Director’s Cut (2024) Review

Director’s Cut (2024) Review

Punk band, The Suicide Disease, are struggling after the death of their close friend. With no funds to keep them afloat and tensions rising, it might be time to quit. So, when they are approached by a filmmaker on social media with an offer to make them a free music video, they have no choice but to accept, however dodgy it seems.

Desperate for fame, the band drive deep into the Pennsylvania woods in hopes of making their killer music video. But it is not long before egos clash and the abrasive auteur demands full control of the shoot, much to the band’s disdain.

As his professional mask drops, along with his illusion of sanity, the unhinged director, and his murderous assistant (Lucy Hart – PLEASURE) make the band members unwitting stars of their very own snuff movie.

DIRECTOR’S CUT has a mean streak, for my liking it could have been meaner, and it is not as badass as it could have been. That said, writer-director Don (ANECDOTA, EULOGY) Capria’s feature debut was pleasing overall it was easy to overlook any shortcomings or faults – such as how none of the other band members hear any of the screaming coming from elsewhere in a near empty house.

The cast are good, with Louis Lombardi (from TV’s 24 and THE SOPRANOS) the absolute standout as the wheelchair-bound rock video director, with Greg Poppa as band member John coming a close second. The band members are not likeable, smacking their director on the head with drumsticks, so when they get their comeuppance, you feel that they deserve it, which is an unusually bold move, rather than have the viewer feel any empathy for them.

The set-up fails to ring true, as in ‘oh look this guy wants to direct a video for our song, but he has no examples of his previous work to show us so let’s all drive two hundred miles to the middle of nowhere to an abandoned mansion on some backroad out in rural Pennsylvanian and work with him’ – I mean, what could possibly go wrong? And boy, does it go wrong for them. However, the characters are well developed, the direction assured and overall, there is much more here to like than not, so for me, DIRECTOR’S CUT is a winner.

On digital 3 November from Miracle Media