If one were to talk about gory movies, They Don’t Cut the Grass Anymore from 1985 is a film that would definitely be a part of the conversation. Written and directed by Nathan Schiff, the man would pack his movie with scenes that would turn the stomach. Those moments would not simply be glimpses or quick kills but long and drawn out and they would be so gory at times that it would stretch the audience’s tolerance for the subject.

The plot, for what it is worth, is paper thin and involves a couple of handymen/grasscutters who do not like the kids that come from up north, those with loose morals or whatever it is these two guys fail to like. And what does a person do to others they do not care for? Why mutilate and kill them in the most disgusting of ways.

That does indeed happen and for the bulk of the movie, it finds these two guys, one wearing a mask and one wearing makeup, go around killing people and ripping the flesh off their skulls, pulling their intestines and guts out, sawing off people’s limbs and so forth. Despite a very limited budget, Schiff makes the most of it and he does a great job with the blood and gore. The man knows how to gross out an audience and the picture does not lack for visceral horror. What the movie does lack are decent actors and a good script because what is here is quite bad. The dialogue is terrible and maybe because of that, those who star within are unable to do anything with it. The story could have used a lot more to it other than a basic idea and one has to wonder just what the point of it all was, aside from making a movie.

Perhaps the very best thing about it all is the title as it tells the audience exactly what the yokels used to do and gives it all an ominous feeling as to what they are doing now. That feeling is the perfect advertisement for a movie and yet, They Don’t Cut the Grass Anymore fails on almost every level. It is fairly campy and cringy and it will please gorehounds everywhere but that is the extent of what the movie accomplishes. For most, it will either bore viewers or simply disgust them and it is hard to say which is the worst of the two. In the end, it is a curiosity and for those that might be curious, the hunt might be better than the finding.

1.5 out of 5