Director: Louisa Warren
Year: 2020
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: Conjuring the Plastic Surgeon
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Trying to jumpstart her career, a model looking to fix imperfections holding her back is invited to a remote house to receive complimentary plastic surgery from a shady service alongside several other hopefuls in the same situation but must try to get away when they realize the truth behind it.
Review:
This one comes off quite nicely overall. One of the better efforts here is the overall setup which speaks heavily about the weight of the modeling industry affecting her. As we're introduced to her with her career stalling and being driven to surgical extremes through comments made from both her coworkers and others online, it all generates a striking indictment on the modeling industry who drives people to these measures by forcing that sense of physicality from people who may not really need it. The way this speaks heavily about this subject creates a generally strong starting point for the film tackling this subject as it does.
With this setup in place, the film comes off quite nicely with the interactions involving the surgical procedures involving the demonic surgeon altering their intended outcomes. Taking place in the remote house under the flagrant setup of free surgery, these scenes come off quite nicely as the film plays off the scenes supposedly starting normally before they realize the devious nature of what's going on. The graphic nature of the scenes comes off quite nicely as the low-budget brutality looks great and makes the fine backstory for the killers' motivation that gives this a fantastic setup which makes for its positive points to like about it.
There are some issues with this one that holds it down. One of the main features holding it back is the general lack of urgency with the group staying at the house as nearly everyone here fails to sense any danger from what's going on. As the film tends to go through a repeated pattern where an individual is selected for the procedure and then taken away without really bringing about too much worry about what's happening due to the lack of action in what's going on. This is only enhanced by the actual surgery scenes which are all somewhat bland and dull without involving the brutality here which all manage to lessen the fear of the killer which all lower this one.
Overview: ***/5
Pretty enjoyable for what it is although it does have some issues, there's a lot to enjoy here which is enough to keep this likable over its few flaws. Those who do appreciate this style of indie effort or are fans of the creative crew while most others who don't enjoy those factors should heed caution with this one.
This review ran as part of our 2023 Women in Horror Month celebrations. Click the banner below to check out the rest of our month-long celebrations including various reviews and interviews:
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