SHERMAN OAKS, Calif.—Director Harry Sparks' mainstream slasher movie Scissors had its big-screen premiere Tuesday night at the Regal Cinemas in the Sherman Oaks Galleria. (photo gallery)
Photographers shot arrivals on the red carpet, with a step-and-repeat backdrop of the movie's logo, and the Scissors poster was displayed on the theater's backlit poster lineup side-by-side with the upcoming Saturday Night, Smile 2, Moana 2, and Venom: The Last Dance.
"This [premiere] is a labor of love," co-producer and featured actor, James Bartholet, said. "We had to do this right. This is amazing, what we've done here.
"We even have a signature drink. It's called 'the Scissors.' It's a Tequila Sunrise, but with the grenadine dripping down so it looks like blood."
With tongue-in-cheek, Bartholet added, "The movie is only an hour and five minutes, we may put it on TikTok."
Co-star Tommy Pistol was enthusiastic about the Sparks Entertainment project. "I've been saying this for years: Why aren’t people in the [adult] industry, with all the camera equipment and lights, why are we not doing more indie stuff? We totally can, and I hope this kicks off more of it. I told another adult director about this, he's working tonight or he totally would have been here. We need to get more stuff out there, show what we can do. I'm looking forward to seeing the whole movie."
In the theater, Bartholet introduced the film and its stars, jokingly indicating an empty space next to him as "the ghost of Misty Stone."
"She just texted me, she went to the wrong theater," he shared.
Director Sparks said, "I've always wanted to make a slasher movie. If you like slasher movies from the '70s and '80s I think you'll enjoy this movie. It's unique because it's about a sex worker. We enjoyed making
it and I hope everybody enjoys watching it."
The film played with good-natured Rocky Horror-style feedback from the audience, starting with Blake Blossom telling Bartholet he can't sit by her because, "You're gonna throw popcorn all over the place" as the lights went down.
The film begins with the classic OUR FEATURE PRESENTATION leader with jazzy trumpets and segues into a sequence of a cam performer teasing her viewers into sending tips to encourage her to take her top off, leading to her confrontation with the titular Scissors, in a striped clown suit, wearing a fiendish-looking clown mask with pointed teeth and blood dripping from his mouth. The second murder was punctuated by latecomer Misty Stone yelling from her seat, "I'm the first murder!" And Bartholet yelling back, "No! If you'd gotten here on time you would know that!"
Blossom reacted to watching her big-screen demise with "Oh my gawd, I'm gonna have nightmares."
In the post-screening discussion, Bartholet chided the audience.
"I hope you weren't recording this on your cell phones" to which Blossom sheepishly admitted "just my part" with a shrug—before launching into a faux-beauty contestant speech.
"I'm glad I could represent the nurses out there in the world," she said. "They work really hard, so to represent them in a horror movie is really important to me. It's so sad that she had to die, but Nurse Jenny will live on in our hearts."
A horror movie fan complimented Sparks' use of practical effects: "The blood was perfect. A lot of times the blood is orange-y."
New performer Jayne Doh said, "I love how you were able to bring your adult acting to horror. It's so sexy, I feel like I want to fuck everybody in this movie. You did really great."
"I thought it was great," Pistol said after the screening. "It was done on a budget, it was done on a time limit, and what they were able to do was awesome. I'm really proud to be a part of it. It was a lot of fun, a lot of people put their hard work into it, and it shows. These opportunities don’t come up so often, and when they do it's exciting to be a part of it. I'm really happy with it."
Blossom remarked, "This gave me some ideas for what I want to do myself. I have stuff that I'd like to produce and write, and I didn’t even know I could do something like this."
Scissors was written and directed by Sparks, and stars Jill Kassidy, Avery Jane, Lilly Bell, Alex Coal, Blake Blossom, Katie Morgan, Annie Cruz, Misty Stone, Tommy Pistol, Isiah Maxwell, James Bartholet and Scott Schwartz.
Plans call for it to be distributed on streaming services.
Photography by Gordon/@EMMReport
For a photo gallery, click here.
