‘Cutter’s Club’ is Better as a Historical Curiosity Than as a Movie: A Review
Tony Todd is the best reason to watch this movie.
updated on
Table of Contents
What is Cutter’s Club About?
Cutter’s Club is a cheesy low-budget thriller about rogue surgeons trying to create a monster.
A talented medical student named Jill wants to perform secretive surgery involving cats and an experimental grafting technique. Her “extracurricular activities” are facilitated by Dr. George Roberts, a disgraced surgeon and former member of the staff at the university Jill and her boyfriend Jack attend. George has ulterior motives for helping Jill though. For starters, he’s interested in her romantically. But more importantly, Dr. Roberts wants to recruit Jill for the Cutter’s Club, a small, cult-like group of surgeons who want to use the art of flesh to create a two-headed monster.
Cutter’s Club is a Full Moon Feature directed by Charles Band (the creator of Full Moon) and written by Neal Marshall Stevens (co-writer of Thir13en Ghosts). The movie features Tony Todd as Dr. George Roberts. It also stars Melissa Searing as Jill, and Davee Youngblood as Jack. Co-starring as members of the Cutter’s Club are Jemal McNeil, Raelyn Hennessee, and David Sean Robinson. Jon Simanton is credited as the two-headed monster.
Cutter’s Club Review
Most of the interest in Cutter’s Club comes not from the movie itself, but in the real-life story that accompanies it. According to a statement Charles Band released to JoBlo, Cutter’s Club began production two decades ago, but the movie ran out of money two days away from completing shooting. Worse, when Band finally got around to restarting production about a year later, he discovered that the negatives had been lost by the lab.
Cut to November 2024, the month Tony Todd passed away. Charles Band decided to try once again to find the negatives, and he finally managed to track them down. Then this year, inspired by the passing of Tony Todd, Band completed the movie despite being short a few scenes, and Cutter’s Club was released on Tubi on May 1st, 2025.
It’s an interesting story, bolstered by the fact that the film features a Tony Todd performance from the early 2000s that has never been seen by the public before. Unfortunately, that story is the most interesting part of the movie.
Cutter’s Club isn’t bad. Not really. It’s just bland most of the time. Tony Todd is an icon and is fun to watch, but when he isn’t on screen, the movie is just okay. For instance, the story between Jack and Jill (yes, they do a “fetching a pail of water” joke in the movie) isn’t particularly compelling. When their relationship is in jeopardy, it doesn’t elicit heightened emotions. It’s more of just a shrug and move on situation. That’s how most plot points play out. Low tension, little drama.
The best parts of the movie—besides watching Tony Todd chew the scenery like a legend—are the hilarious creature effects. Though there are real animals in the movie, a few of the featured animals are goofy-looking puppets/dolls. But the Cutter’s Club’s two-headed monstrosity is the best. It looks cute in a weird way, and when it tries to attack people in a completely awkward way, it’s pretty great.
However, the overall story feels incomplete because, well, it is incomplete. There are moments when the scenes that weren’t shot are obtrusive in their absence. Like when something potentially disastrous seems like it’s about to happen, but then the scene ends and it transitions to the next day with nothing more said about what happened. That sort of thing can’t be helped since the production was never finished, but it’s noticeable. Also, brief clips of what appear to be AI-generated clouds in the night sky are used as transitions between scenes, and they absolutely don’t feel like they belong in a movie that came from 2005.
Cutter’s Club Rating and Recommendation
Star Rating: 2 out of 5
Cutter’s Club is worth watching for fans of Tony Todd. It’s far from his best performance, but even when he gets hammy in this movie, he’s a treat to watch. Otherwise, if you know the story about how the movie came to be, then you’ve already experienced the best part of the film.
Then again, if you enjoy low-budget cheese, then you might want to check it out. Like, I enjoyed the movie because I thoroughly love low-budget movies like this, but I understand other might not feel the same way. Would I recommend Cutter’s Club to most people? No. Would I watch it again? Absolutely.
Further Reading
- Bad CGI Gator Review: A Funny Horror Comedy for Fans of Bad B-Movies
- Grafted Review: A “Good For Her” Body Horror Delight
- Mouse of Horrors Review: Better Than You Might Expect for a Steamboat Willie Slasher
- Best Bad Movies Ever Made
- Will Final Destination 6 Finally Solve a Mystery 25 Years in the Making?
- An Interview With Final Destination Creator Jeffrey Reddick On The Franchise’s Original Vision, Tony Todd, And What Lies Ahead
