‘Director’s Cut’ Review: A Messy Screenplay Derails This Punk Rock Slasher
I grew up on punk rock. I came of age listening to Lagwagon, Bad Religion, Pennywise, No Use for a Name, Good Riddance, Tsunami Bomb, Guttermouth, and the like. Punk music is still my go-to genre to this day. With that as my background, I was compelled to check out Don Capria’s new punk rock slasher Director’s Cut. Save for Return of the Living Dead, Green Room, and a select few others, there are few films that effectively merge punk rock and the horror genre. Director’s Cut succeeds in the conceit of juxtaposing genre cinema with rock music, but it’s a far cry from those aforementioned contemporaries. The script is messy. The acting is rough. And the characters are woefully underdeveloped.
The setup for Director’s Cut is this:
A fledgling band (with a sound and aesthetic that’s more akin to alternative metal than punk) gets an offer that’s too good to be true. An aspiring director wants to shoot their music video for free to bolster his resume. The brooding musicians accept the seemingly gracious offer only to quickly learn that when something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Much to the group’s horror, the so-called director has sinister plans in store for them.
Though it isn’t wildly successful on any level, Director’s Cut isn’t entirely inept. The production values and editing are decent. And the storyline doesn’t have any gaping holes that I picked up on. However, the flick never reaches its full potential thanks to a half-baked screenplay that delivers absolutely zero surprises and paints the characters as two-dimensional and largely interchangeable.
Many of the film’s problems stem from a challenging screenplay.
The messy script makes the twists in the narrative painfully obvious well in advance. The setup is way too heavy-handed. Don Capria’s screenplay introduces details about the band’s past via clunky exposition that feels unnatural and practically screams that its sole purpose is to support an eventual twist. It’s customary to introduce narrative elements you plan to reference later on. However, a little of that goes a long way. The discussion of said elements should feel organic and natural, tricking the audience into assuming the information the characters are sharing is throwaway dialogue. Instead, the exchanges between characters draw copious amounts of attention to the discussion, cementing it into the viewer’s brain and ensuring we’re less than surprised when the eventual reveal happens.
The flick also unnecessarily drives home how much the band likes to get high for no meaningful reason. Do not get me wrong. I enjoy the cannabis plant plenty. However, the drug references here don’t really serve a greater purpose beyond driving home how totally rock-and-roll these wild and crazy kids are. A couple of mentions in passing would have done the trick. Instead, there’s a reference to someone getting high in almost every scene. Replacing the constant smoking references with interesting backstories that help us remember what sets the characters apart from one another would have been far more effective.
Credibility is another issue. The characters continue to take things in stride that even the thirstiest, most desperate band on earth wouldn’t be ok with. They rarely stop to question anything. That makes it especially difficult to forget that these are actors playing a part. For a film to be immersive, the characters need to resemble real people. The key players in Director’s Cut rarely do that. Between the questionable decisions and the lack of character development, I never bought in. I wanted to, but it’s not possible when everyone is too willing to attribute obviously sinister goings-on to innocuous explanations over and over and over. By the end, I started to feel very much like the characters deserved their ultimate fate.
On the whole:
Director’s Cut has some redeeming qualities. It looks and feels like a professional production. Some of the kills are decent. And the central location where the band are filming their video is well-chosen. Moreover, just getting a movie made is an accomplishment in and of itself. So, my hat is off to the creative team for that.
If you’re curious to experience the picture for yourself, you can find it on Digital now from Freestyle Digital Media.
Summary
‘Director’s Cut’ is as predictable as it is forgettable.
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