Cutting Class — Cutting Class( Blu Ray & DVD)
Cutting Class appeared in 1989, and was only director credit of Rospo Pallenberg- who had worked on the likes of Exorcist II: The Heretic(second unit director/ Creative assistant), Deliverance (Creative assistant), and Excalibur (screenwriter). Though appearing at the end of the decade this still feels very 80’s- in both its choice of student attire, new wave sound-tracking, and tongue-in-cheek/ at times darkly humorous touches. As the film's title may suggest the main setting here is a high school, and this is used to good effect with a lot of the killings happening in the school- like a photocopy death, under breachers throat slashing, trampoline impalement, and been roasted alive in a pottery kiln.
The cast has a few known faces- we have Brad Pitt as punchy teen lead Dwight Ingalls, and veteran actor Roddy McDowall as Mr Dante- the sock sniffing & panty leering school principle. The surrounding cast goes from good to serviceable- special mention must be given to Donovan Leitch who plays the moody mentally disturbed teenage Brian Wood- who rather brought to mind Joy Division's Ian Curtis- with his buzz cut, rolled up sleeve black jacket, and brooding looks. The film has a generally campy feel, with a nice over-the-top machine shop finale which finds power tool fights, head in vices, swing car engine, sparks & stream.
The kills pop-up around every fifteen minutes or so, and as mention early on they are fairly creative & inventive- your kept guessing who the killer is until the last quarter or so of the film. And on the whole, and considering its place in the twilight on the genres golden age, Cutting Class is an enjoyable enough slasher.
The new 4k scan looks good, bold & print- and this is the first time the films been available fully uncut in its digital form- though as mentioned before the kills are mostly blood-less & gore-less. Extra wise we a commentary track from the four-piece slasher loving collective The Hysteria Continues- and as we’ve come to expect from these guys it’s another great track, that perfectly balances interesting facts & info about the actors/ films production, personally antidotes on when each of the collective first saw the film, similar slasher films of the period and more- all done in a humorous & entertaining manner. Next, we get two video interviews one with Donovan Leitch, and the other with female lead Jill Schoelen- these each run between sixteen & twenty minutes- and each sees them having fairly fond memories of the production. You get two audio-only interviews- first is the longest coming in at forty-six minutes- this is with director Rospo Pallenberg- here he discusses his career in general, as well as Cutting Class. Next, there’s a twenty plus minute interview with cinematographer Avi Karpick. Lastly, we get a video comparison for the kills in the cut & uncut version, as well as the original trailer.
Cutting Class is certainly one of the better late 1980’s slashers- sure it’s never very gory in its kills, but each is creative enough. And the use of sly humour and subtle self-awareness was rather ahead of its time. As we’ve come to expect from Vinegar Syndrome they do a great job with the scan & extras- certainly if you’re a slasher fan, and/or Brad Pitt fan- this is worth tracking down.