American Mary (2013)★★★★★

Here’s another movie I love. I actually like it better than the one I’m watching for my birthday tomorrow, but I needed a pick me up tonight and this is one of my happy movies (yes, really) so here we are.

I haven’t seen this one quite as many times as the Dawn of the Dead remake (of course I’ve had about 8 years longer with that one), but since I first watched it a couple years ago I’ve probably seen it 20 or 30 times. It’s just so…interesting.

Katharine Isabelle is no stranger to horror movies, but this is the one that made me a true fan of hers. She’s just so perfect as Mary Mason. The rest of the cast is outstanding as well – everyone is believable and aptly cast. I was surprised to find out that the actor playing Dr. Janusz is the father of Jen and Sylvia Soska, the identical twin sisters who wrote and directed the film (and who make an appearance in it as well). He was pretty good!

I really like the character development in this movie. Most of this movie is character development, in fact. Everyone is complex here – bad people do good things, good people do bad things, and desperate people do, well, anything. This isn’t your standard revenge story. It’s more than that.

One of the other things I really like about this film is that it takes you on such an interesting, unpredictable journey. While the story flows and doesn’t feel disjointed, it’s never clear exactly what’s going to happen next. From beginning to end, this is a really interesting story.

I’ll admit it’s not quite as scary as other films, but it fits neatly into the horror genre nonetheless and is definitely one of my top five favorite horror movies.