Cut

This is a film bound to slice opinion, when you consider that apart from the opening 'film within a film' segment, the whole of CUT was filmed in one take!!! I didn't know this when I bought the film, I just figured it looked pretty cool, in fact it wasn't until a few minutes into the film that I noticed what was happening and I couldn't believe it. This is brave film making when you consider all the tried and tested horror film camera language they are sacrificing by shooting this way and in my opinion on the whole they pull it off. It's even got a few shocks! The plot doesn't smash any boundaries but hardly the point here. The actors all do extremely great jobs, with all round strong performances.

Directors/Writers trying something different and having the bottle to go against the grain should always be applauded. Cut is to be both applauded and enjoyed, an excellent viewing experience. I very much recommend this to any and all genuine film fans out there.

First of all this movie reeks of simplicity on which other movies simply don't because they offer no acting what so ever. This horror movie is excellent, because actors are really frightened and the place looks very comfortable for them to grow upon. Everything is learned from the story, which is how it should be! Mind you that tastes are always different and today there are plenty of people with exceptionally lowered taste, swallowing ridiculous CGI effects that hog the screen. Where is acting in all of that? Well...I believe that movies of this type offer refreshment in creating new ideas with little as much possible resources. Having an open mind, while watching this panic movie will entertain you without any wish for blood baths, fountains of blood, etc. Remember this is a movie about people left alone in an English countryside, having no working communication to call for police, where a bunch of clowns (they look awesome, BTW!) get to play a little game with them. Its a Fun experience, and I recommend you see it for yourself.

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.

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. *