Cut

The title of the movie is 'Cut', leading viewers to believe that the film is a conventional horror flick, and that the killers and bad guys like to cut their victims. Similar to how the first SAW film involved someone using a saw to literally saw his own leg off. However with 'Cut' the title of the film has a closer relationship with the way that the movie is filmed, in that it is done in one seamless single take, there are no cuts or edits. At least with the visual portion of the film there aren't. According to the IMDb trivia section for the film it took 36 attempts before a final cut was satisfactorily completed.

An interesting concept, to cut a horror film in a single take, but it's nothing revolutionary (plays have been recorded in one take and put to film for decades for example). The execution for the acting, directing, cinematography is actually alright for a movie done without a break from start to finish. The actors get their lines across convincingly, the special effects are well masked, the camera follows the action quite well. But things are never as good as they could be for a few reasons, some ridiculously bad decisions are made by the protagonists (a tired cliché for the horror genre), and the music is entirely distracting and almost comical.

The basic premise of the film is that a group of friends take a vacation in a remote cabin or home and some psychopaths terrorize them. It's been done too many times before, the 2009 remake of Friday the 13th, The Strangers, the recent remake of Last House on the Left, and U.S. version of Funny Games, are four recent examples where a group of people, or a family, is terrorized by a few deranged individuals. Even the pizza delivery aspect of this film was just done in 'The House of the Devil' which came out only a few months ago. The only thing new about this film is the single take aspect. Every aspect of the plot is directly borrowed from some other film and it seems like the writers didn't even care.

But the worst part of this film is without question the audio post production, specifically the music. I don't understand the idea of filming a movie in one take only to sabotage the entire affair by drowning out the dialog with blaring music and adding in loud orchestral stabs and hits to try to scare the audience. Early in the film a character turns out the lights to scare his friends, the flick of the light switch coincides with the loudest blast of trumpets and drums in the film, deliberately put there to scare the audience. I swear it sounded like a howitzer cannon was being fired next to my ear. Relying on such a lame tactic to scare the viewing audience was met with laughter from myself and all of my friends. And that cliché and obnoxious horror orchestral score that constantly leads the audience into when they should be scared or nervous is entirely distracting and comical in this film.

Characters in this film cannot turn a door knob, open the curtains, or brush their teeth without a thunderous trumpet or drum hit absolutely erupting from the speakers. At one point a character approaches a curtain to open it, and it sounds as if the entire country of China is playing the violin. I guess the intent was to scare the viewing audience but everyone around me, and myself, mostly ended up laughing. I doubt eliciting laughter was the intention of the film's creators.

And yes, like most modern horror movies, the characters are insanely stupid. Always splitting up into groups, failing to lock doors and windows, failing to secure themselves. And in general putting themselves in harm's way more often than not. The excuse that the film's writers will give is that the protagonists have been drinking all night and that's why they are acting dumb. They are drunk. But the actors are clearly sober in the film and not once do they slur any of their words and they seem to have complete control over their motor functions.

If you are into film production or writing, or are a big horror fan, then you should probably give this film a go. But if you're a casual movie person looking for a film to watch with friends then I can't recommend this really. A decent effort, maybe it will lead to better ideas, but nothing spectacular. 3/10

I actually stumbled across Cut quite a while ago as I'm a huge fan of Joe Dante and was checking out what Zach Galligan was up to these days. I'm based in America and I bought the film on Amazon and I was really impressed. Zach looks great and yes the two main actresses go topless which is always a plus in my opinion! I forgot about the whole one shot thing pretty quickly and viewed the film normally. The plot gripped me enough, I was sufficiently on edge and drawn in by the characters. I did get one belting fright which I didn't see coming and I never saw the twist coming either so it definitely ticked plenty of boxes in terms of what I look for in films I love. I'm not saying it rocked my world but I'm certainly not asking for my money back.

