Cut (2000)

Director	Kimble Rendall
Writers	Dave Warner
Starring	Molly Ringwald, Frank Roberts, Kylie Minogue, Geoff Revell, Jessica Napier, Sarah Kants.
Genre	Slasher
Tagline	Finishing the movie could be the death of them
Country

Talk us through it

Hester Ryab, who seems to be the executive producer on the project, has managed to get original "Hot Blooded" star Vanessa involved in the project, and with funding coming from the copyright owner things are set to start shooting in the original movie's location.

Naturally, this being a slasher, there's going to be some unexpected changes to the plot, and some sudden openings for new crew and cast members

Review

There's a good reason Aussie slasher flicks are few and far between, we don't seem to be able to make one with any degree of success. Cut pretty much grabbed some content from previous movies, had a couple of names to flaunt at the box office, and leaped onto the coat tails of Scream in an attempt to out muscle Wes Craven's slasher that's not meant to be a slasher. You aren't fooling anyone there Wes. Anywise Cut for its sins did nothing at the cinema ticket counter, got a VHS tape release, and hasn't been sighted Down Under yet on DVD. I had to import a copy from the U.S just for this review, so feel privileged or something, I'm still shell shocked from sitting through this banal mess to be honest. Well actually, take a seat before reading this, I did manage to find a couple of good points.

Director Kimble Rendall dropped out of cult Aussie band The Hoodoo Gurus, hey mars needs guitars let's hit the discotheque, in order to follow a career in making music videos and television commercials of various levels of effectiveness. To date Cut is his only credit in the Director's seat though somehow he managed to parley this into getting the gig as the second unit Director on the Matrix sequels. I would expect his name to be associated with one of the forthcoming Twilight sequels any day now. What's your scene Mr Rendall, and I'll stop making the Guru references right about now to save the reader from groaning too loud.

Cut kicks off as Director Rendall provides his flick with one of those opening scenes that are meant to drive film buffs into hysterical proclamations of how artistic the movie is. We have a movie within a movie that looks so artificially wrong that you wonder if the Editor was on crack cocaine when he/she didn't slice it from the final release. Unfortunately for Rendall the scene looks exactly what it is, a film being made within the actual film, and there's that niggling thought at the back of the viewer's mind that they have seen the device used before … a few to many times. Anywise fictional Director Hilary screams out cut as her villain is about to use up some blood packs. We find out the villain, named Scarman, yawn, was meant to rip open the heroine's nightie to no doubt attract the teen male audience with some boobs on display. Hilary gives her psycho a good dressing down in front of cast and crew while the audience wonder what could have been if only the psycho had of remembered the whole bodice ripping thing. Molly Ringwald topless in an Aussie "B" grade slasher, they would have been lining up for tickets I tells ya. Unfort Molly keeps her dignity intact, well at least for the moment, she kind of blows it later while hamming up a pork parade down mainstream as the movie unfolds.

We then do get our first murder of the evening, and thankfully it's Kylie Minogue's overwrought Hilary who goes under the blades of our resident Jason. For Yank readers Kylie Minoque does manufactured pop and is big in Oz and England, particular amongst the gay communities.

Thankfully this brings us to the present day where we can meet the potential victims, work out early who the final girl is going to be (got to love a horror cliché even when it's a falsely self supporting one), and get ready to groove to an hour of stalking and slashing. Unfortunately we can also look forward to about every slasher cliché every visited, Aussie clichés about over indulged America Actors, and some appalling dialogue and acting. While not sinking to the level of say Houseboat Horror this is hardly welcome to the lifeboat party child material. You have seen it before, the situations are dumbed down for a post Scream brain dead audience, and plot holes abound. Welcome to the "B" grade side of Aussie horror where nothing approaching a professional movie need apply.

The general direction the movie is going to head down will hold no surprises and is about as easy to follow as Molly Ringwald's arse; they must have needed a wide angle lens to get that beast on screen. This is a by the numbers flick that doesn't do anything out of the blue or attempt to redefine the genre it finds itself playing banjo in. There's a twist about the fictional Director, but it's one of those wtf moments that does nothing for plot development, and which will have you wondering why it was included in the first place. Of more mirthful interest is the twist at the end of the movie that makes a mockery of the assertion that there is only one copy of "Hot Blooded" in existence. It's tacked on and indicates Writer Dave Warner has little to no respect for his audience.

Having sliced and diced Cut thus far in this review I have to say that it's not all bad and there's a few decent aspects to what you are seeing on screen. Decent enough I might add to warrant a R4 release with the works. The killer is well designed, if we forget for the moment the supernatural shenanigans, and that mask was really working for me. There's also an attempt throughout the movie to avoid the humdrum sudden shock while developing some suspense, a tad of tension, and one hell of an effective atmosphere. For mine there was almost a Hammer Horror meets American International vibe going down that you don't normally expect to experience during a run of the mill slasher flick. Cut is trying to be serious about it's subject matter and there is a palatable attempt to rise above the average. Full marks to the film makers for at least attempting a more mature horror flick than those flooding the market in the post Scream teen orientated dark genre gold rush.

For those wondering, yes there is some blood being spilled, which I guess is meant to compensate for a serious lack of T&A. We get fingers sliced off, slit throats, a decapitation, and various sharp objects meeting the flesh of victims. While not focusing so much on the "kills", Director Rendall doesn't dispense with his body count. It's a slasher flick what exactly were you expecting?

Molly Ringwald (Vanessa) surprisingly gets lead billing and center stage for much of the movie's running time. Ringwald was for a time one of the most successful of the young female actors coming out of the late 1980s, but by Cut time her star had definitely going down in a sea of mediocre roles. Ringwald is pretty much unappealing in her Aussie dark genre debut, and to be frank looks to have met one too many cheese burgers on her decent from the pinnacle. Frank Roberts (Brad/Scarman) reminded me of a very young Eric Bana, though that would be a young Bana who couldn't act. Kylie Minogue (Hilary) can only have been included to add "star" billing to things, and we're really pleased her end was nigh in the first five minutes. Some ex soap stars can actually act, Minogue isn't one of them. Jessica Napier (Raffy Carruthers) is doing her best to emulate that Campbell chick from the Scream flicks, but unfortunately just comes off as irritating. And finally Sarah Kants (Hester Ryab) is actually pretty bloody good in one of the few interesting roles in the movie, pity they didn't flash that one out some more.

Guy Gross threw in a score that is at best average, but thankfully gets drowned out by the sort of teen rock music that only movie Producers actually think teens listen to.

Summary Execution

Cut attempted to entice Distributors with its two pronged female lead claims to glory. Unfortunately someone completely missed the boat there as the movie languished in the limited release category before heading down the hire store in VHS format. On the one hand we have local diva Kylie Minogue proving conclusively that she can't act; on the other we have Molly Ringwald passed her glory days but apparently not passing up a hamburger and chips with the lot if offered. That's almost a two strike situation right there, all that was needed was a killer blow to finish things off. Cut surprisingly is not available in Australia, but can be imported from R1, amazon.com is your friend there.

There's a certain requirement for Aussie horror fans to catch up with Cut, no idea why that should be the case, but there you go I don't write the rules. The movie isn't likely to become an underground cult classic anytime soon and could induce nightmares in those who enjoy at least partially professional film making. One for local film buffs then with nothing much to recommend outside that demographic. There might be a slight saving grace for those wanting to see Molly Ringwald charging around the place in all her dumpy glory, but just think of the food bills, that arse is high maintenance folks. Anywise to cut to the chase, I would slash Cut off your future viewing list, there's nothing penetrative about this movie.

ScaryMinds Rates this movie as ...