What if you were living the seemingly perfect life, but with a very dark secret? You live in a quiet suburban neighborhood with your husband and son, but inside that home you feel isolated, neglected, and completely invisible to the people you love. What would you give up to feel seen?
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Cutting Moments (1996), written and directed by Douglas Buck, is a violent and shocking short film that explores that question. The film was first released on a VHS compilation also called Cutting Moments, before being re-released in August 2004 as part of Family Portraits: A Trilogy of America. This was a collection of 3 short films by Buck, all with a similar topic of uncovering the dark side of the American family. Cutting Moments, in particular, tackles themes of repression, domestic decay, and self-destruction behind the scenes of what appears to be, at first glance, a seemingly normal and (dare I say) boring suburban existence.
If you’re ready to dive into all the graphic details, here’s the full horror movie breakdown.
We meet Sarah and Patrick, a very average-looking, everyday couple living with their son Joey. Although they seem very normal on the surface, it becomes immediately obvious that this family is on the brink of collapse. Every shot in this film feels cold and almost sterile. There’s an almost exclusively muted color palette, dominated by beige and washed out colors. The home itself is also very understated, with plain white walls and minimal decorations. It’s meant to look like really any normal home you’ve ever visited, because this is a story that could represent the current life of so many families just struggling through the day. There’s a lifelessness to the home and the people trapped in it.
One day while Patrick is tending to the yard work, he notices that Joey is playing with some toys. He approaches him asking what he is doing and the boy seems to not be much of a talker. Patrick looks down and notices that the toys are set up in a sexual position, and he asks Joey to go in the house.
Later inside the house, Sarah tells Patrick that their lawyer called today and that Joey may be taken away by CPS. It’s inferred later on why that is. Patrick simply replies, "It will all work out.” Setting aside that clearly something is going on with Joey, this moment between the couple feels incredibly emotionless and forced, as if they just don’t even really care anymore. Patrick is sitting there disconnected and disinterested in what’s going on, and, more specifically, in interacting with Sarah in any way. Sarah speaks with a tone of despair to the point of complete dissociation from reality.
As the family sits down for dinner later that night, Sarah is the only one who tries to make conversation. She’s desperate for interaction with her family. Showing interest in her son and his day, she asks him questions about it. Joey is clearly very uncomfortable in this family setting. Turning her attempt at connection to her husband, Sarah tries to hold his hand, and he shoves her away not wanting anything to do with her.
Later that night in bed, she stares at their wedding photo, longing to return to that time in their relationship. Our time with the family so far has been dominated by a feeling of emotional and psychological purgatory, where every member of the family seems unable to communicate or express these feelings of emptiness we’re seeing. They’re left to simply trudge through the motion of their everyday lives. This lack of emotional connection is what will ultimately manifest in violence later, providing a warning of the consequences of repression in an attempt to maintain the appearance of the ideal traditional family values. The hopes and dreams of the “white picket fence” life will quite literally kill these people.
You hear Patrick’s voice in the background of the scene. He’s talking to their son Joey in his bedroom, telling him he will "make it up to him,” and that “it's ok.” You now have more insight into the dark cloud hanging over this family and why Joey may be removed from the home. Clearly, something dark has occurred between Patrick and Joey, and while we can make some educated assumptions, the full story is never explored. Instead, we’re just get one of the triggers of the fractures in the family, allowing us to continue to experience the fallout that echos through each member of the home.
Despite the current state of their relationship, Sarah still wants her husband’s attention and love. Honestly, just watching her continually try to connect throughout this story while everyone around her rejects her is heartbreaking. Continuing to make an effort that goes unseen, she puts on a nice dress with bright red lipstick to match. This is a noticable contrast to the beige world we’ve been living in, and the first signs of something bubbling to the surface. She stands in front of Patrick on the couch, who responds with irritation at the interruption of his baseball game — ah yes, the self-described All-American past time, and another attempt by Patrick to fit the traditional family mold. He dismisses her efforts, and Sarah goes quietly back to the bathroom.
This moment was the final straw for Sarah. Looking in the mirror, she tries to wipe off the lipstick with a towel. Still seeing a shade of red, she looks down, seeing a brillo pad, and tries to scrub the color from her lips. This scene reminded me quite a bit of a similar scene in The Substance (2024), where Demi Moore’s character is scrubbing away the same red lipstick. In both scenes, we get this intimate moment with the character where they’re almost ashamed of themselves and their own efforts to get validation from someone outside of themselves. Unlike Demi Moore though, Sarah doesn’t stop there. She grabs a pair of scissors and removes her lips completely leaving what looks like a permanent smile. In nothing but her underwear, she returns to Patrick covered in blood.
Looking up in shock he stands up, as if he finally recognizes the lengths she went to for him and the level of despair they both feel. Sarah finally feels seen by Patrick, now that her wounds are fully exposed and on display. He takes her into the bedroom, and their desperation to remove the shame and sadness of their lives violently escalates from there.
The couple have sex, and Patrick uses a pair of hedge trimmers to remove Sarah’s breasts and next his own penis. This act is a reflection of where they are in their feelings toward each other and themselves. Patrick knows his choices have led down a road of perversion that he feels must be atoned for, and Sarah is willing to figuratively and literally give every piece of herself to hold together the family she longs for. Both die ultimately from blood loss, and are found the next morning by police. When the police arrive, their son Joey is playing quietly outside, still giving the outside of the home it’s perfect family feeling that masks the horrors within.
This short film is not for the faint of heart by any means. There’s not a lot of dialogue, but despite that, you still feel this sense of sadness and emptiness throughout the entire runtime, which ends in a shocking way as you see this couple absolutely destroy themselves physically and emotionally. Unlike many other films in the genre, there’s no supernatural or external threat to this family, but simply the horror of everyday life trapped in the shadows of a flawed pursuit of the American dream.
If you have the stomach for it, watch Cutting Moments now on Black Box Horror! https://blackboxhorror.substack.com
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