CUT SHOOT KILL (2017)

Studio:       Freestyle Digital Media
Director:    Michael Walker
Writer:       Michael Walker
Producer:  Alfred Theodore Sapse
Stars:     Alexandra Socha, Alex Hurt, Jay Devore, Nils Lawton, Cathy Curtin, Phil Burke, Zanny Laird, Josh Salt, Rebecca Faulkenberry, Lexi Lapp, Michael Oberholtzer, Henry Zebrowski

Review Score:

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Summary:

A struggling actress takes the lead role in a slasher movie only to discover that the crew may be murdering the cast for real.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

After a string of unsuccessful auditions, struggling actress Serena Brooks’ new agent Shelly Drucker convinces her to consider taking the lead role in a new slasher film. To familiarize herself with the director, Alabama Chapman, Serena and her boyfriend Brian watch a collection of Alabama’s short horror films. Serena learns that Alabama’s longtime leading lady, Nicole Healy, was in six of Alabama’s shorts before being murdered in real life.

Serena meets with Alabama, who explains his vision for creating realistic horror movies. Alabama also explains that he always works with the same close-knit crew, and has known many of them since childhood.

Serena accepts the part. She asks her boyfriend Brian to not visit her on set, as he would be a distraction, which leads to a fight between the couple. Brian storms out in anger.

Dimwitted production assistant iBall picks up Serena in a bus to escort her to the remote woodland shooting location. On the ride, Serena makes friends with fellow actress Candice, who mentions her trepidation about doing a nude scene. Also on the bus is British actor Gordon E. Runte.

After arriving at the location, Serena meets Jason, the film’s producer, Walter, who plays the killer in the movie, and matronly Molly Beale, who does makeup as well as craft services. Also on set is former famed child actor Blake Stone, who costars with Serena, and additional actors Chloe and Francis.

During the cast and crew welcome dinner, the effects team stages a mock gun shooting. Serena courageously intervenes before everyone realizes the shooting was a prank.

Before filming begins, Alabama and Serena have a creative conflict over whether or not Serena should wear a handkerchief as part of her costume. Admiring her conviction, Alabama allows Serena to keep the handkerchief.

While the actors rehearse the next day, Alabama throws a fit when a cable guy arrives to fix the internet. Alabama breaks the router, insisting that outside communication would be a distraction from focusing on the film. Serena argues with Alabama over the restriction.

Chloe and Francis shoot a scene where Walter pursues them.

Executive producer Eddie Shipman arrives at the location. Although Alabama despises Eddie, he insists that Serena meet him because Eddie finances their film collective’s productions. Eddie tells Serena that he wants her to do more work with them. Serena responds that she does not want a career in horror. Alabama interrupts when the two of them begin discussing Nicole.

While exploring a cabin’s basement, Chloe discovers that the dismembered body part props are real. Walter is revealed as an actual murderer when he dumps Francis’ body in the cellar with Chloe. Walter then kills Chloe.

Alabama, Eddie, Jason, and Cutter, who is the film’s editor, later review filmed footage of Chloe’s death. Eddie tells Alabama what he wants to see out of Serena before leaving set.

The next morning, Jason tells Serena that Chloe and Francis went home after a late night of shooting. Serena tries to make friends with Blake, who isn’t interested in fraternizing.

While working out her character together, Serena and Alabama talk about Nicole. To calm Serena during a panic attack when the effects team takes a plaster cast of her head, Alabama continues revealing more about his relationship with Nicole.

In the middle of filming, Candice suddenly refuses to go topless. Disappointed at the halt in production, everyone except Serena shuns Candice afterward.

Jason gives Candice car keys to drive herself into town to call her agent. The car breaks down. Candice opens the trunk after hearing a noise and finds Gordon mutilated, but alive. A cop arrives at the scene. Thinking she tried to kill Gordon, the cop arrests Candice at gunpoint. Walter suddenly kills the cop. Walter admits to attacking Gordon before giving Candice a needle and forcing her to inject herself with a sedative.

Cutter, Jason, Alabama, and Walter watch footage in the editing room of Gordon accidentally killing boom operator Soundie while flailing during Walter’s earlier attack. The crew buries Soundie in secret.

Claiming that Soundie left for a family emergency, Alabama screens a short for everyone in which Soundie makes a cameo. Suspicious about the sudden disappearances, Serena tells Blake that something strange is going on. Serena also tells Blake that Candice wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye. Blake reveals he had an affair with Candice.

Serena hides her phone in the back of iBall’s pickup truck when he goes on a run into town. Once within range, Serena’s phone sends a text message to Brian.

Serena tricks iBall into distracting Cutter so that she can access the editing laptop. Serena watches footage from “My Secret Admirer,” the final short featuring Nicole Healy. In the footage, a restrained and seemingly tortured Nicole pleads with Alabama while professing her love for him. Undeterred, Alabama continues shooting Nicole's death scene with Walter. When her hand gets free, Nicole uses Walter’s knife to stab herself in the stomach. Nicole apologizes for ruining the movie before dying in Alabama's arms.

Brian arrives at the location. Molly injects him with a sedative and takes Brian captive.

Cutter catches Serena watching footage of the other murders. Blake comes to Serena’s rescue.

Blake and Serena’s escape is blocked by effects artist Cowboy. Blake retrieves a shotgun and kills Cowboy, but a projectile dart fires into Blake’s stomach. At Blake’s insistence, Serena flees outside. Alabama, Walter, Jason, iBall, and the cameraman Shooter arrive to film Blake’s death. Blake stabs Walter. Jason shoots Blake, but Blake manages to also stab Jason. Alabama cuts Blake’s throat on camera.

