Cut

Hmm, Australia and horror movies - I'd be hard pushed to think of many that shine or even a worthy of mention for that matter. So, would 'Cut' lead the way in my rediscovery of Australian genre cinema, sadly not.

Kimble Rendall's 'Cut' is a strange beast indeed. Like a cheesy throwback to the slasher movies of the eighties, you wonder was the film made deliberately in this manner, or did director Kendall just stumble onto the feel of the retro horror scene!

But I digress, the story goes that whilst in mid production of a low budget slasher flick the bloke in the lead killers role gets pissed off and kills the director and some other production folk, the film goes into limbo unfinished. Cut to years later and a bunch of film school teens who think it would be a cool idea to finish off the films shooting and sell the film in a blaze of promotion on its bloody history from first time round. Unlucky them though, as the evil that is the films masked killer decides to come back and reek bloody revenge on all involved in the new production.

As I mentioned earlier, I just couldn't figure out whether 'Cut' intended to be an eighties movie or just ended up that way. Either way, it's inevitably not going to be to everyones taste. There's two things that sway me in its deranged pleasure - one, I love the old slasher movies of the eighties (the good and the bad, of which this most definetely is one) and two, I have a soft spot for trashy Australian cinema (hi, I'm Alan and I'm a fan of 'Star Struck' gulp!) - so when the film opens to Molly Ringwald (who still looks gorgeous) in the guise of a showering teen singing along to some cheesy Split Enz type number they've giot me hook line and sinker.

The masked killer looks cool enough and whilst his banter in the latter half of the film will have you squirming in embarresment, there are a few effective kill sequences that should put a smile on the face of most slasher fans faces. And another wee bonus is the cool opportunity to see popster Kylie Minogue (she who cannot act) get her tongue ripped out, which I imagine would get a round of applause at any fest screening.

Yeah ok, this is a bad film. But if you've got the stomach for oddball retro entertainment, like me you'll find lots to smile about wryly for the 80 odd minutes that the film runs for. Just don't go expecting a masterpiece...at all. This film has been relaesed on DVD in many variants throughout the globe, but once again it seems that the German market has cornered the best presentation once again.

The disc from Sunfilm Entertainment is stuffed with everything a 'Cut' fan would ever need to appease them of their somewhat dubious pleasures. The anarmorphic print is clean enough and fills the screen nicely. There's optional German or English 5.1 audio and a host of extras including Trailers, Behind the scenes, Interviews with the guilty parties, Strory board comparisons and the nice addition of the films entire soundtrack as a bonus too (complete with the aforementioned Split Enz track and some snippets from the film itself). For me the highlight of the extras was the great teaser trailer for the film which cleverly takes off the old cinema showreels you used to see as a kid at Saturday matinees, nice touch.

Not for everyones taste, in fact I'd imagine most will hate it. But I enjoyed it (and it now joins the rank of my somewhat dubious pleasures list) so I'm sure there'll be a few of you other folk with similarly bad taste. Nice disc from Sunfilm (Germany) though!