PROXY (2013)

Ever watch a movie that was brilliantly done, but so dark and disturbing you felt like you needed a long shower afterwards?
(Actually, if you are a member of this forum, the answer is probably yes, except for the "brilliantly done" part)

That was my reaction to the IFC Midnight Release film PROXY. From the opening scene, this was one of the most brutal and
disturbing films I've seen in awhile. (some minor spoilers follow, but I'll leave the big stuff undisclosed).

In the opening scene, we see Esther Woodhouse, a rather pretty, winsome girl whose absolute failure to project emotion rivals that
of Kristen Stewart in TWILIGHT. However, that is the nature of her character. She is in the ObGyn's office, getting her final sonogram
check up. She is enormously pregnant, and seems remarkably indifferent to the coming birth of her child. After a desultory conversation
with the nurse, she leaves the clinic and heads towards her car. She is almost to her destination when, out of nowhere, a mysterious
assailant in a hoodie hits her over the head with a brick and drags her into an alley. The mugger then proceeds to hit her repeatedly in
the stomach with the same brick, obviously intent on killing her unborn child - all the while never saying a word or making a sound. As
blood starts to pour from between the unconscious Esther's legs, the attacker flees the scene.

This is in the first five minutes of the movie, and it was physically repulsive - the only thing I have seen that was more violent in this vein
was the "Red Wedding" sequence from GAME OF THRONES. Esther briefly regains consciousness on the operating table, just in time to see
the doctors remove her lifeless infant from the womb in an emergency C-section. Then she wakes up in a hospital bed, talking to a social
worker, and then a detective. Her assailant was never caught or identified.

On the advice of the hospital's social worker, Esther joins a support group for women who have lost children. There she meets Melanie, a
perky blonde housewife whose husband and 3 year old son had been killed in a drunk driving accident two years before. She and Melanie
strike up a close friendship, and for the first time Esther opens up about her horrific experience.

But Melanie is not all she seems . . . and neither is Esther.

Some friendships have deadly results.

If you have a high tolerance for abnormal psychology and brutal violence against women and children, PROXY is a fascinating film.

Just keep a bar of soap handy for when you are done.