The Torment of Laurie Ann Cullom likes to play with genre expectations. The opening credit scroll is reminiscent of the recent wave of found footage/this is a true story films that overtook horror for quite a few years. The throwback 80’s period styling and sense of humor feels like the rise of meta-horror in the 90s. The focus on Laurie’s total inability to leave the house and ensuing paranoid breakdown is a modern spin on Repulsion, only with a better understanding of how mental illness, specifically agoraphobia, actually works.

American Mary is a wild film. It’s a quiet character study of a poor medical student turned extreme body modifier. It’s a modern spin on Frankenstein with multiple Doctor/Monster connections. It’s a revenge/exploitation film from a distinctly feminist perspective with only one clear villain turned into an empathetic figure. It’s a freak-out gore film with very little blood and a social satire that points at the absurdity of human beauty standards without judging anyone for falling in line or rebelling against those standards of beauty.