Director’s Cut review
A punk band heads to an abandoned building to film their first music video. What’s more punk rock than dying for your art?
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers
In theaters October 31
Director’s Cut
Directed by Don Capria
Written by Don Capria
Starring Louis Lombardi, Lucy Hart, Danielle Kotch, Haley Cassidy, Darrin Hickok, Tyler Ivey, Greg Poppa and Brandy Ochoa
Director’s Cut Review
Much of the time in the slasher genre is spent in the shadows. At least, that is, when we are following the killer’s POV. Stalking through the woods, hiding in your dreams, blending into the crowd on Halloween night. Director’s Cut doesn’t hide its monster. At least, not in the traditional way. There are no slow chase sequences. No monster lurking in the background. The victims here willingly, though unknowingly, walk directly into their trap. Their monster acts in broad daylight. Smiling and laughing his way through a story that the others aren’t aware they are playing a part in.
The punk band Suicide Disease find themselves at a crossroads. When an exciting opportunity to have a free music video produced comes along…it’s too good to turn down. It’s also too good to be true. The director (Louis Lombardi) has other plans for the group. Luring them to a remote location…and taking them out one by one.
Walking into someone else’s narrative is a little hidden trick that horror movies utilize. Well…not hidden so much as not often thought of. The counselors in Friday the 13th are in a movie about re-opening a summer camp. They aren’t aware they are in Mrs. Voorhees revenge story until it’s too late. Brody and Hooper don’t realize that their shark hunting mission is about to be sideswiped by Quint’s obsession. Marion Crane is the protagonist of a personal drama until she stops at the wrong motel…and Norman Bates’ much more complicated story steals the show.
Director’s Cut is about a band looking to catch a break. Until it isn’t. The group has their own lives, relationships, hopes, hardships and backstories. We meet them in the middle of their own narrative. Starring in a movie about a struggling punk band. But Director’s Cut isn’t their story for long. Mister Director (Louis Lombardi) is the star of a different story. One that sees the band playing the parts of not so innocent victims.
The commitment to the two different stories concept benefits Director’s Cut in a couple of ways. First, it allows the characters to have more depth than a standard slasher usually does. The performances of each band member (and a couple of girlfriends along for a very bad ride) are fantastic. They feel like they belong in the movie about a punk band that we aren’t actually watching. The genre’s little trick doesn’t work without it. If you weren’t invested in Marion Crane…you won’t care when her story is cut off. Suicide Disease feels like a real band full of real people struggling with real issues. There’s a depth to it that, in that great horror fashion, ceases to matter by violent means.
Second, it allows Mister Director’s story to feel very different. The band drama is replaced by a violent revenge slasher film. Band members are ready for their closeups…unaware that the video they are shooting isn’t the one they signed up for. Given the remote, abandoned location…you’d be forgiven for initially believing that Director’s Cut is heading for a supernatural horror story. We learn in the opening that the band never returns from the shoot. There’s no doubt that bad things are going to happen. Director’s Cut doles those things out in a surprisingly straight forward manner. In ways that make sense once you realize whose story we are actually watching.
Which makes the title “Director’s Cut” work on multiple levels. Though it invests plenty of time and effort into exploring the doomed group…it’s Mister Director who is driving the story. Louis Lombardi gives a very different performance than the grounded work the band is providing. He’s in total control of his story…and he’s enjoying every minute of it. He isn’t going to be chasing these characters with a butcher knife. He’s going to sit in his director’s chair letting them walk right into danger. He has a reason, of course. It won’t be hard to guess what that is if you pay attention to some early conversations in the film. It’s the closest thing to a secret that Director’s Cut tries to keep. With Mister Director in firm control of the deadly situation, there’s no reason to hide in the shadows.
Director’s Cut is the story of a group of people who don’t know whose story they’re a part of. Mister Director operates in plain sight because we are watching his movie…not theirs. With his assistant Babs (Lucy Hart) by his side…they tear apart everything that Suicide Disease was to their own story. Great performances sell that as something worth caring about.
Scare Value
Director’s Cut features some of the best performances you’ll see in a slasher movie. The characters are entirely believable. The story gives them the time to form a connection. The location may suggest a supernatural encounter…but their fate comes from a much more realistic place. It’s the realism that makes Director’s Cut stand out from other low-budget slasher fare.
3/5
Director’s Cut Link
In theaters October 31 – Fandango
