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Cutting Class
VHS cover.
Directed by	Rospo Pallenberg
Produced by	Donald R. Beck, Rudy Cohen, Peter S. Davis, William N. Panzer
Written by	Steve Slavkin
Starring	Brad Pitt, Roddy McDowall, Jill Schoelen, Donovan Leitch
Music by	Jill Fraser
Cinematography	Avi Karpick
Editing by	Bill Butler, Natan Zahavi
Distributed by	Republic Pictures Home Video
Release date(s)	1989
Running time	91 min.
Country	USA
Language	English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Cutting Class is a 1989 horror film directed by Rospo Pallenberg and written by Steve Slavkin.

The film was Brad Pitt's first major role, and was the spark of his career as both an actor and a sex icon.

The plot revolves around the return of Brian Woods (Leitch), a "problem teen," to his high school. He has just been released from a mental hospital; he was committed after the suspicious death of his father. He falls in love with classmate Paula Carson (Schoelen), but the local basketball star Dwight Ingalls (Brad Pitt) is already Paula's boyfriend. Meanwhile, the lecherous school principal also seeks unfortunate Paula's affections. Then horrible murders start happening, with no one certain of the identity of the culprit. The main suspects are Dwight, whose control of his anger has never been perfect, the mysterious Woods, who may not have been fully cured at the sanitarium, and the disgusting principal, who seems to stop at nothing in his attempts to bed Paula.

The film opens with a Paperboy delivering newspapers around the block. We see a glimpse of a headline about someone being "released." A paper is delivered to Paula Carson's house, and she enters the scene in a long T-shirt to fetch the newspaper. Paula is then approached by her father, Bill, who is an attorney, and we learn of his hunting trip. He warns Paula to do her homework, no boys in the house and most importantly "No Cutting Class." Paula then puts the Newspaper in the bin and we see the whole headline. It says: "Boy who killed father released from Mental Asylum."

Bill Carson drives to the swamps for his hunting trip, in an attempt to "bag a mallard." As he takes shots into the air, someone is hiding nearby and holding a set of Bows and arrows. The person calls over to Bill Carson and fires an arrow into him. Bill cries out and then falls down to the ground.

Enter Dwight Ingalls. Dwight inserts a cassette into the stereo of his car. The stereo plays excerpts from "Nearer to Morning" by "Wall of Voodoo." Dwight speeds and is all over the road. As he checks his stereo his moves into collision with another car. Dwight looks up and notices and quickly steers the car out of the way. Meanwhile young boy is peddling a tricycle on the road, near his mom. The young boy rides out in front of Dwight's car and Dwight swerves out of the way. The boy then says "Let's do that again Mommy!" Dwight pulls up beside them and cheekily says "Same time tomorrow?"

Dwight then enters class late and quietly sneaks in. When Dwight sits down we see Brian.

• Cutting Class at the Internet Movie Database

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