Excess Flesh (2015)

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Most reviewers have gotten it right as far as the acting and style on this movie, so I won't add much as far as that goes.If you watch this one more than once, it should be obvious that the story is not about two roommates, but one woman struggling with body dysmorphia.The character's name is Jill, but she looks like Jennifer. The Jennifer personality may have been her original personality, or it may have been created as a defense mechanism to hide all the feelings of confidence and self worth, while loading up the other personality with guilt, regret, and self loathing. This was created during or after her marriage to an emotionally abusive partner who, as it is depicted in the extremely twisted and weird reality sex show sequence, would constantly tell her how disgusting and unattractive she was. This created Jill. The personality that binge eats.This is made clear through several key scenes. The two scenes where Jill and Jennifer are both in the presence of someone else (waking up with Rob, and on the curb with the police), Jennifer goes unnoticed and does not speak or even move. She is not acknowledged by anyone but Jill.Then, in the scene where Jill opens her front door and the woman snaps cell phone photos of her, the photos are shown later to actually be photos of Jennifer. Despite that the woman's name is actually Jill, Jill is the one who does not exist in physical form. The appearance of Jill is a mental manifestation of her body dysmorphia.Then finally in the last scene, when Jill injects the talent agent with that nasty Draino stuff she concocted, she leans over, and once again, you can see in the reflection that it's Jennifer.

At first viewing, Excess Flesh is a story about an obsessed woman who imprisons her sexy roommate in a twisted attempt to bring them together -- a story of self-loathing, jealousy, love-hate, rage and, finally, about revenge and making right all things evil. Ultimately, it's a scathing commentary on hyper-consumerism, where more is more and never enough. Excess Flesh is the state of the world through the lens of its empathic, embittered interpreter, Director, Patrick Kennelly. This is a world of consumerism, a world where one's identity is determined by what they wear, how they look, who they know and how they measure up to the cruel and impossible standards or abandon all hope. This work is both a seminal work and a masterwork – a view of a dysmorphic world through the piercing mind's eye of the film's creator. This is not torture horror. This is a cunning complex film and the film reveals more and more the more you watch it. More is more. Consume. More.The acting in this film is cult status. Bethany Orr's performance places her firmly in the ranks of Isabelle Adjani in Zulawski's classic "Possession." Orr's performance is not to be missed … nor is it to be misunderstood. Take time to indulge in this actor's revelations of character, nuance and the human condition. It is a visceral, infinite, and a deeply instinctive interpretation of one's loss of one's soul to the societal mediation of one's self.Excess Flesh was a risk to make. Films like Excess Flesh are a risk for investors. Excess Flesh is a smartly produced hybrid genre film and the filmmakers deserve praise. Congrats to Exec Producer Dennis Garcia and Walking to the Moon Productions, for taking a chance on a film that needed to be made and for recognizing the talents of the filmmakers. You're a hero to indie filmmakers everywhere … Make more, please.Excess Flesh is not for the weak of mind, heart, or soul. Take a look. Take your time and let happen. I recommend that you watch it more than once. Do it in excess.

6.25 of 10. Are they roommates or just 2 versions of the same person happening within a psychotic aspiring model with a tendency to binge on eating, sex, and self abuse? Either way, you get 2 similar looking actresses, a slender model and a plump mess, playing the lead rolls.As simply horror and gore, it doesn't pick up until the latter part of the film. The first half is essentially dedicated to setting up the characters and their/her various disorders/psychoses. That does set up a mystery angle to it and make the film more enjoyable and less predictable as to where it's going.It's rare to get so much character depth, plot, gross-out scenes, horror, and hot ass shots in the same film. Worth a watch even though it makes a mistake at the end with not really completing the story and going with more of a setup for a sequel.

It's too bad because from watching the preview it looked good. It's very misleading. Seems like they tried too hard to make an "artsy" movie (lots of unnecessary slow motion, close ups and over exaggerated noises). It's a shame because it could've been a really good psychological thriller. I can say that the actresses were somewhat good. Both were annoying and I believe that was their goal in this movie. The downside was, I didn't care about what happened to either of them. They never pulled me in enough to root for one or the other. If you are into slow burning thrillers that have a big time indie feel to them and fall short at the end, you may like this. To me it was a complete waste of time.