Smash Cut – DVD Review

The Film:

Lately, there’s been a resurgence in movies with filmmakers making homages to genres long since passed, like in Black Dynamite (blaxploitation), Bitch Slap (Russ Meyer films), and Grindhouse, and they have all been successful to a certain degree, some better than others. Besides these genre-honoring titles, certain directors of yesteryear have been either lampooned or honored, and that’s where Smash Cut enters. Herschell Gordon Lewis should be a name any horror and exploitation fan worth their salt knows, as he is credited with inventing the gore film in Blood Feast in 1963, and what would the 1970′s and especially today, be without that influential film? Lewis’ brand of sleaze filled drive-ins with cheap thrills of gore, boobs, and shock, making him a prime target for today’s remake happy culture. Smash Cut isn’t the first to do this, as his Wizard of Gore and Two Thousand Maniacs! have been subjects of recent remakes, to different results.

But Smash Cut isn’t remake, but a seemingly long-lost film from Lewis. If anything, that’s the success of director Lee Demarbe’s film. It’s a stunning recreation of all things Herschell Gordon Lewis, one thinks that a studio has found a long-lost film from the heyday of Lewis. Tarantino and Rodriguez attempted to recreate that 42nd Street feeling in Grindhouse but on like $40 million budget, Smash Cut is perfectly budgeted at under a half-a-million. This is key, because the aesthetic of the film’s look is the gateway drug to the era of Lewis, something that can only be done without a monster-sized budget.

The props, the blood, the sets, even the wigs, are all done on pennies, which is a loving recreation of Lewis’ gore-charmers. Also, key to the film’s success is casting. The film follows a worse-than-Ed Wood type of director (played marvelously by sleaze expert David Hess, Last House on the Left) that is failing with audiences, critics, and box offices receipts on his recent films. His films suck. In order to salvage his ego and career, he is desperate need of a “killer” idea. Smash Cut isn’t entirely original with this premise, but I’ll shrug that away, because Demarbre makes the film pretty self-aware about what it is and what it isn’t. Art versus trash. It’s a sleaze 8 1/2! It doesn’t go too deep with such notions and subtext, but it’s there, that’s for sure, to add some subtext to its appropriately camp gorefest.

You can’t talk about Smash Cut, without the cover girl: Sasha Grey. She wowed most critics, including me, in Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience. What I’m liking about Grey in this and in The Girlfriend Experience, is she’s not overacting. She’s good in the confines of what the scripts, call for her to do making her incredibly watchable, likable, and it doesn’t help that she’s delicious. But you got to understand the aim of Demarbre gunshot. Smash Cut is a loving ode to Lewis’ sleazy romps of the late ’60′s, but it’s also flawed. Despite my praise, the film does tend to wander without much aim in the middle, making us wander mentally, since we’re bored. It also ends with a whimper instead of a money shot. All in all, though, Smash Cut is a loving tribute to a long-gone era.

The DVD:

Audio/Video:Media Blasters offers us a solid presentation. The video is tough to judge since it was the director’s intent to make it look like it was on 16mm or something related to that. We get that type of look, but colors and clarity are still good. The audio is solid for what it’s offering, making the entire package decent all around. You won’t complain.

Extras are pretty good. We get a Commentary from Lee Demarbre, that allows him to dish his intent, the making-of, and all sorts of other goodies, for what is a solid listen for fans. The Sasha Grey Dairies is a 22 minute video blog from Ms. Grey during her time on and off set of the film, sharing behind-the-scenes footage, personal thoughts, and other fun. A faux TV Spot for Terror Toy 2 that is fun, Deleted Scenes, a Gag Reel that is mildly entertaining, and a decent Behind-the-Scenes featurette, that offers us some interviews about the production. Production Stills and Trailers round everything out.

Conclusion:Smash Cut isn’t for every horror fan out there. One has to understand what it is going for, and with that the seemingly stiff acting and cheap effects make the whole thing worth while, despite the flaws. Sasha Grey continues her good non-adult work too.

The Film: Rating:

The DVD: Rating: