Cut Throat (2002)

aka Scared

• Directed by Keith Walley
• Written by John Fitten Goldsmith, Luciano Saber and Keith Walley
• Starring
  • Luciano Saber
  • Kate Norby
  • Cory Almeida
  • Raquel Baldwin
  • Doug Cole
• Produced by Luciano Saber, Keith Walley and Ric Wolfe
• Executive produced by Lester Smith

Originally titled Scared (a title which is still in evidence throughout the closing credits), this movie was a pick-up for distribution by Charles Band’s Shadow Entertainment, rather than being an in-house production. It bears more than a little resemblance to Bleed (2002) and Birth Rite (2003), both fairly hands-off productions for Band. That’s not a compliment.

The original title was probably an oblique reference to Scary Movie, the original proposed title for Wes Craven’s Scream (which was then co-opted for the parody of the Scream movies); many have opined that the retitle meant to take advantage of the short-lived notoriety of Cut (2000), an Australian slasher movie set during the making of a slasher movie. With that background, I could probably cut you loose and you would imagine something pretty close to this movie, only much better.

The premiere of Cut Throat was a wee bit under-attended.

The best two scenes of the movie are probably the first two. In a setup that owes incredible amounts to Scream, a young woman at home at night (Paityn James) is menaced by a creepy caller who turns out to have been in the house all the time. This scene is quickly revealed to be part of the movie Death Blade, being put together by director Hamlin (Cory Almeida), screenwriter Nick (co-writer Luciano Saber), and producer Hunter (Doug Cole). The three bicker about the effectiveness of the scene as shot –Nick complains about how his script was translated to the screen, Hamlin insists that this film will be “the next Scream” (though it seems much more like the last one to me) — but ultimately, their argument comes down to what it always comes down to in Hollywood: Money. They have none. Hunter plans to meet with some money people to drum up completion funds, but unlike the other two, he has no emotional investment in the half-finished project, and he’s more than willing to cut his losses.

The mood is thus understandably tense on the next day of shooting (which also showcases some of the better camera work in the movie, as a roving viewpoint takes in all the little pockets of busywork on the set), and it gets worse: As Nina, the actress in the earlier scene, rehearses for a shot of the masked killer leaning suddenly through a window and stabbing her, a masked killer really does lean through the window and stab her to death.

The investigation seems more appropriate to a stolen bicycle than a homicide; despite all the lip service made to a police presence, the only law enforcement we ever see on screen is Lt. Hartley (Brad Lockerman), who plays his scenes as if he were some weird amalgam of Adam West and Roger Moore, and who investigates about as convincingly as I skydive.

“Good detective work is just a matter of following your brow.”

Meanwhile, the production must go one. (Must it? It seems more likely that a production without funds whose lead actress was just murdered on set would instead cease indefinitely, but there you go.) Called in to take over the lead role is Samantha (Kate Norby), an actress stalled as an career extra who has a history with Hamlin. And with her, just for comic relief, comes her bubbly friend Heather (Raquel Baldwin). Both girls are blonde, but with Sam it’s only a hair color; with Heather it’s a way of life. I half-suspected Heather would be revealed as the killer, simply because her Valley Girl act is so over-the-top it’s impossible to take seriously.

So with the role recast, the production starts up again, with Hunter the producer hoping to swing the notoriety of the crimes for some extra funds (while appearing not to be so ghoulish, of course). Sam’s got nothing but daggers in her eyes for Hamlin, even though he called her in without audition to this leading role; meanwhile Nick, being a more caring and insightful soul, starts to make connections with Sam.

Okay, everyone, assume the Scooby-Doo position!

And the killings continue, with a minimum of stalking or suspense; half of them even take place off-screen. First a nameless wardrobe lady is killed; then Skyler (J. Robin Miller), the A.D. with whom Nick has some history, disappears. Naturally, because the events in this movie take place in a dimension alien to us, Nick and Sam decide to do some Scooby-Dooing of their own instead of telling the police of some slight clues they find (Scooby-Doo is even referenced by name here). As with most horror movies which try to include a whodunit-style mystery, the whodunit is undercut by the fact that most of the possible suspects have already been killed before the big revelation.

All through the movie, I couldn’t help but think back to that second scene, where Nick was bewailing that Hamlin had missed the point in directing his script, because it seemed like that dilemma was being dramatized before my eyes. There are some isolated cool scenes, but so many dead ends (no, I know the difference between dead ends and red herrings) and pacing problems that I wondered, Was the script simply incompetent? Or did it get torn and patched on the way to the screen? (Given that one co-writer was a producer and star, and another was a producer and the director, I gotta say that the first option seems more likely. Unless we blame it all on an evil editor.)

Producer! Aaah!! Scary!

The first act really takes the first thirty-five or forty minutes, with our protagonist getting introduced at the tail end of that. Dt. Yardley is a useless appendage to the story, showing up and doing the mathematical opposite of investigation several times until he finally just vanishes somewhere in the middle; the same with an entertainment reporter (Dayna O’Brien) who’s more wooden than any cable access anchor. Skyler, the A.D., is given almost more backstory and character development than anyone else, but abruptly disappears due to inferred foul play off-camera. Nobody, either in law enforcement or in the cast and crew, even wonders for a second whether the killings are related in any way to the story they’re filming, which seems a reasonable balloon to float given that the killer dresses like they bogeyman of the production, in a duster coat and a latex mask that looks like a stitched burlap scarecrow. But no one ever notes the fact.

“I could while away the hours, conferrin’ with the flowers / Consultin’ with the rain…”

It would have been novel if a series of murders on the set of a horror movie had focused on the stylized nature of slasher movie plot by contrasting the reactions of the characters in the production’s script with the more realistic reactions of the cast and crew to a situation which, up until that point, had been the stuff of entertainment. Instead, the production is peopled entirely with the kind of people who fill the normal horror movie; there’s nothing here that wasn’t done much better elsewhere first.

Some Notable Totables:

• body count: 8
• breasts: 0
• explosions: 0
• ominous thunderstorms: 0
• actors who’ve appeared on Star Trek: 0