Review | Excision (Blu-ray) | Blu-ray Authority

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Plot: What’s it about?Video: How does it look?Audio: How does it sound?Supplements: What are the extras?

Plot: What’s it about?

Pauline (AnnaLynne McCord) is a high school girl who feels isolated and withdrawn, but she comes to life in her fantasies of blood soaked surgical procedures. She is obsessed with the medical techniques, but she hides her desires deep within, though she thinks that might be her problem. At the same time, her mother (Traci Lords) pretty much ignores her in order to care for her younger sister, who is dying from cystic fibrosis. At school, Pauline is an outcast with no social life, but she has intense sexual desires, involving both a classmate and her surgical obsession. She begins to think that if she is able to unleash the blood soaked fantasies into the real world, she will find her true self at last. But if she allows her obsession to consume her real life, will her problems be solved or will she simply discover a wealth of new ones?

This is a wild one. Excision blends teen drama with pitch black humor, medical fetish, and buckets of gore, with wildly entertaining results. While marketed as a horror movie, Excision doesn’t provide a lot of scares in the usual ways, instead it is more of a slow, twisting mind game. There is ample blood on showcase, sometimes in horrific scenes of medical procedures, so those who can’t take the red stuff might be uncomfortable. What I think drives Excision is the sense of humor, which is as dark as you could want. The humor isn’t forced, but it comes off as awkward due to how black the tone is. I think it works quite well, but I have seen where others didn’t share that opinion. Another positive for this film is the performance of AnnaLynne McCord, who simply shines in this eclectic role. I didn’t expect much given her previous work, but she fuels Excision is in excellent form here. So if you like offbeat horror with a dark sense of humor, Excision is recommended.

Video: How does it look?

Excision is presented in 2.40:1 widescreen. The movie looks excellent here. The visuals are clear and show off impressive depth across the board. This transfer also makes sure the dream sequences have the ethereal quality as intended, which greatly enhances those scenes. The detail level is remarkable and really allows the medical sequences to be intense, though all the scenes of course benefit from the depth. I found colors to be natural in the real life scenes and the proper garish hues in those dream sequences. No issues with contrast either, as black levels are dead on at all times.

Audio: How does it sound?

The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack is better than average, but still doesn’t register as that memorable. The basics are more than covered, while surround presence is solid in most instances. The sense of dread in some scenes could have used an extra boost from the surrounds, but for the most part, presence is acceptable. The music also adds some life, so that is good news. I found dialogue to be clear and easy to pick up, so no lines are lost in the shuffle there. Not a home run audio presentation, but the movie sounds good and that is what matters.