Cutter's Club — Cutter's Club( Blu Ray)
Cutter's Club is a lost film featuring horror legend Tony Todd as a schizophrenic university medical lecturer. In his spare time, he is part of a secret club, where they are (meant to be) pushing the limits of surgery. The film is a Full Moon/ Charles Band film, with one or two neat effects/ moments, and a great OTT performance from Mr Todd. Here’s the Blu-ray release of the film, with just a few extras.
Clutter’s Club was filmed twenty years ago, and then the negative got lost- recently, just after Mr Todd’s sad passing, it has resurfaced. And clearly with its runtime ( one hour & five minutes), overuse of very modern-looking/fantastic CGI night sky footage, and a few other issues, this is not the fully/ completed project.
The film was directed by Charles Band, who I hope needs little or no introduction. And written by Neal Marshall Stevens (Thir13en Ghosts, The Killer Eye, and fifty-plus other credits). With special effects by John Carl Buechler( From Beyond, Prison, Friday 13th: The New Blood, Hatchet).
The picture's lead character is Jill(Melissa Searing) a blonde-haired/ best in medical school student, who is a workaholic. An example of this comes early on, as we see her making love with her black gelled hair, Martin(David Sean Robinson)- then just after jumping off, she picks up a study book.
Anyway, she has a plan to do something revolutionary with cats- but needs a fully serviced operating theatre to do so. And she knows just the man to help her, Dr George Roberts(Todd), a highly unpredictable/schizophrenic lecturer, who has been put in the basement of the university due to his odd behaviour.
Aside from his two switching personalities, the Dr is in a secret club which meets in a hidden room in the sub-basement. This is the Cutter’s Club- it has around four/ five other members- they all dress in robes, and basically, they are trying to push the limits of surgery. But gore fiends don’t get too excited, as most of the film sees the operation of a two-headed/sharp-toothed teeth dwarf monster, with little gore.
The highlight/ key reason to watch is Todd, and boy, he gives a great OTT performance- switching between cool/ creepily calm normal setting, and a ranting/ swearing/ throwing things around madman, who you really don’t know is capable of.
On the effects side, there’s a little bit of bloody gore and a twitching-mashed-up creature puppet. And of course our two-headed monster- which is just fine. It’s really a pity as, I’m sure more effects must have been planned- but for one reason or another it was never meant to be/ finished.
On the extra side, we just get a sadly very short( around a few minutes) featurette about the film- it features interviews with Band, and actors/actresses Robinson and Searing. And a trailer. It would have been great to have had a commentary track from Mr Band, outlining how the production came about, and how the negative got lost/ found, etc.
In finishing it, it is certainly wonderful that Cutter’s Club resurfaced/ has been properly released. As mentioned, the highlight/ main pull is Mr Tood, and he most certainly gives a wonderful unhinged / OTT performance. The film around the performance is just fine- though of course it’s still( clearly) unfinished, leaving you very much pondering what could have been.