Serena returns to the cabin basement where she finds Gordon still alive, but dismembered on a table. iBall stops Serena from escaping, although he lets her go after she appeals to their friendship.

Serena hides in a shed. Alabama and the remaining crew surround her in preparation of filming her murder. Through the door, Serena asks Alabama about Nicole’s death. Alabama confesses that Eddie was also in love with Nicole. Because she was with Alabama, Eddie wrote “My Secret Admirer” to have numerous scenes that would repeatedly torture her. Broken down by the constant abuse, Nicole killed herself to spite Eddie and his movie.

Alabama seemingly breaks into the shed. Serena stabs him to death. She then removes a latex mask from the body to find that she actually killed Brian. Alabama calls cut as Serena is knocked unconscious.

Serena recovers the next day. With the location deserted, Serena gets into Brian’s car and drives to the police station in town. Alabama texts Serena footage of Brian’s murder as a blackmail threat to not say anything to authorities.

Alabama calls Serena later. He tells her that only the movie matters and makes an offer for her to join his collective.

Serena drives home. Alabama calls back. Serena tells him that she has decided to take her chances with the police. Alabama tells her that Eddie is holding Candice captive. He then has Serena watch footage of herself that he left in her apartment and tells Serena that she can become a big star. As Serena becomes swayed, Alabama says they have one more scene to shoot in order to finish the movie.

Alabama’s remaining crew arrives at Eddie’s mansion. Alabama cripples Eddie with a baseball bat. While Serena and Molly rescue Candice, Shooter puts footage of Nicole from “My Secret Admirer” on Eddie’s TV. Serena tells Eddie she has a message from Nicole. Outtakes show Nicole threatening to kill Eddie for what he did to her. With Alabama directing, Shooter filming, and iBall operating the boom, Serena cuts Eddie’s throat.

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Review:

How badly does struggling actress Serena Brooks want her big break?  Almost as badly as fledgling director Alabama Chapman wants to make the most realistic scary movie that horror fans have ever seen.

Alabama has been at it for years, working with the same grassroots crew on low-budget shorts.  He hopes to finally roll his insatiable ambition into a fright-filled feature.  Serena thinks slumming it as a prospective Scream Queen is beneath her undiscovered talents.  But striking out on countless auditions is taking its toll on her career as well as her relationship.

Luckily for Serena, although not so much for her predecessor, Alabama lost his longtime leading lady when she was mysteriously murdered.  At her agent’s insistence, Serena signs on for a plum part in “The Collector” and is reluctantly on her way to a remote forest location for four weeks of secluded shooting.

The only thing more suspicious to Serena than the director’s insistence on no cellphones or internet is the curious cast and crew Alabama has assembled.  Oddball “iBall” is the production’s dimwitted P.A.  Serena’s main male co-star is a fallen former child actor.  When some of these people start going missing, Serena starts wondering if something strange is afoot.

Her instincts are on the money.  It turns out Alabama has an unusual plan for pulling authentic performances from his players that takes method acting to a whole new level.  As Serena unravels the thread regarding what is really happening, staying alive is suddenly much more important than becoming a star.

Writer/director Michael Walker’s “Cut Shoot Kill” mixes expected woodland slasher tropes with a touch of subtle satire about the indie filmmaking world for a meta-movie that does more with the former than it does with the latter.  Similar fictional-fear-becomes-reality premises have been seen in films such as “The Hills Run Red” before, although “Cut Shoot Kill” still puts a spin on the idea that is intermittently enjoyable, albeit ultimately ordinary.

“Cut Shoot Kill” isn’t a comedy, yet there is a hint of humor in having a hillbilly filmmaking “family” being the cabal behind the carnage.  The movie recognizes it is dealing with an improbable concept and acknowledges it just enough to wink without risking a break into full-on splattery silliness.

Which is a double-edged machete because literally and figuratively, “Cut Shoot Kill” could use more color.  A lot of everything looks the same starting with interchangeable characters and ending with skipped opportunities to expand creativity.

If you can keep blonde actresses Chloe and Candice straight, you’re a better person than I.  The only thing making Gordon any different than Francis is the fact that one of them has an English accent.  Costumes clad everyone in so many plain wife-beaters and shaggy brown haircuts, telling the plentiful people apart turns into a full-time task.

On one level, I respect how Michael Walker restrains personalities to a point where they can’t turn into overt lampoons.  Or worse, into standard stereotypes who can be reduced to “the black guy,” “the loudmouth, “the sexpot,” etc.

On the other hand, the viewer in me who is looking for maximum entertainment desires spunkier variety.  Whenever the A story pauses to pop over to one of Alabama’s previous shorts, or to footage from the movie within the movie, all of the scenes look alike.  The idea is that Alabama is essentially making the same piece of torture porn again and again, trying to perfect his formula.  But for the audience’s benefit, Walker could liven things up by making one short a creature feature, another a black and white throwback piece, and so on.  Diversity like that would dilute the disappointment of recycling similar setups.

“Cut Shoot Kill” carves positive notches from the lead performance of Alexandra Socha as Serena.  Socha has a blend of both Neve Campbell and Mary Elizabeth Winstead that is perfect for a plucky heroine with a certain amount of resourceful verve, yet retains a streak of a wannabe spoiled starlet.  The rest of the cast does what they can to match up with their slimmer characterizations while Socha remains the movie’s glue.

There is an edge to the film that could cut even deeper into the mediocrity if it had a bit more sharpness to its blade.  “Cut Shoot Kill” is a decent slasher simply in need of more style behind its straightforward shocks.

Review Score:  60

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