>> "Peter" was recruited for a
test screening
of CUT at Hoyts Broadway, in Sydney. His review was
posted on the
Dark Horizons Web site ...
thanks to Garth Franklin for
letting us use it.

>> Webmaster
Stuart O'Connor was at the
World Premiere

In a word, the film rocked! The basic storyline is about a slasher film director, played by Minogue, who gets murdered by the actor playing the serial killer in her latest movie, Hot Blooded. Cut to a number of years later. The film was never completed, and any attempt to screen it coincides with a grisly murder. A group of film school students decide to get the rights to it and finish the film. So they raise some money and bring out the lead actor from LA (played by Molly Ringwald) to finish her part. She's older, a little washed up, and doesn't want to be there, a feeling reinforced when the killer starts to take out the film crew one by one on the isolated mansion set they are shooting on.

The thing that struck me about CUT was that it really mixes humour and horror in a really clever way – for every audience 'shock' there was a scene in which the film took the piss out of the genre. The audience had a lot of fun at this screening, and really got into it. Ringwald camps it up, the young cast are all excellent (it has Jessica Napier and that young dude from The Castle) and the only disappointing bit was that Minogue wasn't around longer. The killer could go down as one of the classic horror psychos, and there were plenty of discreet references for the buffs.

The soundtrack was full of Aussie bands and I wouldn't be surprised if this film becomes one of the biggest local hits of the year – it's a better film than Two Hands (though I quite liked Two Hands) or that lame piece of shit The Craic. About time we saw a good Aussie horror flick! I'm not sure when its getting released but it has the potential to give the dozens of ''cute young thing'' horror pics the studios have been pumping out a run for their money.

Australia's first mainstream slasher film hits the screen with a bang. And a stab. And a slice. And a scream or two. And plenty of blood, frights, red herrings and lots of laughs. In fact, there are a lot of firsts surrounding Cut - it's the first script of Dave's to be produced, although he has several others either optioned or in negotiation; it's the first major film from director and former Hoodoo Guru Kimble Rendall; and it's also the first film for producer Martin Fabinyi. And for a bunch of guys dipping their toes into this genre for the first time, they sure know their stuff.

Cut tells the story of a bunch of Australian film students who hear about a slasher film, Hot Blooded, that was never finished because its director, Hilary (Kylie Minogue), was killed by the actor playing the psycho killer in the film. Despite their lecturer (who was assistant director on the night Hilary died) warning them that whenever someone tries to start up production of Hot Blooded again someone dies, director Raffy (Jessica Napier) and producer Hester (Sarah Kants) decide to go ahead and complete the film. They put together a crew and manage to get the original star, Vanessa Turnbill (Molly Ringwald), to return to Australia - in fact, to the original location - to complete Hot Blooded … 14 years after shooting shut down.

Of course, this being a slasher film, lots of bloodletting ensues … along with plenty of laughs, a few good scares and a rocking Aussie soundtrack. Cut shows that Australia can make a good, mass-market horror film just as well as Hollywood. It's a finely crafted feature, with excellent special effects, a taut plot and a killer - Scarman - that's a welcome addition to the ranks of Michael, Jason and Freddy.