Cut (2000 film)
Cut is a 2000 Australian slasher film directed by Kimble Rendall and starring Kylie Minogue, Molly Ringwald, Jessica Napier, and Tiriel Mora.

Plot
The movie begins with a mother cooking food at the kitchen stove and calling out to her kids about dinner, before leaving the house somewhere. The mother's daughter Chloe (Molly Ringwald) goes upstairs into her room, petting her cat, and starts taking a shower. Chloe finds "Now you die." written on the fogged up mirror in the bathroom, but she thinks it's her unseen brother doing it. After finding her cat dead on her bed, she answers her telephone that starts ringing, hearing a man's voice saying "Now you die." and locks her door as someone bangs on it. Chloe runs back to the bathroom to break a glass bottle to use as a weapon. 

A creepy masked man dressed in a boiler suit with modified garden shears, Scarman (Frank Roberts), breaks into her room. He corners her into a wall and slits her throat. This whole thing turns out to be a horror movie called Hot Blooded being filmed by director Hilary Jacobs (Kylie Minogue). Chloe is an actress named Vanessa Turnbill and Scarman is an actor named Brad. Hilary treats Brad horribly in front of everyone because he made a mistake during filming. Vanessa isn't nice to Brad either and threatens him if he ever tries to put his hands on her chest again, then screams for her personal assistant Lossman (Geoff Revel) to get her a coke.

Later on, Brad who is still in his costume goes to see Hillary in her office because he is angry she embarrassed him in front of everyone. Hilary fires him, but Brad puts on the Scarman mask, cuts off his own pinky finger with his shears. This scares Hilary and he murders her by cutting off her tongue. Vanessa comes in to discuss something with Hilary and Brad attacks her, which they both struggle over the shears. Lossman comes in just as Vanessa gets a hold of the shears and stabs Brad through the neck, killing him. Strange electricity flashes around Brad's body.  

Many years later, film students Raffy Carruthers - Director (Jessica Napier), Hester Ryan - Producer (Sarah Kants), Damien Ogle - Cinematographer (Sam Lewis), Julie Bardot - Make Up (Cathy Adamek), Rick Stephens - Sound (Stephen Curry), Jim Pilonski - Electrics (Steve Greig), Cassie Woolf - Wardrobe (Erika Walters) and Paulie Morrelli - Boom Operator (Matt Russell) want to finish the Hot Blooded movie, but their college professor who is Lossman warns them not to, because anyone who has tried to finish it, ended being mysteriously murdered. Like a young director watching the movie alone being found with his throat slit and another director messing with the copy of the movie getting electrocuted.

The group are able to contact Vanessa who is now a golf player through her manager (Paul Blackwell) and she eventually agrees to be in the movie again and go back to australia. They get the rights and a copy of the movie from an old woman Martha (Phyllis Burford). Another friend, Bobby Doog (Simon Bossell) joins the movie and plays Scarman. The group all go to a theater and watch the copy of Hot Blooded. Vanessa leaves, then Raffy notices blood on the floor and finds everyone around her dead. Scarman grabs her, but it's really Bobby and the whole thing was a prank, which angers Raffy.

At her motel room, Raffy and Damien make up and have sex. The real Scarman shows up at the theater and disembowels the Archives Projectionist (Tiriel Mora), then two cops Detective Hollander (Peter Green) and Detective Lucy Carter (Caroline Minon) investigate the crime scene and link it back to older murders where other people watched a copy of Hot Blooded and were found dead. 

An old man Mr. Drivett (Edwin Hodgeman) who is the owner of the mansion where Hot Blooded was originally filmed lets the group stay to film their movie. While everyone is preparing for the movie, Scarman lurks around and Bobby starts acting strange in the Scarman costume. As Paulie and Cassie sneak off into the kitchen and are about to have sex, Scarman shows up, decapitating Paulie with a cleaver. Cassie throws plates at him and tries to block his swings with a pan, but he cuts her arm, then throws the cleaver at her chest, pinning her against a door. 

The next day, Hollander and Carter find the group and question Raffy and Hester over the murder at the theater. They have no clue on who would be trying to stop them from finishing the movie. Back at the motel, Raffy has a bad feeling about Paulie and Cassie, and everything, but Hester convinces her that it's nothing to worry about, then Raffy and Hester kiss. That night, they continue to film their movie and Jim goes to leave in the bus to town to get more things for the movie, but Scarman is in the back seats. He thinks it's Bobby and tries to kick him off the bus, but Scarman cuts his arm with the shears and slits his throat.

Vanessa is rehearsing her kill scene as the mother in the movie with Raffy, Damien, Julie, and Rick, but Bobby dressed as Scarman suddenly gets too rough with her. Then a fight starts with Rick and Damien when he makes a vulgar joke about him and Raffy, so everyone takes a break. Hester realizes that Cassie and Paulie have been gone too long and goes outside to call the police on her phone, but there is still no signal. Suddenly, Cassie's body falls from the tree into Hester, terrifying her. She gets up and runs into Scarman who tries to grab her, but she slaps him and they both fall over. Hester escapes and is chased into a woodshed, where she tries to fight Scarman with a hacksaw, but he overpowers her, slicing her stomach open with the shears, then decapitates her with an industrial machine that chops up wood.

