Horror Movie Review: Cut (2000)

A supernatural slasher from the year 2000 that stars Molly Ringwald, Jessica Napier, and has Kylie Minogue in a brief, but notable role? No, it’s not a fever dream, it’s Cut! A self-aware slasher that owes a lot to Scream, but also one that has its own identity, and a solid cult following.

Does it deserve one though? Yes and no. On the one hand, it’s an easy film to like, not just because of its unique cast, but because it embraces its cheesiness and approaches the concept with gusto.

The story surrounds a film. A low budget horror film called Hot Blooded being directed by Hilary Jacobs (Kylie Minogue). She’s a no-nonsense kind of director, which gets her killed when a disgruntled member of the cast goes on a murder spree. A spree cut short by the ‘final girl’ of the film, Vanessa Turnbill (Molly Ringwald).

The film is never finished and for years, a curse seems to linger over it, resulting in it becoming infamous. Is it actually cursed though? Raffy Carruthers (Jessica Napier) doesn’t think so and alongside a group of willing film students, she sets out to finish the film.

Of course, it’s not long before someone dressed and masked like the killer of the film is rampaging through the cast. The question is whether the killer has come back to finish what he started or someone has decided to get their moment of fame in the most horrific way possible.

Cut tries to play it coy but does give the game away early on. This is not your typical slasher, even if it seems like so. We’re dealing with the supernatural and when that side of things is fully revealed, the film officially enters ‘so bad it’s good’ territory as far as I’m concerned. I’m not even going to pretend Cut is a good film, because it is not, but it is entertaining and for a slasher released to no fanfare in the year 2000, that is impressive enough.

So much of its entertainment value comes from the things that make it bad too. Such as the dodgy acting, the choice to make both Kylie and Molly’s characters some of the more unlikable ones, and the full villain reveal. Glorious stuff that is very memorable.

Alongside the bad, there’s also good, and one aspect of Cut that delivers is the varied and gory deaths. There’s a big cast, most of whom are there to die, so Cut makes sure they die in style. I had many moments where I could complain about what I was seeing on screen, rarely did the actual slashing come into it.

What I probably found myself complaining about the most was the cliches, most of which were tired long before Cut came out. If you’ve seen any slasher horror before, you will recognise every single beat. This isn’t a film championing originality; its identity comes from its commitment to the cheese. I really do think it’s worth a watch.