I’m a sucker for those doomed road trip horror movies. A gang of friends, a pair of siblings, a couple on the brink of the next, or last, step in their relationship, loading up the van and seeing where the open road takes them, only to find themselves well and truly screwed when they run into something or someone they are not equipped to handle. It’s such a great little setup that immediately taps into a sense of vulnerability. The characters are out of their element, visiting new places, and enjoying none of the control or autonomy that comes with being in their own house, in their own town, among people they know and trust. It is with such a setup that Don Capria’s Director’s Cut establishes itself, and within five minutes, I was hooked. The opening text informs us that we are about to see the “true story” of rock band The Suicide Disease, who disappeared into rural Pennsylvania and never emerged. The names have been changed to protect the surviving families, of course. As a rock lover and someone who had a ton of fun with the emo-rock era of the mid-2000s, this is a horror setup that is right up my street, and while it does have its flaws, and doesn’t end on the most satisfying note, Director’s Cut is an inviting 90 minutes of grungy, angst-filled slashing.
What is ‘Director’s Cut’ About?

The Suicide Disease is a struggling rock band desperate for their big break. Jay (Tyler Ivey) is the charismatic lead with a troubled past. Behind him is a surprisingly supportive and decent ensemble: John (Greg Poppa) is the lead guitarist, Juan (Louis Rocky Bacigalupo) is the stoner drummer and Menace (Brandy Ochoa) is the chick bassist, but because the band wears masks to perform, à la Slipknot or Lordi, the fact that they have one female member is kept in the dark. Jay lives in a really cool garage setup as all good struggling musicians do, with gig posters, bumper stickers, fairy lights, and empty beer bottles everywhere. One day, the gang comes over for a call with some strange guy who’s hit them up, looking to fund their next music video. Exactly why he is willing to do so is unclear — the more optimistic members of the band figure it’s because he sees potential in them — and with exactly zero dollars and zero cents in their music video piggy bank, they reckon it’s better to take this supposed free lunch before some other band eats it up for them.

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“It’s still alive.”

On the call is a suspicious lispy dude dressed like John Goodman in The Big Lebowski, who is quite obviously against a fake background, inviting them to come to Pennsylvania to shoot at an abandoned mansion he has access to. With their eagerness to make it in the biz clouding what little good sense they had, they pack up the van and head to PA, with two of their girlfriends in tow. When they arrive at the mansion, they are given strict rules to stay out of the basement, but two of the girlfriends sneak down there anyway and are sure they see people. Later, at dinner, the strange dude at the top of this arrangement makes himself known. He introduces himself as Mr. Director (Louis Lombardi) and says he has big plans for them. Lurking moodily in the background is Babs (Lucy Hart), a sexy but steely woman who is never really explained beyond the pronouns of she/her. She is framed with a considerable focus on the fact that she has a penis showing through her pants throughout the movie, and she is played by a trans woman. This leads you to believe that the story will offer more depth to her character than it ever does, that it is introducing something that will later be expanded upon. Unfortunately, this never happens, and she is left in the background.
The Execution of ‘Director’s Cut’ Doesn’t Quite Live up to Its Potential

