Rating summary

Movie		1.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Scissors Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf October 16, 2015

While Sharon Stone is best known for her seductive work in the 1992 thriller “Basic Instinct,” there was a decade of career ups and downs she had to manage before worldwide stardom changed everything. “Scissors” is a 1991 release that I’m positive the actress would rather have scratched off her filmography, but if there’s a single picture that epitomizes Stone’s wayward professional direction during the lean years, it’s this ridiculous chiller. Submitting herself to writer/director Frank De Felitta, Stone is completely lost in “Scissors,” left with nothing to do but make horrified faces as the screenplay fumbles around for a tone of mystery that’s psychologically stained by sexual dysfunction. It’s a bad movie, emerging as unintended camp as performances aim for the rafters and De Felitta struggles to stitch together even a basic sense of coherence as the screenplay plays an extended game of make-em-up to suggest sophistication.

An isolated, fearful woman who lives to repair old dolls, Angie (Sharon Stone) is left a wreck when a man with a red beard attempts to rape her inside an apartment elevator. Defending herself with a pair of scissors, Angie is comforted by her neighbor, soap opera actor Alex (Steve Railsback), who lives with his physically disabled twin brother, Cole (Railsback). While local cops provide little help, Angie loses what’s left of her sanity to paranoia, with her longtime analyst, Dr. Carter (Ronny Cox), trying to settle her whirring mind, pointing toward her virginity as a source of repressed sexuality that needs to be explored. Trying to find a sense of normalcy with help from Alex and his romantic interest, Angie only ends up deeper in denial, fending off additional attacks and a final challenge of reality as she’s locked inside a stranger’s expansive apartment with a dead body and a talkative raven that identifies her as the murderer.

It’s difficult to know exactly what De Felitta is aiming to achieve with “Scissors.” There’s certainly a heavy Hitchcock influence running throughout the feature, with the score by Alfi Kabiljo working overtime to summon a blistering thriller mood, offering shooting strings to emphasize Angie’s brutal unraveling. The picture has this noble ambition to be a mind-blowing journey across a shattered psyche, following Angie as she struggles to maintain a normal life through fruitless job hunting and therapy sessions, keeping to a routine to quiet her mind. However, cracks of insanity are starting to show, with the attempted rape awakening something dark and deep within the victim, periodically requiring the services of a pig hand-puppet to help the young woman deal with a painful reality.

Obstacles to stability are common for Angie, include the strangeness of Alex and Cole, finding the twins equally interested in complicating her life. Wheelchair-bound and openly hostile, Cole has dark secrets he’s looking to keep hidden, but he’s always ready to make his neighbor’s life hell, revealing a painting he created that celebrates Angie’s sexual assault. He also keeps his menace strong on his apartment balcony, sending threats through windows. In a movie that establishes more than its share of red herrings, Cole’s aggression is largely baffling, as is Dr. Carter’s need to keep chipping away at Angie’s sexuality, crossing lines with a patient who weirdly doesn’t resist despite noticeable unease with his forwardness. The screenplay bends behavioral authenticity to tighten the screws, but it doesn’t take long before “Scissors” abandons all contact with Earth, existing in a space where obvious illness is ignored, bad habits are rewarded, and fake red beards elicit pants-wetting horror.

Perhaps De Felitta is striving to make a trashy Euro chiller, where logic isn’t necessary and the lead actress’s primary job is to take her top off. There’s something to the theme of sexual repression and childhood trauma that could sustain a passably thoughtful investigation, but “Scissors” isn’t interested in complexity when it comes to Angie’s unrest. It wants to supply thrills and chills, but even scenes explicitly devoted to the building of suspense are left soggy and unconvincing, handed to Stone and her dedication to bug-eyed reactions as a form of primal screen communication. It’s difficult to blame the actress for an awful performance when she’s offered absolute nonsense to work with, but this isn’t her finest hour. Her disdain for the job is periodically visible, giving up hope that anything beneficial will emerge from her time with “Scissors.”

Scissors Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The AVC encoded image (1.85:1 aspect ratio) presentation retains its period look with an older scan, with bright lighting and slightly duller colors contributing to the picture's style. Hues aren't muscular, but primaries emerge with reasonable lift, delivering the essentials in sexually charged reds and era-specific costuming. Skintones also remain intact. Detail remains appealing through, supplying adequate textures on close-ups and doll particulars, while wider spaces are open for inspection. Filtering isn't obvious, keeping acceptably filmic with some noise issues. Delineation isn't troublesome, preserving frame information during shadowy thriller sequences. Source is passably clean.

Scissors Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 2.0 DTS-HD MA mix doesn't put in a little more effort than the standard catalog title, carrying an indefatigable score that's always trying to underline the moment. Instrumentation remains, and the music never steamrolls over the dramatics. Dialogue exchanges are clean and clear, with the range of hysterics never slipping into distortive extremes. Atmospherics are limited but street life remains, and room expanse is supported through echo. Hiss isn't a problem, thought the track requires a little more volume to match normal listening standards. Silences are pure.

Scissors Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There is no supplementary material on this disc.

Scissors Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

"Scissors" is a strange picture, but it goes off the deep end in its second half, where Angie is imprisoned inside a luxurious L.A. apartment (the movie insists it takes place in Chicago, but, come on), left to scramble for a way out while a bird threatens her from inside its cage and a dead body rots in the bedroom. De Felitta keeps the action inside the residence for what feels like an eternity, only breaking away to keep tabs on Alex and Dr. Carter, who's wrestling with a broken marriage to politician Ann (Michelle Phillips, in an extended cameo). Suddenly, long stretches of the effort are devoted to Angie's escape attempts and mounting hopelessness, which evolves into insanity, playing into a mad scheme that doesn't make much sense, but nothing really connects here. Instead, the whole film seems to exist only to support its final minutes of whiplash-inducing reveals, finding De Felitta working up a sweat to send the audience off on a note of shock and dastardly comeuppance. As with everything else in "Scissors," discoveries only lead to more questions, but the production doesn't have time to provide decent answers. Or, at times, any answers.