Nick Matthews – Cut To The Chase

Directed By: Mercedes Bryce Morgan

Written By: Joshua Friedlander

Cinematography: Nick Matthews

Editor: Anjoum Agrama

Cast: Alex Roe, Maddie Hassan, Marco Pigossi, Andra Nechita

A couple’s vacation at a secluded estate is upended when they’re forced to share the mansion with a mysterious couple. A dream getaway spirals into a nightmarish maze of sex, lies, and manipulation, triggering a battle for survival.

Bone Lake, this film keeps flirting with what it thinks is naughty or what a more mainstream audience or studio exec does. As it seems to keep trying to test the waters of why it thinks it can get away with and is rather tame. Especially after a provocative graphic opening

Though it could have done without a cliché of having a female of color character be killed in the beginning though at least she’s not first.

Even if not going big for a more erotic thriller horror film it should be somewhat titillating and this plays more like an Adam and Eve couples instructional intimacy tutorial or at least that is how it plays stale.

It’s like it wants to be naughty but is afraid of going too far. Like a beginner at a swingers club (I imagine) this film isn’t even horny it is more of a tease. It psych’s itself out before it even really begins.

There is so much talk not showing. Th main couple don’t seem to act like a long term one. More like they just meet and speak so matter of factory and cerebral in their dialogue that table sitting through a couples therapy session. You desperately want out of, So if looking for physical erotic charms this is not the film for you. since that is all there is until the violence really starts. you feel stuck and waiting for it to begin for some actual action to happen.

This film is missing all the sensuality and sexuality that even a simple movie like the recent sexual thriller DEEP WATER (Starring Ben Affleck) had, though this has more potential rather than seeming to equal a porno fantasy set-up. This one actually has a story that could work as couples therapy and a tale of lust and trust.

Like the antagonists the film tries to come across as cool and something to see, but in reality it’s quite basic and doesn’t offer anything new. it even come across much as standard fare in the gene that offers up see as it’s gimmick but while it peppers it with it. It doesn’t get I too deep winter it is more a garnish. It’s like a film that feels like it was cut up by the MPAA and this is what was left either that or the original script must’ve been really wild and graphic and they just took out what they thought the MPAA or studio wouldn’t like and this is what we’re left with.

By the third act the action finallly starts and the fimmtrally gos into overkill with the violence all of a sudden. Which at least makes up for most of the film playing to safe. As this ends up being the only gratuitous element the film offers. As it will crimp on the erotic, but here it goes full blast.

It’s also where I am guessing most of the film’s budget went also

The film needed to provide more truth in advertising as that is the damaging aspect of the film. As what is promised comes in glimpses but seem somehow constricted and there for plot conveniences and to keep it’s word. Though if choosing a couple to be tempted by, the casting was spot on.

It shows how lust and greed can lead one astray and it’s important to have open communication and that sex can drive you crazy. Then it seems to end like a joke. Maybe it all is and the joke is on us. for this amped up more graphic lifetime TV movie story. That tries to be naughty, but reads more like a manual. It actually has the goods for a 90s thriller, but takes all the fun out of it until the third act.

Grade: C-

Directed & Edited By: Kevin Gruetert

Written By: Peter Goldfinger and Josh Stolberg

Cinematography: Nick Matthews

Cast: Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, Synnove Macody Lund, Steven Brand, Octavio Hinojosa, Michael Beach, Renata Vaca, Joshua Okamoto, Paulette Hernandez

A sick and desperate John travels to Mexico for a risky and experimental medical procedure in hopes of a miracle cure for his cancer only to discover the entire operation is a scam to defraud the most vulnerable.

These films have certainly come a long way to be the 10th film. This is a franchise that I never quite foresaw making it this long, but the company behind it, Lionsgate seemed determined to keep going as long as they can.

Some films in the series are better than others, most of them have been pretty solid and admire that film that at first seems to be a one-off of shocks that as the films have continued through various different directors. Each film helps to mythologize not only the main character behind it all but has allowed it to grow and spread into a weird kind of movement throughout these films.

While the films have at certain points become a little predictable, they still manage to shock with either their gore or how it all ties together.

Unlike a franchise like Friday the 13th where it seems like more of the same with a few curves thrown in but still the same blueprint this at least tries with each film to have its own flavor even though like Friday the 13th franchise I prefer the sequels, but respect the first one after all it is the original.

This sequel is better than the one that came before it. Which was SPIRAL actually had Samuel L Jackson, and Chris Rock in those films so some of the bigger names in the franchise. That comes across more like Friday the 13th part five. When a curveball is thrown, that could set the films on a different path.

Who knows the future of the franchise as this one is actually a prequel to where it all started even before the original saw movie started.

This has all the requisite things you would expect from a movie plenty of plenty of traps and plenty of tension. What’s this one a little bit apart other than characters who have perished in previous sequels, is the return of Tobin Bell, in the lead role, and Shawnee Smith as his assistant.

Here we get the requirements of the film the film does offer Tobin Bell, more of a dramatic arc throughout to see and get into the mindset of what set him off and the consequences.

So it gives him a kind of respect as he has been the face of this franchise for so long, as well as of course the voice here he gets a chance to stretch his drama muscles and be in the film throughout not just in pieces.

As well as bringing him back, there is a certain better quality of the film, where it feels a bit more grounded and going back to basics, rather than stretching the believability and managing to keep it small scale.

Watching this film reminded me that while most of the sequels, and the first one seem to be based on revenge that might be the catalyst, there is a message behind it, and truly in its own twisted ways it shows more of the evilness of the characters who were caught up in the game and their selfishness he does give them a fighting chance even if seemed rigged to fail it’s never quite personal. That involves characters who have a history with one another.

This would be a fine starting point though it is better maybe to watch them in order.

The film gives the franchise fans exactly what they want and expect only here it go back to basics.

Grade: C+

Tag: Nick Matthews

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