Matt Hicks and Andrew Lyall feature in Buzz Cut. Photo: Nathan Higgins
Former Cambridge High School students have taken the stage in what is billed to be New Zealand’s first slasher flick.
Buzz Cut, directed by Auckland’s Martin Renner, follows the Hash House Harriers, a running group with a drinking problem, and their encounters with an insane beekeeper.
Filmed around New Zealand in 2020, the movie features two former Cambridge High students in its main cast.
Andrew Lyall and Matt Hicks make up two of the cast, alongside a mixed bag of New Zealand actors, and cameos from 80’s Hollywood scream queens Linnea Quigley (The return of the living dead) and Donna Wilkes (Jaws 2/Angel).
Hicks, a Cambridge resident as well as DJ, wedding celebrant, actor, and director, also directed the Cambridge based film The Tavern, in 2019, however it is yet to be released.
He said it was a hard process, and Buzz Cut feels like a reward.
“It felt like the universe rewarding me for all my hard work on the previous film, and I could just sit back, relax, and just enjoy acting.”
“It was quite a fun, freeing, no stress experience” He said.
The film, produced by Donna Wilkes, is doing the festival round, having screened in Toronto, Cannes, Orlando, and Hong Kong.
The horror-flick naysayers need only cast their minds back to the 80’s and 90’s movies Bad Taste and Brain Dead. Low-fi gore galore, they were required viewing for those born in the 70’s and 80’s, and were the films that put Peter Jackson’s name on the map.
“It’s pretty basic and silly (loaded with horrible puns) but will be a good time for anyone that love 80s silly slasher films. If you can put your brain and morals (it’s a little crude) on autopilot for 90 minutes you’ll have a bit of fun”.
Buzz Cut will have a Halloween screening at the Tivoli Cinema in Cambridge on October 30.
