Scissors (1991) * 1/2 (out of 4)Angie (Sharon Stone) is walking into her building's elevator when she is attacked by a man. She's able to fight him off with some red scissors that she had just bought. When she gets to her floor her neighbor Alex (Steve Railsback) comes to help. She also meets his crippled brother Cole (Railsback) but he gives her a bad feeling. The trauma of the attack keeps bothering Angie who tries to talk it out with her therapist (Ronny Cox) but something just isn't adding up for her.SCISSORS has a very active and aggressive screenplay that covers the stuff that I mentioned in my summery but it has a lot of other things going on as well. That includes an entire subplot dealing with Angie suffering from various sexual issues that has caused her to be a virgin at the age of 26. This film really has a lot going on for it but when it's all said and done it's basically a "B" movie with interesting ideas that never really comes to life.The first hour of this movie has various tones lifted from Roman Polanski's REPULSION but sadly it's all done in such a way where there's no suspense or tension. The Polanski film is really borrowed from during the final act, which I won't spoil but this is where the movie really crashes and burns. I understand what director Frank De Felitta was going for but everything is just so flat and boring that the film just never works and in fact it really falls apart at the end. Again, I'm not going to spoil the twist but it just doesn't work.Stone turns in a good performance but her character just isn't written well enough to where it can fully come to life. I thought Railsback was very good in the role of the good brother and he certainly stole the film whenever he was on screen. Cox is good in his brief role but sadly none of the performances are able to overcome the rather bland direction and a story that just keeps going and going to the point where you just grow tired of it.

After a young woman (Sharon Stone) is attacked in the elevator she meets her neighbors for the first time. One of them has a secret, the other has a crush on her. Her analyst tries to help her over the attack, but when she is invited to a mysterious apartment things get worse and worse.Not even Ronny Cox could save this film. While Cox is an incredible actor and an amazing presence, this film has a few too many annoying aspects and tends to run a bit long. Sure, there is some suspense, and you need time to build that suspense, but there is a line that divides suspense and boredom, and I think the director may have crossed that line.There are things to like about the film (besides Cox). The quirky characters, the menacing music... much of the architecture even makes of a good background. I do not happen to be a big fan of Sharon Stone (although Netflix seems to think so, because it has suggested her films more than once now). Some say this is among her best roles. Maybe, I do not know. A good editor good fix this one up nicely.

The atmosphere created in SCISSORS is quite intense, despite it's tele-movie leanings. It definitely seems an overlooked horror-thriller that leaves images lingering in mind, literally for years.If you liked "The Look-alike" I am sure you'll love this even more!

During most of this film, Sharon Stone is trapped in a weird, large room and we, the viewers, are trapped along with her, forced to witness her slow descent into madness. She portrays it fairly well, but this whole effort just isn't a particularly enjoyable one. And when we reach the finale, expecting some sound psychological explanations, we get only generalities and trivialities (you guessed it:the key secret is another - SPOILER! - Childhood Trauma!). Didn't the director watch "Marnie" and learn his lesson? (*1/2)