Scissors (1991)
(On Cable TV, October 2021) There are roughly 45 minutes of an intriguing film in Scissors; alas, it leads to 45 minutes of a much worse film. Feeling a lot like a mellow de Palma film, it’s a psychological thriller (aka—weird stuff, not physically impossible) revolving around a young woman who gets assaulted in the elevator of her apartment, then sees things get truly weird. Talking to her psychologist doesn’t help much; speaking to her neighbours doesn’t help much (especially when one of them is definitely stalking her) and the strangeness doesn’t abate. Sharon Stone, in one of her pre-stardom roles, is actually quite likable as the eccentric lead even if it’s not a right fit for her later screen persona. The film is intriguing until it hits the midway part and abruptly switches gears by locking up its protagonist in a nightmarish apartment filled with animated objects, unsettling reminders of her past traumas and… a dead man, the same one who assaulted her in the elevator. Abruptly changing to a lock-up thriller, Scissors becomes less interesting and subjectively much slower-paced. It picks up again toward the end, as the explanations are given and our protagonist gets one final opportunity to strike back. While the film wants to be odd and unsettling, it settles for mere weirdness—director Frank De Felitta is not particularly gifted and his control over the results degrades the longer Scissors goes on. In the end, a potentially intriguing film has degenerates into mere mediocrity, barely worth remembering.