Director – Eric Pabon
Starring – Shane Byrd (Shut Up and Kiss Me!), Mark DeMicco (God Is On Their Side), and Julie Ann Hamolko (Sloppy the Psychotic)
Release Date – 2014
Rating 3.5/5
Tagline – “When the director yells cut…he may get more than he bargained for”
The slasher sub-genre is one of the most impressive of all the sub-genres but also one of the most predictable. The same formula has been the basis for so many horror films from the late 70s and all throughout the 80s going from the slashers in the woods, to the college campus, sorority houses, and high school. That formula, someone wronged dons a mask and kills those that wronged them, has been the basis for so many slashers. We then enter the 90s and the slasher formula changed it up with the rise of the self-aware slasher made famous byScream.
That formula lasted well through the 90s until the 2000s until the late 2000s when rabid slasher fans started making their throwbacks to 80s slashers and variations of the like. However, we do sometimes get a slasher that breaks the mold and gives us a strange and usual slasher unlike ones that have been released before. Not long ago the Facebook page for Cut reached out to me and asked me to check their short out. I agreed and now prepare for the review!
**Spoiler Alert**Cut follows a film crew who is making a slasher film. The director then hired on a second cameraman to film them making the film to use as a documentary. In between scenes the cast and crew fraternize among each other and a bit of a relationship builds between a beautiful young actress and the documentary cameraman. However, before the two get close someone with an ax to grind enters the set and starts killing the cast and crew.**Spoiler Alert**
I typically dislike slashers that deviate from the classic slasher formula. They tend to forget everything that made the original slashers so much fun. However, when it comes to the short Cut they did not. Cut is a slasher in nature but cuts against the grain.
The acting in this short is fun and solid. The entire cast did a great job and really dedicated themselves to their roles. This is honestly one of the best acted shorts I have seen in a long time. The story for this one is a very different take on the slasher sub-genre. We get the traditional slasher formula with someone killing because they were wronged and then we throw it into the situation of a crew making a movie while being filmed for a documentary almost makes it feel new, or at the very least unique.
Finally, the film does lack on screen kills. Sure, we get one or two but nothing impressive or the slasher standard. That was a bit of a let down. The special effects we do get are not that great making the kills we do get very lackluster. Overall, Cut is a great slasher short that breathes fresh air into the slasher sub-genre. What it lacks in kills and special effects it makes up for in style and substance. Check it out!
