Smash Cut

Just before the movie starts Herschell Gordon Lewis pops up on the screen to warn you about you will see. For me that was the moment to not take the movie seriously. I guess a lot have done that by reading their reviews! The score is what made me remind of Blood Feast. The script is so seventies low budget style, man, this is just back to memory lane. Do not to attempt this flick with a feeling of nowadays. That it is an ode to Herschell becomes clear with a headline in a newspaper, Gruesome Twosome is written, do I need to say more. Due the fact that they made it exploitation style the acting is total crap, but still okay if you know what I mean. It's nice to see David Hess again and Berryman. I guess they had a lot of fun while filming. Of course the effects used are also old school seventies style which means, cheap but effective. You can see clearly that it is a manikin's arm used or whatsoever but the blood flows on a regularly base and a bit of gore is added. The only thing it lacks from is nudity, especially with the scene's in a strip joint and the appearance of Sasha Grey, know for her nudity activities and hard core flicks. Still, if you are into a good joke and an ode to the pre old school horrors than watch it, if you are into the torture porn or slashers, leave it.

How bad can a low budget movie be? Well it can be bad and very bad and then it can just be simply retarded.

This is very bad - but still has some silliness to be classified as funny in some manner.

It's not really a horror and never could be considered one.

It's simply too stupid to be one.

The opening scene in the movie theater is great - along with the sexy psychiatrist and the stuffed doll is really cool.

The over the top acting and effects were just too absurd to be stupid and yet they were not great either.

Just like this review, it keeps you watching for some reason or other and it's not because it's any good really.

A horror film director (David Hess) is depressed that audiences find his gore effects too fake-looking. After he accidentally kills a stripper in a car accident, he uses her corpse to make better gore effects. Driven to make more realistic horror movies, he becomes a murderer. Meanwhile, the stripper's sister (porn star Sasha Grey), hires a private detective (Jesse Buck) to investigate her sister's disappearance. This is cheap, lame-ass stuff. It tries to be funny, but it's severely unsuccessful. Its worst crime is there's almost no nudity! You hire a porn actress as your star, you gotta have some boobs! This'd be completely bottom of the barrel stuff if not for the groovy, '70s porn-influenced score and the fairly decent look of it.

Two things might attract you to this movie; if you're like C, it's the prospect of seeing adult film actress Sasha Grey doing something other than swallowing massive meat (although why you would want to see her doing anything but that is a mystery to me), or you're like myself, and want to see a movie that is a tribute to the life and works of the God Father of gore H.G. Lewis.

...

The gore, or lack of it, is another disappointment. The effects aren't really the problem, I realised that they were obviously fake to mimic some of the questionable gore props used in the 60s and 70s however I distinctly remember most of Lewis' gore being quite revolting and of bad taste. In 'Smash Cut' they are all played for a laugh which was a bit of a shame. In addition to this, and contrary to much of Lewis' ethos, many of the gore scenes are remarkably weak, nothing much is shown. On occasion the gore is there with some guts and plenty of blood, but certainly nothing which sticks in your head like in Lewis' movies.

'Smash Cut' delivers an experience which is occasionally close to the great Lewis movies of old, too often though it forces the formula too far, with the 'bad acting' coming off a little to camp, and many of the jokes coming too close to seeming like a bit of a micky take. There are many aspects of the movie which fall short, but overall, the main problem remains that for a movie attempting to pay homage to the God Father of gore, it's not anyway near gory enough.

Read the full review at: beyondthegore

If you love low budget films, this is an absolute must-see. I loved every minute of it, every bad line of dialogue, every bad joke, every predictable plot device, even the ridiculous costumes.

On the "B" movie scale I give it 8 out of 10.

The cast and director are (mostly) very experienced, if you think for a minute that the camp and cheese is accidental, you should probably rent a Van Damme flick next time.

Incidentally, it was filmed in my hometown, so I enjoyed seeing familiar landmarks. Most notably the famous Bytown Theater is featured in several scenes.

I read the other reviews on here and really, if you don't like "B" movies, don't write reviews on them... If you know what to expect from this film, you will love it.

OK, actual critical stuff... The opening and closing credits were both absolutely first rate. The score is brilliant, really ties the film together very nicely. The cast is full of familiar faces for horror buffs, which is a real treat. Sasha Grey performs excellently, and I love that the director never sexualizes her (except for a cute nurse outfit).

Watch this movie in the right frame of mind and you will have a blast!