Lossman and Raffy have a conversation outside and it's revealed Raffy is the daughter of Hilary Jacobs. She wants to honor her mother by finishing the movie. Afterwards, both of them discover all the tires of their cars and even the bus have been slashed, but they assume it's the locals pulling cruel pranks on them. Bobby is in his changing room and he meets Scarman. He thinks he is Rick, then Scarman stabs him in the stomach with the shears and slits his throat. He hides Bobby's body and pretends to be him when Julie walks in to get Bobby. 

Vanessa, Raffy, Damien, Julie, and Rick start filming Vanessa's death scene in the movie, then Scarman pretending to be Bobby with the real shears joins the scene, getting ready to kill her for real. A scared Martha shows up in her car at the mansion and warns Lossman that the movie is evil and it needs to be destroyed to stop Scarman. He runs back inside telling the others, just as Scarman almost kills Vanessa, but she gets away in time and everyone runs outside, while Martha runs upstairs to go find the copy of the movies. Damien thinks Scarman is Bobby getting too much into character, so he keeps filming through the camera and he is killed when Scarman stabs him through the eye with his shears. Lossman goes back inside to find Martha because she has the keys to the only working car.

Julie and Rick stay in Martha's car, while Vanessa and Raffy go back inside the mansion and a loud scream is heard from upstairs. Back in the car, Rick admits he really liked Julie, but she rejects him. Scarman tries to get in the car, but it's locked, so he starts pouring gasoline all over the car. Julie attempts to runaway, but she gets gasoline on her when she falls over, then Scarman lights her on fire, burning her to death. Panicking, Rick can't open the doors in time and is killed when Scarman lights the car on fire, making it explode.

After getting knives from the kitchen, Vanessa and Raffy go upstairs to an office. They find Mr. Drivett tied upside down and disemboweled, while his little dog licks his blood on the floor. Martha also had a stroke when she saw his body and Lossman has been trying to revive her, but she dies anyway. The three of them find the copies of the movie, but they all accidentally slip down the stairs. Scarman stabs Lossman through the throat with a wooden pole, then Vanessa distracts Scarman making him follow her, while Raffy takes the movies and runs outside. Scarman chases Vanessa upstairs to the room where they both filmed the opening of Hot Blooded. They fight and Scarman starts screaming in pain due to Raffy trying to destroy the movies in the fire, then he knocks out Vanessa just as he notices a police car pulling up outside.

Hollander and Carter arrive at the mansion and find Raffy trying to burn the movies in the flames of the car. They stop her and put her in a police car as she screams about the movie being evil. Hollander goes inside and shoots Scarman many times, but it doesn't kill him, and Scarman decapitates him with his shears. Carter goes inside when Hollander doesn't return and gets attacked by Scarman. She escapes him and runs outside behind the mansion, but he throws his shears to her back, making her fall over, and she lands on an outdoor water faucet, getting impaled on it. 

Scarman returns to Vanessa who is now awake and they fight again. She ends up falling out a window, while Raffy gets out of the police car and continues burning the movies. Scarman finds Vanessa still on the ground and starts pouring gasoline on her. As Raffy burns more of the movies, Scarman's face starts melting, so he throws a lit match near Vanessa and she screams as she quickly tries to crawl away from the fire that is spreading towards her. 

Scarman goes after Raffy and starts swinging the shears at her, cutting her arm. Lossman, who is revealed to be alive, shows up to throw the rest of the movies into the fire, just as Scarman jumps on Raffy, getting ready to stab her in the throat. Scarman seemingly dies and melts into a pile of slimy substance next to Raffy. 

Lossman passes out on the ground as a crying Raffy crawls over to him. A while later, Lossman and Raffy visit Vanessa, who survived the fire, at the hospital. They all talk about how Scarman is really dead and Vanessa is relieved about it. 

At another college, a professor (Pamela Shaw), reveals to have found another copy of the Hot Blooded movie and plays it for her students. Scarman is brought back to life and shows up sitting behind the professor in the row of seats. He presumably kills everyone there as the movie ends.

Cast

Production
The film was shot in South Australia in the Adelaide region.

Reception
Cut received negative reviews from critics and audiences, earning an 11% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 9 critic reviews.

Box office
Cut grossed $501,979 at the box office in Australia.

References

External links

Cut on Rotten Tomatoes
Cut at Oz Movies

2000 films
2000s slasher films
Films shot in Adelaide
2000 comedy horror films
Australian slasher films
Australian horror films
Trimark Pictures films
Australian comedy horror films
2000s English-language films