Cutting Class [1989]

A series of murders around a high school has two basic suspects: two childhood friends now rivals for a girl's affections. But who is the killer?
*½

Some films have that awkward personality about them. Some label them quirky or maybe just schizo. Like Principal Schultz trying out wigs in the costume room and gets Schoelen to bend over so he can see her panties! Martin Mull (poor guy) is Schoelen’s father, a district attorney who goes a fishing and gets an arrow crossbowed into his torso; he doesn’t die, as the whole movie shows him trying to get help but he’s always undeterred. A road trip where a teacher takes kids to see the “wild life” pass right by Mull. A helicopter flies past but Mull can’t cry for help due to the placement of the wound. This guy just won’t die. Pitt’s in his fancy sports car, nearly hitting a little kid because he’s reckless, just shrugging it off as a worried mother realizes her child was almost killed!

Cutting Class has no heroes. Joe Schoelen is that final girl with the two boys desiring her. She’s with Pitt (must be for his looks because he’s a dick) but Donovan Leitch goes out of his way to establish his interest as well. Leitch went away to the mental hospital because, as Pitt puts it, his “mind was broken” so he is obviously a BIG FAT SUSPECT. “Suspicion” is written across his forehead.

Much ado will always be made about Pitt’s involvement in this movie. I think he’s a prick who should have died first thing, perhaps through the use of saw in wood cutting class. I think he should have went the way of David Warner in The Omen, but I don’t know how that could have made into Cutting Class. Off with his head! He’s an ass to Schoelen because she is a cock tease. She will give him some if his grades improve, though he tells her he will never get laid because that isn’t happening anytime soon. He pokes fun at the janitor and still expects him to unlock the door the school so Pitt can get his math book. I like that the janitor doesn’t. Of course, Pitt could be the killer, too. He’s such an asshole, though, that perhaps it would be too easy for him to be THE ONE. Leitch is Pitt’s nemesis, not by choice, but because he’s a vulnerable mark. Pitt easily wins the school key from Schoelen; Pitt wants to look into Leitch’s file.

Pitt just won’t leave well enough alone. Leitch follows Pitt, Schoelen, and their friends to Principal Schultz’ office (Roddy McDowell) while they look at his files. To further mock him, Schoelen’s pal, Colleen (Brenda James) performs an “electro shock” in the math class to humiliate him. So the film does want us to sympathize a little bit.

Pitt is the basketball star of the team, and his dad obviously sees potential in him, having coaxed a college coach to see him play. What does Pitt do? He gets in a scuffle with a rival team member, the coach storms off, the father calling out his son for such antics, ruining a chance at a scholarship. Pitt’s team wins the game without him. I loved it.

I’m the custodian of your fucking destiny!

Leitch really wants to become friends again with Pitt, but the feelings aren’t mutual. No surprise there. Soon the teachers are dropping like flies; a student seems to be on the warpath, exacting revenge on those who use their authoritative positions to undermine certain teens. Schoelen discovers the vice principal’s body in the copy room, her face bashed in on the scanning light of the machine. An art teacher is burned alive in his sculpture oven (he had caught Leitch behind a mannequin peeping on Schoelen, forcing him to become a part of the “performance”; Pitt was told to get lost by the art teacher). Schoelen and Pitt’s friends decide to fool around a little bit under the bleachers during the big game, but a killer has a knife just waiting for their throats. The American flag is used to impale the gym coach while he is bouncing around on the trampoline. There’s a funny murder set piece where the math teacher is given a problem on his chalkboard to solve; if he solves it incorrectly, going out the wrong door, he dies. Well, the math teacher is outsmarted and gets an ax right to the kisser. The violence of the film, though, is not all that difficult for the squeamish. A hammer to the skull and the ax murder are slightly bloody with weapons sticking out of heads.

