Brad Pitt's Awful Early-Career Horror Comedy Is Streaming For Free

For most moviegoers, Brad Pitt basically dropped out of the sky and into the backseat of a 1966 Ford Thunderbird Convertible in Ridley Scott's 1991 classic "Thelma & Louise." They'd never seen or heard of this ludicrously handsome charmer before, but now that he was so emphatically here, they knew they'd be lining up to see him in just about anything for decades to come.

34 years later, Pitt, at the age of 61, is still one of the most sought-after movie stars in the world — and those sun-kissed good looks have kept better than Robert Redford's, so he remains a viable romantic lead at a point in his career where you'd expect him to start playing men who are uneasily aware that they've entered their third act. Or he could make like Cary Grant and simply retire rather than face the awful indignity of playing grandfathers.

This would be unthinkable because, since he got audiences all hot and bothered in "Thelma & Louise," Pitt has been a certainty. For moviegoers born after 1980, it is impossible to consider a film landscape that isn't prominently occupied by this sexy devil. And it is even more improbable to note that he didn't become a full-fledged star until four years after he made his big screen debut. What took so long? Well, like many of his superstar peers (particularly George Clooney and Leonardo DiCaprio), he had to pay his dues by appearing in some fairly lousy movies first. One such film was a slasher comedy that you can currently stream for free (which is the only advisable way to watch it).

The fine folks at Pluto TV have dug into Pitt's pre-"Thelma & Louise" career and unearthed Rospo Pallenberg's 1989 horror clown "Cutting Class." If you're wondering why you've never heard of this movie, well, throw it on and you'll find out.

The film tries to put a loopy twist on the genre by playing pretty openly for laughs. It begins with the late comedy legend Martin Mull ("Fernwood 2 Night," "Clue," "Arrested Development") playing a concerned father whose hunting trip comes to an abruptly fatal end when he's shot with an arrow. This leads us into the main story, which centers on a typical American high school being terrorized by a killer who, in classic slasher fashion, is claiming their victims one by one. Everyone is fairly certain the culprit is either a student or a teacher, and, for a time, one of the chief suspects is Pitt's kinda-sorta bully jock Dwight, who's none too pleased that his main squeeze, Paula (Jill Schoelen), has become friends with new kid Brian (Donovan Leitch).

"Cutting Class" could've been a campy hoot, but it wastes a game cast that also includes Malcolm McDowall as a skeevy principal. I won't spoil the identity of the killer just in case you do decide to give this justifiably forgotten movie a spin. The best that can be said of Pallenberg's film is that, even when saddled with ear-splittingly horrendous dialogue, Pitt looks every inch a movie star.