Rough Cut is the third film from Florida based film-maker Christopher Leto. The film plot revolves on down on his luck director, who has his funding stopped- so he goes more than a little crazy & starts really killing people and filming it for his movie. It’s certainly a plotline that’s been done in the past, but Rough Cut does manage to add in few twists to the formula- though it’s far from startling original.

The lead role of the serial killer Jack is played by Tampa based actor Mike Duffau- who cuts a fairly robust & at times sweaty figure in the film- think a tubbier Brian Quinn from Impractical Jokers. Over the films just over an hour & a half runtime, the Jack character tortures one person after another- this he does in either backroom of his offices, or in a run-down farm. The victims are a mix of both male & female, though I’d say the more grueling attentions are focused in on the women- it’s not a film that homes in really on prolonged extreme gore or torture- with a lot of it going on off-screen. But the killings can be at times be both fairly extreme & at times amusing- take the toilet scene where the killers sneaks in an gents, and you get amusing sleazy banter between two men sitting on the toilet- one man is bizarrely wearing stockings & suspenders, and talking about how he enjoys wee while sitting…this guy leaves, leaving the killer to take out the remaining guy with a parcel tie nose. We also get a hand & body grinding attack with a food-mixer, the cutting & eating of a victim, and a particularly unpleasant choking then reviling scene- which seems to go on & on.

The editing & sense of the plot has a lot to be desired- as it often cuts back & forth with little explanation where new characters have come from, or how known characters have got in to a situation. I know this is only a zero budget serial killer movie, but I still like a sense of flow/ reason. On the whole, Duffau is passable as the director-turned-madman, though at times he does camp & act it up a bit.

Rough Cut is neither as intense & nasty as I was expecting, though it’s equally a little more competent than your standard shot-on-video fare, which of course has its plus & negatives.  So if you’re a fan of the serial killer genre, and enjoy sleazy humored edge to proceedings I’d give it a look. It’s certainly not as memorable deranged as the other Gator Blade film I reviewed a few months back Death-scort Service…but as lo-budget serial killer movies go, it’s passable.