Cutting Class - Il ritorno di Brian

A psychotic youth is released from his mental confinement and murders start happening all over a huge high school. Teachers, an assistant principal, and some coeds meet deadly ends in such various methods as impalement, burning in a kiln, axe to the head, slashing, and so forth. Is the crazed youth responsible, or is the murderer someone else? The ending is somewhat clever although in no way plausible. This is one of those eighties slasher flicks that does not know whether it is primarily a horror or a comedy. It DOES work better as the latter. The production is very nice and the film does boast some fine production values. The gore is limited despite the deaths, and the acting is adequate. The biggest flaw is the script which has more holes in it than a piece of cheesecloth. If you are able to put logic aside, the film can be a pleasant diversion. Certainly nothing more. Brad Pitt, Donavan Leitch, and Jill Schoelen star as the trio of youths the film centers around. Pitt is awful, though as one reviewer says he does not embarrass himself TOO much. Leith is suitably creepy, and Schoelen is beautiful if nothing else. The supporting cast is much better with the likes of Roddy McDowell, Martin Mull, Nancy Fish and other little known yet familiar faces. McDowell brings humour and class to his role as the principal, though he has very little to do. Mull is the funniest in his purely comedic role. In fact, Mull's performance has to make this a horror comedy rather than a horror film. Once you see the film you will understand why. Another bright spot is Brenda James, solely because she is one hot little number. So if you are looking for pointless, mindless fun...Cutting Class makes the grade.

"Cutting Class" is god awful, but it is soooooo funny. You and your friends have a better chance at scoring a laugh with this slasher flick than 90 percent of the films in the comedy section at the video store. The plot(if you can call it that)is about some murderer going around killing students, obviously nothing new. The suspects: Theres only two really, Brian(the former mental patient/creepy kid), and Dwight(the jock/main characters boyfriend). Its quite obvious which one of the two it is, but you dont even care about that stuff, you're watchin' for the laughs. Jill Schoelen is the main girl, Paula, and her Dad is on a hunting trip, and she has the house to herself, its not very safe. The movie stars Brad Pitt!! The rental price alone is worth the laughter you'll get from hearing him say "I'm bigger where it really counts." Jennifer Aniston, his wife, luckily cant throw this movie in his face, shes got Leperchaun under her belt. This film contains no sex, but it does try to spice it up: A cheerleader decides not to wear panties at The Big Game, Paula washes her hair wearin nothing BUT panties, and the principal makes Paula bend over to pick up her new cheerleading uniform so he can check out her rump. The gore is cheap and fake(impalements, axes in the head, hammers in the head), the acting sucks (although this film has some semi-decent names attached:Brad Pitt, Donavon Leitch, Martin Mull), and its SO 1980's. Dont hop to the conclusion that I'm trash for seeing this flick, I saw it on TV. You're not trash for renting this for laughs, you're trash for renting it for scares.



Lower your expectations, rent, and laugh!

I think it'd be fair to say that, if Cutting Class didn't have Brad Pitt, the entire would would have forgotten about it in '89.

On the surface, the concept of Cutting Class isn't terrible. It seems like it would have potential to be fairly fun. Plus, we're given the fabulous Jill Scholen as our leading lady and her track record with horror projects is pretty solid from The Stepfather to Popcorn. Surely, she wouldn't sign on to a turkey, right?

Sadly, this is wrong. Very wrong. Poor Scholen has very little to do, nor does the rest of the cast, including a very strangely placed Martin Mull and Roddy McDowell who must have owed someone a favor.

The tone varies between weird comedy and bland slashings, but neither work well by themselves and they certainly don't gel well together. Maybe the script read better than the film turned out. It's also shot with zero style and looks like an impossibly bland TV movie.

Cutting Class isn't worth a revisit. Bank some erasers together instead.

When I first rented this movie I thought I was in for your typical cheesy teen slasher movie; but this one was pretty good. So many of the characters were so freaky that you really aren't sure who's doing the killing until the last ten minutes of the film. The acting ranged from very bad to very good; with the best performance coming from actor Donovan Leitch (The Blob, Glory.) I bought a copy on VHS, now if they would just release it on DVD. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

This movie is often ignored by horror fans, but pretty underrated. Yes its cheesy and yes the only reason most people will pick it up in a video store is because Brad Pitt is on the cover but it does have a huge overall entertainment factor. The story is typical of 80s teen slashers, and the movie does have a strong likeness to Prom Night, Slaughter High and Return to Horror High, which isn't a bad thing. The acting is OK but the story is very good, and the sense of 'whodunnit' is very gripping (almost as good as Scream). When the killer is revealed in the grand finale, the final battle of good and evil begins in one last fight!!! Its pretty darn good and if you have any hesitations in seeing it...just watch it and i'm sure you won't be disappointed!