Smash Cut

Plot synopsis

Television news celebrity April Carson (Grey), working for station manager Fred Sandy (Lewis, in a cameo appearance), turns to the services of private investigator Isaac Beaumonde (Jesse Buck) to seek her missing sister, a stripper known as Gigi Spot (Jennilee Murray). Carson assumes a role in a horror movie in the process, eventually learning that the movie's director, Able Whitman (Hess), is not only the culprit, but that he has rendered her sister's body into props for the production. Whitman then requires more "props" for his film, which means more body parts, which in turn requires a killing spree. Meanwhile, detective Beaumonde pursues an increasingly deadly and grisly case.

Cast

Production

Filming was conducted between 9 May and 4 June 2008 in Ottawa, Ontario at area locations including the Mayfair Theatre and Rockland, Ontario.

Smash Cut features actors Sasha Grey, David Hess (The Last House on the Left), Michael Berryman (The Hills Have Eyes) and Ray Sager (The Wizard of Gore). This film presented Grey, an adult film performer, in her first non-pornographic role. Herschell Gordon Lewis, considered the inventor of the splatter film genre, is seen in the film's opening advising the audience to "watch if you must".

The film's investors were concerned that Smash Cut would be hindered by the proposed Income Tax Amendments Act, 2006 law (Bill C-10) that could restrict tax benefits for films whose content the federal government deemed objectionable. These concerns were particularly prompted by the casting of Sasha Grey, but director Lee Demarbre retorted, "I don't want to make a porn movie. I want to make a movie with Sasha Grey. I want to take her right out of the porn genre."

Presentations

The film was first shown on 18 July 2009 in Montreal at the Fantasia Festival. Another showing was scheduled at the London FrightFest Film Festival in the United Kingdom on 29 August 2009. Canadian premieres in 2009 included Toronto on 15 October and Ottawa on 20 November.