American Mary: a good digression.

I went to a party last night. I didn't know hardly anyone there. It was a benefit for the owner of the pub, O'Malley's, who had suffered a stroke. It was, of course, at that pub. I'm on a stringent, fixed-income budget, and ran deficit last month, so I have to choose my socializing carefully. 

A trivial fact about me: I fear nothing in life more than a stroke.The very thought of it is frightening.

I went alone. Several different groups were meeting there, and I knew almost nobody. I did talk to a few people, but in between time, I sat alone thinking about the scene I was going to write. That's what I do now, I daydream about my characters or about the scene, when I'm driving, when I'm walking, not when I exercise, though. Then I watch TV. It's probably an expression of both my opinion as a writer, and my Attention Deficit Disorder.



Of the few people I did talk to, one was a friend who complimented me on this blog (encouraging) and brought up my previous entries to talk about. I was so surprised and thankful. In turn, I told her that I started to read the book she recommended, Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon. It's about depression, and the seems to cover its subject from every imaginable angle. I'm only 35 pages into it, and already I've learned a lot of practical advice for dealing.


She introduced me to a few other people, and knowing what group they were with (GenerationKink and so on) I told them about a horror movie they might love, one I'm looking forward to, American Mary. Here are the trailers:

And here's another:

Disclaimer: I haven't seen this movie yet. I've just been very curious about it.

I've been following the progress and production of this work of blood opera for months. Canadian movies are destined to get very poor distribution in the US, so unfortunately, so this will probably go straight to video.

That's too bad. This movie has been playing through the film festival and convention circuit with universally great reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, fans have given it a rating of 99 so far. However, people have walked out, even having been warned.  If it plays in theaters in the US, it won't have any rating but NC-17.

American Mary is about a surgeon laboring through her residency or internship, who can't pay her bills. So she answers an ad in the paper, which leads her into an underworld of radical body modification.

As fascinating as the movie is the creative collaboration that wrote and directed it: Sylvia and Jen Soska, also known as The Twisted Twins. They're long-time horror fans based in Vancouver. Here they are in LA getting a taste of Hollywood glamor:

Just beautiful alone, but put them together and you won't believe what you see.

These two are able to do double-time on the writing and directing duties, which allowed them to shoot American Mary in what seemed like only ten days. They tried acting, but kept on getting hooker roles, then they went into stunt work. That expertise serves them well in their first film, Dead Hooker in a Trunk, made Grindhouse fashion on a Grindhouse budget. It's a fun movie.

How did I hear about this duo and this film? I'm a great Ginger Snaps fan, as you probably know reading, here. I came out of that film wishing I had written it. I realized it was exactly the kind of horror I wanted to write. I call it Blood Opera,. I became a fan of the two lead actresses, Emily Perkins and Katharine Isabelle:

I was following Katharine Isabelle's career progress, and she was cast as Mary Mason, the lead in American Mary:

Katie Isabelle in character as Mary Mason, on a bad day.

That picture isn't fair to her unless I show you how she looks when she's not channeling a character:

Yes, the same woman in the picture above

More about Ginger Snaps in a later blog post. I know I've promised that for a long time, but there's truly a lot to say about it.

I can't wait for the opportunity to see American Mary. I'll write more about it afterward.

I finally couldn't stand it any longer and went back home to write. Then found I was too tired to put together the scene I was so distracted with.

I woke up in the middle of the night and took a Benedryl. That put me to sleep all right. I couldn't wake up normally or on time. Today, I felt wrecked. I only did some reading. And then blogged this, which took longer than I planned.

Tonight and tomorrow, I better get hot with the writing. Monday, I have a deadline with my writers' group.

Final thought: if Australia is the Land Down Under, that would make Canada the Land Up Over.