The first feature of the day was a real winner. Though some horror fans may have been hankering for something darker (some horror purists don’t like any laughs with their scares and this one had plenty) I, and a large portion of the crowd, was very happy from start to finish and the film remained my favourite of the day despite the high calibre of every other offering.
The basic premise of The Director’s Cut is the basic premise of every other slasher movie ever. A group of folk head out into the middle of nowhere and start being picked off by a mystery killer. So far so seen-it-all-before. But when the group of folk are actually out in the middle of nowhere trying to make their own movie (one that seems disastrously dire, it should be said) and the mystery killer is . . . . . . . . . . . . well, just wait and see then things become a lot sharper than your average slasher movie.
Playing like a cross between any Friday The 13th flick and Living In Oblivion, this film benefits from a number of enjoyable performances and a script as sharp as any serial killer’s favourite machete.
The fun here comes from the use of the stereotypes and the twisting of them. The director (Mike, played by Jonathan Patrick Moore) is all attitude and no talent, the screenwriter is frustrated, the producer (Bobby, played by Mollie King, who also graciously put in appearance at the festival) is the real worker of the bunch and everyone else is either working to get ahead (such as the main star and starlet), working to avoid work or just plain bonkers (top marks on that front going to the weapons man, Dean, played by Martin Williams). The actors may not all be perfect but those who don’t quite have the most experience under their belt still manage to play the gags and deliver the great dialogue so nothing is really lost, especially with the better actors in the key roles anyway.
Writer-director Paul Komadina has given audiences willing to go along with the tone of the movie a real treat that mixes nastiness and laughs in equal measure. Okay, the laughs actually far outweigh the nastiness but Komadina walks the tightrope well and provides something that many have tried, and failed, to: a great horror comedy pleasing to fans of the genre.
There’s plenty of the red stuff being spilt, a little nudity thrown in the mix and a number of inventive, entertaining death scenes. And how can you not laugh at a movie that features an actor saying that he can’t lie about the events that have happened and then being reminded “YOU’RE AN ACTOR!”?
I look forward to any other genre efforts that Komadina provides us with in future and I encourage as many people as possible to catch The Director’s Cut if they can.
DIRECTOR: PAUL KOMADIA
CAST: JONATHAN PATRICK MOORE AS JONATHAN WOOD, MOLLIE KING, DAVID MAGUIRE, RENATO FABRETTI, JENNIEKA CHATTELLE, MARTIN WILLIAMS, SHAUN MARTINDALE, MELANIE MUNT
RUNTIME: 87 MINS APPROX
COUNTRY: AUSTRALIA
Film Rating: 
