Cut (2000)
Written By: LFG
Edited By: Grave Reviews Staff
Film Information
Director: Kimble Rendall
Producers: Bill Bennett, Martin Fabinyi, Jennifer Cluff
Writer: Dave Warner
Date Released: February 23, 2000
Cast:
Molly Ringwald as Vanessa Turnbill / Chloe
Frank Roberts as Brad / Scarman
Kylie Minogue as Hilary Jacobs
Geoff Revell as Lossman
Jessica Napier as Raffy Carruthers
Sarah Kants as Hester Ryan
Stephen Curry as Rick Stephens
Matthew Russell as Paulie Morrelli
Erika Walters as Cassie Woolf
Cathy Adamek as Julie Bardot
Steve Greig as Jim Pilonski
Sam Lewis as Damien Ogle
Paul Blackwell as Vanessa’s Manager
Rating = 2/5 Graves
***May contain some spoilers***
Synopsis
After a day of shooting a horror film called Hot Blooded!, director Hilary Jacobs (Kylie Minogue) is brutally murdered by Brad (Frank Roberts), the actor playing Scarman who is the killer in the movie, after being humiliated and fired onset. Vanessa Turnbill (Molly Ringwald), the movie’s lead actress, unknowingly stumbles upon the crime scene and fights off Brad and kills him. Twelve years later, Lossman (Geoff Revell), Hot Blooded!’s former PA man, is now a film school teacher and together with his students, they view the controversial yet unfinished film in one of his classes. He warns his student of the so-called curse of the film and that anyone who has ever tried to complete the film ends up dead. However, this only excites a group of young filmmakers, especially Raffy (Jessica Napier) and Hester (Sarah Kants) who takes the lead in getting the film’s rights and even signing up the original actress in the film, Vanessa, to co-star and possibly hype the film’s publicity. However, as they start filming, the cast gets killed off one by one by the same masked killer in the film, proving the curse to be true. Now they must find a way to defeat the killer before it’s too late.
Gore Factor
Gore was significantly showcased in this film, and while the effects and the methods of execution was simple, it was still great. The killer mostly decapitates heads or slits the throats of his victims using a pair of unusually-designed garden shears as his signature weapon. And it’s good to see that they avoided doing cut-away scenes whenever someone gets killed and blood was really in your face. The opening scene where the killer cuts off the tongue of the director and places it on a table sets off the gruesome tone of the film.
The Grave Review
Cut (2000) is a horror slasher flick with a premise that one would say is quite reminiscent to the wildly successful Scream film franchise, although both have significantly different storylines. Its style also pays tribute to classic 80s horror films, making it a cheesy yet fairly nostalgic watch. It’s interesting to note how the film title is a play on not only what the killer does, but also the fact that it is a “movie within a movie.”
The film features a subpar set of characters and unfortunately, Raffy, the main protagonist of the film played by Jessica Napier, did not stand out as expected. She was a bit dry and lacked emotion. It was revealed in one scene that she is the daughter of Hilary, the director who was murdered in the original Hot Blooded! film, and it would have been an excellent storyline to explore considering it was the catalyst of her interest to reshoot it, but sadly it was never brought up again in the course of the film.
The buildup of the identity behind Scarman was fun to see since in most slasher films, it’s usually someone familiar to the group. However, he is revealed to be a supernatural character toward the end and the only way to kill him was by destroying the original film strips. This was interesting since throughout the film, no one could have ever guessed he was a supernatural character despite the mention of the curse. The director did an excellent job in making people believe that he was anything other than human.
This movie is not so bad, but it could have been better as it had questionable aspects to it, like when Brad a.k.a Scarman got electrocuted after being stabbed in the throat. It made no sense and came out of nowhere. Overall, it’s a mediocre horror movie with a bit of comedic elements, but the cheesy acting, chilling atmosphere, and gore still makes it entertaining.
For the foregoing reasons, Grave Reviews gives Cut (2000) two out of five graves.
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