WFG RATING: C

A Full Moon Features production. Produced and directed by Charles Band. Written by Benjamin Carr. Cinematography by Mac Ahlberg. Edited by Danny Draven.

Stars Tony Todd, Melissa Searing, Davie Youngblood, Raelyn Hennessee, Jemal McNeil, David Sean Robinson, and Jon Simanton. 

Once lost for two decades, this rare Tony Todd outing is what you would expect from an early millennial horror film, and those who love Todd may end up liking it or watch it for curiosity purposes.

Jill Stevenson is a medical school student who is stumbling a major breakthrough in successful grafting. However, she will need some help and goes to an old mentor, Dr. George Roberts. When George reconnects with Jill, he is shocked to learn that she is in a relationship with fellow med school student Jack. However, he still offers to help her with her research. After their meeting, George has come up with a plan.

George is the leader of a group who are performing experiments to create the ultimate creature. The group is known as the Cutter’s Club. Alongside George are three students who have their own agendas and reasonings. Martin, Kyla, and Harry have reservations when George invites Jill to join the group. Jack begins to have doubts as well and begins to covertly follow Jill to see what the group is all about. This leads to tension within the ranks but soon, something more sinister is about to happen.

If there is one thing I love seeing, it is lost media that has been found after who knows how long. The story goes that in 2005, this film began production but seven days out of its nine-day schedule, funding was gone and the film was never finished. When director and Full Moon founder Charles Band decided to finish the film, the lab that held the negative had lost it and the film was deemed lost until earlier this year when the negative was finally found. Sadly, with the passing of both Todd in 2024 and Jon Simanton in 2015, Full Moon took the footage they had and made a 65-minute coherent film with just one major flaw.

Despite the flaw, Todd hams it up as Dr. Roberts, the leader of the titular Cutter’s Club. It is obvious he has a split personality when he goes from nice and warm to loud and bursting, at times yelling at himself. He definitely is the reason to see the film. The most grounded characters of the film are Jill, played by Melissa Searing; and Jack, played by Davie Youngblood. Jill finds herself trying to move on as we learn she has some history with her old mentor, which draws the ire of club member Kyla, played by Raelyn Hennessee. 

Running at 65-minutes, the film is mostly coherent and one can only guess what happens to an experiment that has the potential to go awry. The late John Carl Buechler did a great job on the special effects, with the aforementioned Jon Simanton (Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie) playing the “experiment”. The major flaw of the film involves the fate of one character and the ending may seem abrupt, but this is expected when you have lost media and decide to pay tribute to one of the genre’s all-time greats in said lost media. 

Cutter’s Club makes the most of what the company had to work with after two decades of the negative being lost. Tony Todd fans will likely enjoy this despite asking the questions of one character’s fate and the abrupt ending. Either way, it’s a good effort.

The film is now available to watch on Tubi.