Cutting Moments

I had been seeking this movie for over a year and once I finally got it - I was sorely disappointed. The infamous 'Cutting Moments' part is hardly anything to write home about. The gore is minimal and the effects are sub par. I was expecting to have images stuck in my head for days - but what I got/saw was forgotten minutes after I watched this movie, The movie as a whole looks as if it had been filmed by 1st year movie students.

Don't make the same mistake I did - Watch it only if there is nothing else on

Five strange little horror films that, thanks to the inventiveness of the filmmakers, manage to rise above their obviously limited budgets. I received this from a friend on a double-sided DVD that also includes the movie Buried Alive. I watched this first, expecting it to be the lesser of the two, but hopeful, considering the Tom Savini quote emblazoned on the box art, that it might surprise me. It certainly did, and for a freebie, there is no cause for complaint. The acting - all seemingly from 'semi-professionals' - is uniformly awful, the effects cheap and nasty, but the ideas more than make up for that. Other posters have gone into the plots in detail, so I won't bother, but I agree that the Bowl Of Oatmeal is the least enjoyable segment. Interesting, but not as much fun as a crack-smoking mutt or a nagging old biddy driving her murdering husband nuts! The final titular short is thoroughly nasty, and even I, a David Cronenberg fan, had to watch it through my fingers! If you don't find the sight of a woman cutting off her own lips with a pair of scissors disturbing, I fear for your sanity...

My only question would be the year of production. There are next to no credits on the end of the Region 2 DVD, and although IMDb claims this was made in the late nineties, the cinematography would suggest it was all made on the cheap - perhaps as student films - in the 80s. In fact two of the films have clear 80s references; the old couple's gravestones say they died in 1987, and the teen-movie short has repeated references to Breakfast Club star Molly Ringwald. Have they tacked on four 80s flicks to the recently successful Cutting Moments short to make a feature? (If that's the case, what has happened to these filmmakers, who show a lot of promise in this collection?) Or are they all from the nineties and the two films I mentioned are 'period pieces' - Principles of Karma being a parody of the 80s teen-movie, for example? I hope someone else can update IMDb to ease my curiosity...

But anyway, if you can forgive the poor production values and you like macabre tales, you're in for a short, sweet treat!

This film is extremely hard to review and to give a score for, but I'll try.

This is a short which clocks in at 24 minutes, and boy does it use every one of those minutes to full effect. The actor who played the wife was incredible in my mind, as she portray volumes her of character through simple gestures. Nothing much can be said about the other two actors, except the husband pulls one of the most horrid faces in the ending part of the film.

The gore isn't too intense, but two scenes towards the end will definitely stick out in your mind long after the viewing. They WILL make you flinch, and cry out in disgust, you can be assured off that.

So, I would recommend a watch. It certainly doesn't break any barriers, but it does give an unflinching portrayal of what tedious suburban living can possibly lead to.

This was pretty cool to see. An anthology of shorts, my favorite was the short "Bowl of Oatmeal," which contained the most atmosphere. The showcase is the short CUTTING MOMENTS. This was one of the hardest pieces of film I have ever tried to watch... very gruesome!

A woman resorts to extreme methods to win back the attention of her bored husband: she uses a brush to scour her mouth and cuts off her lips with a pair of scissors. This seems to do the trick, and it's not long before the couple are together in the sack having fun with a shiny pair of garden shears!

The title of this 20 minute shocker, 'Cutting Moments', was used as the collective name for five disparate short films released together on DVD. On its own, Douglas Buck's bloody tale of desperation and self-mutilation would still be considered a worthwhile effort for purveyors of cinematic excess; however, when lumped together with four much weaker and less memorable stories, this sick little feature appears all the more impressive: the shining light in an otherwise rather dull and disappointing compilation (although 'Crack Dog's titular drug-addled mutt deserves an honorary mention).

With messy DIY facial surgery and a non-graphic-but-still-winceworthy penis removal, those who likes their horror to push the boundaries should enjoy this twisted little piece of nastiness.