Cutting Moments

The final segment of the short story collection must be the most psychologically destructive short film I have ever witnessed...I still shudder thinking about it, and it has been 3 weeks since I pushed the DVD into the machine...This is definitely NOT for the faint-of-heart, nor should a child have the unpleasant opportunity of seeing it... The rest of the collection is dreary and unoriginal, and one wonders why they would place such a disturbing masterpiece amongst a pile of wasted junk...But, excluding those, the main event, aptly entitled Cutting Moments, should be witnessed by all afficionados of the horror genre and seems to have been lost in the worldwide DVD/VHS market...I discovered this work of genius in the thriller division of the local Look & Listen megastore, selling at a cheap price....

I had been seeking this movie for over a year and once I finally got it - I was sorely disappointed. The infamous 'Cutting Moments' part is hardly anything to write home about. The gore is minimal and the effects are sub par. I was expecting to have images stuck in my head for days - but what I got/saw was forgotten minutes after I watched this movie, The movie as a whole looks as if it had been filmed by 1st year movie students.

Don't make the same mistake I did - Watch it only if there is nothing else on

First thing's first. All of the stories in this classic anthology look like separate short films. Somebody put these together, and, knowing Douglas Buck's title segment was the most shocking, they saved the most effective one for last. I dig the whole anthology. "Crack Dog" is surreal, gory, and downright hilarious. "Don't Nag Me" is less outrageous, but no less clever and darkly funny. "Bowl of Oatmeal" is downright bizarre filmmaking, and (while I consider it the lesser of this collection) I enjoyed it also. "Principles of Karma" was really, really good. It has some good things to say about how unfair things can become for some truly good people when oppression spawns extremists who ruin their own revolution by paving another road to hell with good intentions. "Cutting Moments", the title segment itself, simply blew me away. I have never seen things this grotesque that were as powerfully dramatic as those on display in Douglas Buck's highly effective short film. The sadomasochistic gore and self-mutilation scenes have an inexplicable force behind them so strong that even the sickest scenes take on a feeling of harsh drama. "Cutting Moments" as an anthology is definitely a favorite of mine, a diverse collection of the perverse and, more often than not, hilarious. Still, BE PREPARED for the title segment. If it doesn't make you puke or totally depress the hell out of you (or both), something might be really wrong with you.

This compilation DVD was the most mixed batch of shorts possible. From the dull(Principles of Karma), to the obscure (Bowl of Oatmeal) and the random (Don't Nag me). There are only two out of the five shorts worth watching, for two entirely different reasons. Starting with 'CRACK DOG', the first short on the DVD, this has a running time of just over five minutes, but is pure genius. We were left in stitches, and hopefully this was the intent. Not essentially horror, it's just bizarre, and worth seeing for the poodle alone.

As for 'CUTTING MOMENTS', the title short, but last on the disc, it's the most disturbing thing I have ever seen. Not for the faint of heart. My girlfriend had to leave the room, and my friend and I were screaming at the television. You won't just flinch, you'll be holding your knees up to your chest and covering your eyes(amongst other things). It's pure and simple, SICK!

Five strange little horror films that, thanks to the inventiveness of the filmmakers, manage to rise above their obviously limited budgets. I received this from a friend on a double-sided DVD that also includes the movie Buried Alive. I watched this first, expecting it to be the lesser of the two, but hopeful, considering the Tom Savini quote emblazoned on the box art, that it might surprise me. It certainly did, and for a freebie, there is no cause for complaint. The acting - all seemingly from 'semi-professionals' - is uniformly awful, the effects cheap and nasty, but the ideas more than make up for that. Other posters have gone into the plots in detail, so I won't bother, but I agree that the Bowl Of Oatmeal is the least enjoyable segment. Interesting, but not as much fun as a crack-smoking mutt or a nagging old biddy driving her murdering husband nuts! The final titular short is thoroughly nasty, and even I, a David Cronenberg fan, had to watch it through my fingers! If you don't find the sight of a woman cutting off her own lips with a pair of scissors disturbing, I fear for your sanity...

My only question would be the year of production. There are next to no credits on the end of the Region 2 DVD, and although IMDb claims this was made in the late nineties, the cinematography would suggest it was all made on the cheap - perhaps as student films - in the 80s. In fact two of the films have clear 80s references; the old couple's gravestones say they died in 1987, and the teen-movie short has repeated references to Breakfast Club star Molly Ringwald. Have they tacked on four 80s flicks to the recently successful Cutting Moments short to make a feature? (If that's the case, what has happened to these filmmakers, who show a lot of promise in this collection?) Or are they all from the nineties and the two films I mentioned are 'period pieces' - Principles of Karma being a parody of the 80s teen-movie, for example? I hope someone else can update IMDb to ease my curiosity...

But anyway, if you can forgive the poor production values and you like macabre tales, you're in for a short, sweet treat!