THE FILM:

Sharon Stone does a good crazy, but she absolutely loses her mind in Frank de Felitta's Scissors, an interesting but bizarrely flawed psychological thriller. There are pieces of a good roller coaster here: Stone plays Angela Anderson, a sexually repressed recluse, who is attacked by a masked man in an elevator. This sends her over the edge, and her psychiatrist (Ronny Cox) seems only to exacerbate the situation. Scissors is named for the large shears Anderson buys before her attack. These are meant to cut the fabric for homemade dolls, but end up inside her attacker. This is a film ripe with red herrings; so many so that the misdirection becomes frustrating at points. It seems Felitta, who is best known as an author, peppered his film with plot points he did not know how to further. The ending stutters because of the stagnant, confusing midsection, and by that point Stone has been reduced to shrieking and wailing at the moon.

During the early moments of Scissors, I thought the film might be setting up a twist where Stone's character turns out to be the villain. Not so, and that's not really a spoiler after the first few minutes. The camera lingers on Anderson's creepy dolls and depressing apartment with a judgmental eye. The gorgeous Stone is not really believable as this strange of a character, though good genetics are not her fault. After her attack, Anderson begins having nightmares and hallucinations involving a red-bearded man. Her psychiatrist links this to childhood trauma and prods these memories indelicately. Anderson's apartment complex must only rent to oddities. Her neighbors include twins Alex, a soap opera actor, and Cole, an artist stuck in a wheel chair. Both are played by Steve Railsback, and both characters quickly fixate on Anderson. Alex is warm and appealing, while Cole is obsessive and unpleasant. Neither man seems genuinely good, and Scissors throws in red herring after red herring with these two.

Anderson eventually winds up in modern luxury apartment in an under-construction complex. She is there about a job, but winds up in a hellish nightmare. She finds the body of her attacker in the master bedroom. Scissors pierce his chest. The doors lock and she is trapped in a world of bolted-down furniture and unbreakable windows. Scissors seems to indicate that Anderson is trapped in said apartment for days. You never see her eat or drink, but she does not waste away physically. Instead, she loses her mind, and begins to dust and rearrange what little mobile furniture is present. Reality quickly bends: a disconnected phone rings, a doll speaks Anderson's name, a crow says, "You killed him" about the dead man. This visceral nightmare is creepy enough, but these scenes are lost within a muddled, plodding film.

Stone acts to the rafters here to mixed results. She overplays some of the early terror, but she is believable in near-catatonic state. There is obviously something going on with the apartment, and the who and why are teased pretty heavily throughout. I was not particularly impressed with this reveal, but I did like the final beat, when Anderson turns the tables on these antagonistic forces. At 105 minutes, Scissors drags heavily during its midsection, when neither the plot nor the suspense is compelling. The supporting actors are mostly solid, but their characters are intentionally duplicitous. I have no problem with misdirection when it's done for a purpose. Felitta throws in the kitchen sink but nothing really compels. There are interesting ideas afloat, but the execution is weary. Do not feel too sorry for Stone, she went on to make a little film called Basic Instinct the next year. Watch that one instead.

THE BLU-RAY:

PICTURE:

The 1.85:1/1080p/AVC-encoded image is average. There is a mix of oppressive and waxy grain throughout, and many shots are soft. Fine-object detail varies, and colors are not particularly vibrant. Texture is mostly decent, and black levels are strong. There appears to be minor digital enhancement, but I noticed no compression artifacts.

SOUND:

The 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio mix is also decent. This dialogue-heavy movie sounds mostly clear, and the mix lacks obvious distortion. There is some flatness to the mix, but ambient and action effects are given some room to breathe in the rear speakers. Overlapping dialogue can be a bit jumbled, but the musical score is appropriately layered. No subtitles or dubs are included.

EXTRAS:

The only extra is the Theatrical Trailer (1:45/SD).

FINAL THOUGHTS:

This psychological thriller features a frenzied performance by soon-to-be-star Sharon Stone, but the red herring-filled movie lacks focus and drive. Stone's character is attacked in an elevator, which leads to nightmares and hallucinations. She eventually winds up in a living nightmare, but Scissors fails to give its plot or characters compelling motivations. Some interesting scenes, but this is mostly a bore. Skip It.

William lives in Burlington, North Carolina, and looks forward to a Friday-afternoon matinee.