I have to admit I was enticed by the synopsis that mentioned the film was shot in one continuous take. The truth is most of it is, some 62 minutes worth of it, and that alone is reason enough if you buy into the gimmick. After all, you will have to put up with a curiously amateurish opening (done for a reason of course) that had some really deliberate bad acting just to get you into the mood for what's going to unravel, because the next action sequence won't turn up until half an hour later.

Set primarily within and around the confines of a mansion, I felt the story was nothing to shout about, being but a narrative piece that seemed secondary to the technical aspects of the film. Written and directed by Alexander Williams, ample time got devoted to introducing the group of 6 characters one by one, and there were some really uninteresting dialogue going on that had me switching off in some parts as they were really going on talking about uneventful back stories, suffice to know that they are in the home of someone else's uncle, and the introduction also allowed us to have a first hand look into all the rooms, nooks and crannies that will be useful come later in the film.

Basically, once we get past the introduction, things start to pick up. Suffice to say that our group somehow finds themselves terrorized by a group of clown face paint wearing thugs who are out for blood and will stop at nothing until everyone in the house is killed off. Equipped only with things found in the house and used as makeshift weapons, the narrative then unravels itself in real time as we are supposed to root for the individuals to get out of their predicament.

Taking place pretty much like a stage play, one must salute the technical brilliance of the film, having shot most of it in one single take, and you can imagine the kind of logistical nightmare that presents itself should any one part just failed to make the grade, or someone was to miss the cue. Sure there could be other films already made which employed similar techniques, but to me, it is still a marvel to wonder at the sheer determination for anyone wanting to pull such a film off, and the countless amounts of time and dedication that went on behind the scenes (some as seen during the end credits) to ensure things get worked out to perfection.

A proper script and better sound editing might have saved this effort from going horribly wrong. As for the story, it doesn't deserve describing - nothing happens that we haven't seen a dozen times in other films. People behave in the usual, expected dumb horror film character manner. Events happen that are meant to be scary but, most of the time, are not.

As it is, the "one continuous take" thing is a gimmick, nothing more. It doesn't add to the story or the suspense. The camera operator should get better paying gigs, but the rest of the crew should not be so lucky. Directing is hit and miss - I am sure it was extremely hard work to choreograph the entire 65 minute take, but the acting is so off that it kind of kills all the other aspects of direction. Especially after the mid point does most of the acting degenerate into insanely theatrical territory. In fact, the whole production seems like a stage play, and the performances are uniformly reminiscent of one. Dialogue at first sounds clever but soon becomes annoyingly so, and is most of the time very on-the-nose. And that is only when it can be heard, because at times sound mix is so bad, the soundtrack and noises drown out the actors' voices.

Fight sequences are ridiculous - I am sure it is awfully difficult to stage fighting when there are no cuts, but in this case they would have been better off not showing anything at all. Most of the fighting resembles very drunken bar brawls with old school slapstick fight sounds added.

Music is diabolical - I am not sure if it is meant to be ironic (the fact that the rest of the film seems to be played out straight suggests otherwise) - but the extremely loud eruptions of staccato effects are not scary at all. If anything, they are distracting and terribly irritating. There is zero tension.

I can only recommend this film to hardcore horror fans. The single take approach may be of some interest to film students or professionals, but content-wise "Cut" is a waste of time and talent. At least they spared some money on editing.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

Cut is trying to ride on the publicity of being the first Brit horror flick to be shot in one continuous take, the impression being of trying to create a 'real time' feel to it. It sort of works in this sense, but in terms of making it 'work', it's a miserable failure.

This is just an amateurish and embarrassing effort from beginning to end, with no redeeming qualities to speak of. Cheap looking, not scary, not funny, poorly written, badly acted and over faster than sex. And, of course, infamous glamour girl Danielle Lloyd has her sexy image plastered on the front cover to lure you in, despite being in it for less than five minutes at the beginning. She shouldn't expect her 'acting' career to go very far on the basis of this. *