get married. Pauline says that she will do everything in her power to see to it that she does get married. Grace says that she wants her sister as her maid of honor. At dinner, Pauline says that she is sorry for how she’s been acting and she wants to make them proud of her. Dad buys it, but mom just shits all over this, and says that her and dad will be out of town out of town tomorrow night and the girls will be babysat, despite Pauline being 18.
We see 2 more pairs of breasts and Pauline is laughing after her daydream. The babysitter cancelled, so dad will stay home instead. Pauline drugged up some tea and gave it to dad. We see jump rope girl, and Pauline says that she would like to make amends, so she offers her some old jump ropes. She then smothers her with a rag and knocks her out. She tells Grace that she may not understand what she is about to do, but some day, she will thank her, then a hug, and then the rag. This knocks her out eventually. This is going to end well, obviously. Pauline starts cutting the hell out of her hair. We see lots of bloody knives and bloody gloves. Pauline is bald. Yes, Pauline is performing surgery. And mom is home. She finds dad tied and and gagged. Mom goes looking for Grace. The transplant is happening. I think that was meant to be a nipple, but if it is, it’s fake and would be under 18, so no can do on the count. This bloody as fuck. Pauline stiched them up and see that Pauline performed surgery in the garage. Pauline is so proud of her cuts and stitching and encourages her mom to look and her mom just squeezes her and is crying and Pauline is crying and looks to be in pain. Mom screams and Pauline appears to be passing out. I am guessing it is implied that mom killed her.
End Film
Hmmm, so I watched that ending again. I can’t decipher whether Pauline was killed, or reality caught up with her how disturbing everything played out and that she killed her sister. One can make an argument for either case. I like to think that mom originally had some motherly instinct and hugged her child that she hasn’t been giving the proper care for. Let’s face it, she was so focused on Grace’s physical issues, that she ignored the reality of Pauline’s mental issues. She kept thinking that it would be ok, she would see the priest, she would get better and follow in mommy’s footsteps. And she seemed towards the end to at least consider that he daughter was legit messed up and not trying to get attention, but still I think mom had devoted so much to Grace, she needed Pauline to be healthy and independent, and Pauline’s mental issues were weakening her. So mom comes in, she knows that Grace is dead as is somebody else. And she sees how proud and oblivious Pauline is, like Pauline is so focused and proud of demonstrating what she had learned, but not realizing that it’s so much more complicated. Mom hugs her, and she lets out a scream, and you see Pauline’s grip tighten, and she looks like she is feeling pain, whether it be mental anguish, or physical pain, I fully believe that was left ambiguously. Most will interpret that as Pauline’s moment of realization, but I’m not so sure.
I see that this film has been like a spiritual sister to the movie May, and wow, that is so correct. I am listening to the music and thinking that ir reminded me of a film, and I couldn’t figure it out. Yeah, it is in the same vein as May. This film is not your typical horror film, but rest assured, it is horror of a high caliber. It is a wonderfully done film with great performances by everybody. The mom may have been the best, but Grace and Dad were perfect as the cute little sister who is the nicest character in the film, and dad knows that he is stuck and tries to make the best of things, but his wife is always going to be domineering. Pauline, played by AnnaLynne McCord, was really well done and not an easy role to pull off.Bravo all around.
Final rating: 7.0 which is 0.1 less than May for obvious reasons.
All the pictures used in this blog are for review purposes. They are the property of:
- Anchor Bay Films (presents)
- New Normal Films
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