Tommy Snöberg Söderberg 
Mary is struggling financially. She’s in medical school and determined to become a surgeon, but how is she supposed to make the money last? She tries to stretch every dollar as far as she can before finally giving up and looking for a side job. “No sex,” the ad says, and she happily goes there to apply for the job. One thing leads to another, and suddenly a whole range of possibilities opens up for her. She’s offered a lot of money to perform an extreme body modification. And another one, and another…
Looking at the cover, you might think that she can’t possibly perform surgery dressed like that, that the clothes must be there to try to sell the movie on sex. And of course the idea is for it to look sexy. A woman dressed like that in that pose is bound to attract viewers. But the fact is that this is more or less what she’s wearing when she performs her modifications as well. It’s perhaps a little clumsy, but nothing that bothers me, and since there are some erotic undertones in the film after all, I think it’s perfectly okay.
We should be clear that there are all kinds of possible and impossible fetishes and paraphilias, and I certainly don’t think the film depicts cases that couldn’t exist in real life. People who want to split their tongues, amputate body parts, or have their gender surgically altered beyond recognition. Of course, they’ve added a little twist to it, and in one of the more advanced procedures they even reference Dr. Mengele.
There is also a subplot that could more appropriately be considered part of the rape/revenge swamp. And it is one hell of a revenge, I can promise you that. Rarely has a perpetrator been punished as severely as in this film.
You don’t actually get to see very much being carried out; you have to imagine most of it and wait patiently until the results are revealed. Personally, I think it can be much more effective not to wallow in blood and gore, but instead let the viewer use their own imagination. But perhaps it would have been appropriate to show a little more at some point. You can’t really get around the fact that it becomes a torture film anyway; you can’t hide that simply by not showing anything.
Otherwise, I think the atmosphere is good and the actors make a good impression. It’s of course Katharine Isabelle in the lead role who carries most of it with her emotionless appearance. The smaller roles are solid as well. Nothing more, nothing less.
As a horror movie, it’s not exactly terrifying, I can’t claim that. Perhaps that’s not the point either. I think the idea is that we’re supposed to be gripped by the extreme ideas people can have when it comes to decorating their bodies. I mean, hardly anyone raises an eyebrow at tattoos and piercings anymore. We have scarification and whatever else it’s called; obviously, the bar has to be raised if we’re going to be shocked!
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