A campy, knife-wielding maniac mystery set 40 years in the past gets in the way of what might have been an otherwise provocative romance between low-rent Parisian pornographers: producer Anne (Vanessa Paradis) and her editor/at odds lover Lois (Kate Moran). A leather-enshrouded phantom, armed with naught but a switchblade dildo with which to disembowel, is one-by-one doing away with the all-male cast of what looks to be the team’s last production. Paradis gives this otherwise callow giallo knock-off the old college try, but it’s not enough to carry a cast of amateurs. (Her slow, steamy description of a sex crime meant to arouse interest in interrogating officers quickly disintegrates amid a sea of mugging reaction shots.) Neither pointedly tasteless enough to qualify as black comedy, psychologically chilling enough to raise goose flesh, nor erotic enough to outclass its soft-core origins, Knife + Heart = Cashed Slasher. Directed by Yann Gonzalez. (2018) — Scott Marks
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