Cut and Run, originally titled Inferno in diretta ("Living Hell"), is a 1985 Italian exploitation thriller directed by Ruggero Deodato (Cannibal Holocaust, The Barbarians) and starring Lisa Blount, Leonard Mann, Richard Lynch, John Steiner, Michael Berryman, Eriq La Salle, and Karen Black. The film follows reporter Fran Hudson (Blount) and her cameraman investigating a war in the jungles of South America between drug cartels and the cult-like cannibal army of Colonel Brian Horne (Lynch).
Not to be confused with the series of novels by Abigail Roux and Madeline Urban.
Contains examples of the following tropes:
- Asshole Victim: Rapist and drug cartel enforcer Manuel is such a loathsome monster that his gruesome death comes off as gratifying and cathartic rather than horrifying.
- Bald of Evil: Col. Horne's enforcer Quecho. His actor Michael Berryman is afflicted with a rare skin disorder that prevents the formation of hair, nails, or sweat glands.
- Beard of Evil: Vladimir sports a bushy beard, and is an evil bastard all around.
- Been There, Shaped History: Col. Horne formerly served as right-hand man to Jim Jones, and it's implied that he was the one who convinced Jones to order his followers to commit their act of "revolutionary suicide".
- Big Bad: Col. Brian Horne, the disgraced former soldier turned cult leader.
- Bowdlerise: The film was shot in two different versions - a "softer" cut for the American market and a "harder" cut with gorier death scenes for the international market.
- The Dragon: Quecho is this to Horne.
- Faux Affably Evil: Manuel acts pleasant and polite, but he’s a scummy, murderous rapist.
- Forced into Evil: The cartel has forced Ana and Tommy to help them by holding them captive, and tends to use them as punching bags.
- Gorn: It’s by the same guy who made Cannibal Holocaust, after all.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: One poor bastard gets drawn and quartered, tearing him in half vertically.
- Impromptu Tracheotomy: The cannibals have a tendency to shoot people in the throat with blow darts.
- The Informant: Fargas, a pimp who gives Fran information for a price. That said, when the information is too dangerous, he’ll just give her enough clues to piece things together without putting his life on the line,
- Intrepid Reporter: Fran Hudson, who sees no problem with rushing headfirst into dangerous situations for the sake of a good story.
- Jerkass: Vlado, a racist, sexist and murderous asshole who constantly demeans those lower on the food chain than him.
- Machete Mayhem: Quecho's weapon of choice is one of these.
- Off with His Head!:
- How Manuel is killed.
- Col. Horne, who has been fatally wounded in a firefight, has his men decapitate him on live television.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: After Tommy and a Red Shirt make a failed escape attempt that ends with Vlado shooting the Red Shirt, he declares the only reason he doesn’t kill Tommy is that he is white.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Shortly after arriving at the cartel base, Manuel rapes Ana, who is too traumatized and used to it to care.
- The Social Darwinist: Col. Horne's stated motive is to seize control of the cocaine trade and in the process purge the world of the weak through his wave of terror and dominance.
- Sociopathic Soldier: Col. Horne, a former Green Beret who was dishonorably discharged and went on to serve as the right-hand man of Jim Jones, and is heavily implied to have been the one to have caused the Jonestown massacre. Now, he’s formed a cannibal cult in the jungle and is trying to take over the cocaine trade to purge the world of the weak.
- What the Hell Is That Accent?: Vlado speaks in an accent that sounds like a cross between Scottish and Spanish accents.