Mr. Director is one of those guys who is a bit tactless and set in his ways, and does his best to be down with the kids but ends up just pissing people off. Through a scene of very insensitive digging, it is established that the gang lost their friend Casey to some terrible accident that still haunts them all. On top of this, Jay lost a brother to trigeminal neuralgia, a condition colloquially referred to as “suicide disease” because it causes such unrelenting pain that sufferers often take their own lives, hence the name of the band. He also formerly dated his bandmate’s girlfriend, Val (Danielle Kotch), and has never gotten over losing her. It’s a big old tangled mess of emotions, and Jay is clearly suffering greatly on account of it all. Honestly, it’s a great setup. The characters — with the exception of Jay’s girlfriend (Haley Cassidy), a mean pain in the ass who should have been left at home — are a nice, close-knit group whose frustrations you feel, and they seem like a really decent bunch. You so want them to get their big break, but you know this is all too good to be true, which becomes evident when shooting day arrives, and Mr. Director insists on taking solo shots of each member individually while the others go off and wait in other wings of the huge mansion. Under the guise of shooting a suitably hardcore video, he gets the members into chains, harnesses, and other restraints before torturing them. Unfortunately, this is where the movie starts to lose its footing a bit. While it has some cool ideas, it feels like its rough edges have been sanded down a little too smooth, and it lacks that raw, angry, chaotic atmosphere that a movie about a tortured rock band should have. I’m thinking Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses energy, with a neon color palette, thrashing sound design, and head-spinning editing. That’s what’s really missing from the second act of Director’s Cut. It just feels a little too tame and polished for its own good. Then, there’s the finale. All this torture is well and good, but why is Mr. Director doing it? Why this big charade to get a band nobody ever heard of all the way to Pennsylvania to torture them? Well, we do get something of a big reveal, focusing on one of the traumatic events introduced earlier, but it doesn’t make much sense. Who is Mr. Director in relation to this event, and why is he so personally invested in it? No idea. Who is Babs in all of this, and why does the movie focus so intently on her having a penis, only to offer no development to her character? Your guess is as good as mine. It feels like maybe there’s a scene or two missing, or that some important shots got left on the cutting room floor, because everything that the movie sets up never really gets a proper resolution.
Despite Its Flaws, ‘Director’s Cut’ Is a Solid and Stylish Slasher

Image via 110 Crew Films

It also feels like it lacks a little of that physical energy that young people in a rock band usually offer in a movie. They don’t have to be smashing up hotel rooms for the hell of it. But when they are being easily tricked into doing stupid and dangerous stuff, and their aggressors are a chubby aging man in a wheelchair and a sexy but not terribly imposing middle-aged woman, they don’t fight back the way they should. If they really wanted to — and surely the circumstances would make them want to — they could easily overpower these people and get the hell out of there, but they never do. Then there’s the issue of all of this supposedly being a true story in the world of the movie, as the opening text informs us. It’s not a found-footage movie, so I guess the implication is that these are all actors reenacting what they think might have happened to the band when they disappeared, no sign of whom has been found since. It’s all a bit unfocused. It either needs more emphasis on this being a true story that is being recreated, or to scrap the whole true story angle and just present it as a straightforward fictional movie. And you know what? Found footage could have worked, too. The format often goes hand-in-hand with the doomed road trip movie. Particularly given that Val’s entire personality is that she has a fedora and a camera, so much so that she even picks it up and takes it with her to the bathroom for some reason, it would have worked to position her as a first-person perspective. I can’t talk about Director’s Cut without giving Tyler Ivey his dues. This dude is the standout of the movie. He has a great physical presence, not only in his believability as a down-on-his-luck rock musician, but in the despair he imbues him with. You feel for the guy from the off, and between his past trauma and a girlfriend who just won’t stop bitching him out, you can see how desperate he is for a positive change in his life. Ivey gives the best and most authentic delivery, and holds himself in such a way that invites sympathy and intrigue. This role suits him perfectly, and I hope to see much more from him in the future. And you know what? I hope to see more movies like Director’s Cut, too. It’s not a perfect horror movie, but it has all the right ingredients and is such a great way for someone who enjoys the rougher things in life to spend 90 minutes. Keep it up, Don Capria. More like this, please! Director’s Cut is now available on VOD.

Director’s Cut

Never quite as hardcore as it should be, but a gripping road trip horror nonetheless.

Release Date

October 31, 2024

Runtime

89 minutes

Director

Adam Rifkin

Writers

Penn Jillette

Cast

Louis Lombardi

Mister Director

Pros & Cons

Tyler Ivey is a sympathetic and compelling leading man.
The characters are largely likable and worthy of audience investment.
The setup is intriguing.

The movie leaves too many loose ends that never get resolved.
It needs to lean further into its brutality.