Bad Day for the Cut [2017]

May 29, 2021

Featuring a familiar plot, Bad Day for the Cut starts unassumingly and pretty gloomy. However, soon enough we’re thrown into a spiral of violence, revenge, and secrets to be uncovered. And all this is happening in fucking Northern Ireland! We will be visiting both the rural and urban areas in this darkly comical slow-burner. We follow Donal, a middle-aged farmer who set out from his wee farm in search of answers after a terrible crime. Director Chris Baugh cleverly avoided the now ever so popular quirky vibe and remained firmly rooted in grimy reality. Grimy reality infused with darkly stoic irony and satire. This is a carefully crafted movie with a lot of small details that add to its authenticity and atmosphere.

Bad Day for the Cut can be considered as a small-town crime movie, although Donal’s farm seems far away from any civilization. It features a perfect blend of drama, dark humor, and action. The star of the show is Nigel O’Neill with his phenomenal performance. He was honest, natural, and very likable as Donal, the farmer with vengeance on his mind. The definition of a “you messed with a wrong guy” vibe. Despite its slower pacing, this is an entertaining movie with an air of mystery about it. Once the intro is over, you want to find out why did this happen, how and if someone is going to answer for it.

Meet Donal, a middle-aged farmer who spends his days fixing and selling cars. He lives on a remote farm taking care of his elderly mother. His wee moments of happiness are found in a local bar where he enjoys a pint or two. Plus, he fancies the waitress. However, all this is about to change as a strange car appears near his farm setting in motion a series of violent and tragic events.

Above all, Bad Day for the Cut is an Irish movie and it features several elements directly related to this beautiful country with a tragic history of violence. On the other hand, you can say the same thing about almost any country in the world. It’s just that the Irish Troubles were a theme of many movies and very publicized at the time. Here, we build on this and actually go deep to see where the problem is and how can we fix it. However, this is not the main theme here as we will be also delving deep into the criminal world among other things. British crime thriller Hyena also features some of the same elements, only focused on a corrupt police detective. With so many mediocre and plain bad Netflix movies these days, this one is a cut above them. One deep motherfucking cut.

Finally, if you’re looking for movies like Bad Day for the Cut you first might want to check out Chris Baugh’s latest movie Boys from County Hell. It also stars Nigel O’Neill only this time he’s fighting freaking vampires. Next up we have Calibre, Shimmer Lake, Blue Ruin and Murder Party. I also want to bring your attention to our Subversive Rabbit selection of Revenge Movies.