In writer-director Steven Aripez’s The Director’s Cut, an old slasher movie, a faded local legend, and one obsessive movie nerd collide in a mystery that keeps tightening the screws as it goes. What starts as an evening of movie chatter soon pulls our lead character into something far messier and more dangerous than he ever imagined.
Terrence (Joshua Lavelle Newman) runs a video store and spends his days surrounded by the kind of physical media most people left behind years ago. Gabby (Dani Adaliz), who helps out at the shop, watches him juggle regular customers and long movie conversations, including visits from Olivia Vaughn (Alicia Blasingame), a former Hollywood screenwriter. One night, Olivia drops off a rare disc: the director’s cut of her film The Midnight Mangler.
After Terrence watches it, he starts to notice that several of the new killings in the movie appear to mirror the unsolved murders committed years earlier by a local serial killer. That murderer, known as The Fiend, is still on the loose. With dreams of becoming a police detective, much to the disappointment of his father, Terrence takes it upon himself to set up a sting operation with Gabby and his store regulars to tie Olivia to The Fiend’s murders. As Terrence begins researching the serial killer, The Fiend comes out of retirement and kills again.
“After Terrence watches it, he starts to notice that several of the new killings in the movie appear to mirror the unsolved murders committed years earlier by a local serial killer.”
One of the big reasons I love The Director’s Cut is the sheer moxie it took to make it. If there is a movie in you, do whatever you have to do to make that movie. What high-falutin’ movie critics see as a low-budget serial-killer mystery, I see as a filmmaker who loves making movies and uses every bit of what’s left of his soul to get his story on screen.
Yes, as far as movies go, this is a no-frills indie. But as far as stories go, it is a love letter to the video stores of long ago, where you would hang out on Friday night looking for something like an odd B-movie from the early ’90s to mock and admire. The first half of the film is about a group of friends just trying to get by in a weakened economy. The second half offers a twist that tests the mettle of a video-obsessed hero when a deep, dark secret is uncovered. The best part is that this group of friends isn’t the Scooby gang trying to solve a mystery, but a bunch of people who have made mistakes out of desperation and survival, which goes beyond simply trying not to get killed. Newman just kills it as the hopeful optimist whose life is about to take a turn for the worse.
It appears that the less money a production has, the more complicated the character arcs and interactions get. By the end, Aripez turns The Director’s Cut from a scrappier version of Clerks into Scream.
The Director’s Cut can be streamed on YouTube.
"…a love letter to the video stores of long ago, where you would hang out on Friday night..."