Leitch is pointed out by Pitt as the killer, so he flees because of his history in the mental institution. Pretty much no evidence other than Pitt’s accusation (which had zero merit) has everyone and their mother out to find him so they can put him away; a veritable witch hunt ensues. It doesn’t mean he’s innocent, but it could be Pitt. Pitt is basically bi-polar. He’s seemingly calm and rather docile at times, then in a moment his temper outbursts and he flies off the handle. He rants with middle fingers flying at his gym teacher. He ridicules, most of the time doesn’t give a shit in class, jerks around taking nothing seriously, and generally just acts an ass. You can sense I couldn’t stand him, right? Even if he isn’t the killer and Leitch is, I would be rooting for the psycho to gut his ass.

Schoelen is the whole point of why I liked this at all. She appears right at the start in just a shirt, trying to get the paper when daddy, in his hunting garb, tells her to behave while he’s gone on his trip (which turns out to be a trip to hell). Immediately, it is a stiffy. She is sexualized throughout this movie. If you consider her an object of lust, I couldn’t disagree. When she bends over with Roddy McDowell (I did often lament at how the poor guy wound up in such drivel as this), again, her little booty in those panties stirs the libido. Later she’s topless, washing her hair, when Leitch (his hands forward shadowing her bathtub and bare back; we don’t really get an eyeful, sorry to burst the bubble) asks for her help. Short skirts showing off her legs are often the wardrobe of choice for Schoelen, too.

The ending has the two boys of the film duking it out, eventually winding up in the machine shop, Pitt’s head in a vice, a drill steadily approaching, Schoelen soon deciding the victor. Leitch has his best Jack Torrence on at the end, his hands with an ax, his teeth gritting, face fixed in all the deranged he can muster. The problem with the ending (for me, anyway) is that I couldn’t care less who came out of the fight the survivor. Leitch’s revelation as the killer was pretty much met with a “so what” while Pitt becoming heroic was a laugher. He’s a douchebag for 98 % of the film, why all of a sudden would I give a rat’s ass about his fate when stepping in to rescue the damsel in distress, Schoelen? Sure, she’s worth rooting for, but her being stuck in the middle of this whole situation is because she has bad taste in boys. I know, “Brad’s so dreamy and cute”. Gag me with a spoon. I guess it works both ways, though. Cutting Class has Brad for the girls and Schoelen for the guys. Let us all swoon for our chosen beauty.

Mull finds his way back home, having to tumble down a hill and nearly getting run over by Pitt whose car’s brake line has been cut by Leitch. Mull is not happy that his daughter is out riding “cutting class”, and his scolding closes the film with Schoelen acknowledging with a smile the waving finger of scorn. Mull’s whole point in the film is that he was responsible for putting Leitch away for cutting the brake line of his father’s car (taught it by Pitt!), so the arrow buried in his belly by the crossbow was out of revenge. Schoelen being Mull’s daughter made her a target. Pitt’s animosity and constant heckling and abuse to Leitch made him a target. It all ends with Leitch putting too much faith in Schoelen, even closing his eyes for the “big surprise” (thinking she would undress and kiss him; what an idiot!), not expecting (why would he not?!?!) a hammer shot. There’s a lot of eye-rolling stupidity on display. Why would we care about Pitt at all? Why would Schoelen so easily trust Leitch and accept so easily Pitt’s guilt just because she was shown (by Leitch) a photo with her boyfriend’s ring on the hand holding the vice principal’s face (he had lifted her face to check for breathing after Schoelen screams upon discovering her)? Why would Schoelen just allow Leitch to stay at her home and even sleep sound knowing he was around? Why would the town just accept Pitt’s words that Leitch is the killer of the vice principal when no proof existed that condemned him as responsible? How does Mull survive such a wound and go for days in seemingly decent condition? I could go on and on. This is a turkey.

Watch out and don't hit the boom mic!

 

Just a an additional to the review: the reason Schoelen had a key to the Principal's office in the school was she is the assistant to him and the Vice Principal. He could sure rely on her, couldn't he? Oh, and that ax that is buried in the math teacher's face actually jiggles a bit like a rubber toy gag bought in a novelty shop. Maybe Pee Wee Herman passed by it looking for a new toy to add to his playhouse.