Lights, camera, carnage! In the spirit of Last House on Dead End Street, a group of people find themselves reluctantly starring in a psycho’s snuff movie. The tone of “Director’s Cut” is quite different than Roger Watkins’ brutal masterwork in that it’s actually supposed to be a comedy, parodying old 70s horror flicks, as well as taking jabs at Hollywood.
After sifting through a pile of audition tapes, filmmaker Cole Wilder picks wannabe starlet Brittany to be the lead in his new project. Brittany packs up her stuff, along with a few of her friends, and heads out of Bakersfield for Hollywood. They arrive at a schmoozy house party in Los Angeles to meet Cole, but little do they know that the entire house has been rigged with cameras and that the entire party is being shot as a reality show – a reality show that turns into a snuff film once Brittany’s friends decide to wander about parts of the house they were warned not to. So basically what we have here is a group of shallow, irritating fucks, who you’d love nothing more than to see dead, getting dispatched in a gruesome manner. Can’t complain about that now, can we?
Like Cole Wilder’s victims, filmmaker Eric Stacey attempts to take apart dull slasher films and shallow Hollywood folk by parading their clichés loudly in front of us, letting them speak for themselves. Conversation at this party turned reality show is always uber-ridiculous and the witless victims are as dumb as rocks, walking directly into the traps set for them. There’s even a tip of the hat to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, where a few select scenes are lifted from that film and replicated here to fit the “Director’s Cut” story. At least I hope it’s a tip of the hat and not a jab at Hooper’s classic because if that’s the case, Stacey and I will have to enter the Ring of Death and only one man will walk back out.
“Director’s Cut” is a well-made film with an obvious low-budget. Nothing more exciting than seeing someone who can create an entertaining film with such minimal resources. It’s no Scary Movie, but there’s plenty here to keep an audience giggling one second and vomiting in the aisle the next.
