Don't listen to the negative reviews

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Blistering performances.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

As a recovering self injurer of eleven years, I had high hopes for this film. What could have been a film that brought awareness to this difficult issue, Secret Cutting was an over-dramatized mess. Dawn was portrayed as the friendless school loser, which is frankly a stereotype I'm tired of seeing. The thing about a lot of self injurers is that they can be the girl/guy next door, the very last person you would ever expect. Furthermore, the portrayal of the actual self injury was more like an addict shooting up heroin, and at times, Dawn seemed almost insane. People who self harm are not crazy, not suicidal, and are not rushed to the hospital every week for life threatening self inflicted injuries (excepting of course the most extreme cases). I can't be the only one who is tired of film makers taking the easy way out for the sake of the added drama. In the mean time, unless you're looking for some over the top theatrics, hold out for a time when someone who actually cares about the issue decides to make a real movie.

In my opinion this is a great movie and it has become one of my favorites.In general i am usually against made for TV movies but this one really got me. *May contain spoilers* When it comes to Self Injury(cutting,burning,etc.) i am extremely critical of movies that contain the issue.Most of the time Self Injury is represented completely wrong.That always upsets me but this movie was actually surprisingly accurate in most aspects.Lets take a look at the facts of this movie.It's about a girl who is extremely distressed about many of the normal teenage problems such as a bad relationship with her parents,a less than understanding sibling,a boyfriend who doesn't care about her at all,a constant feeling that she doesn't fit in and that nobody likes her.(I think that anyone and everyone has also had to deal with at least one of these issues at one point or another in there lives.)The point is that in order to deal with these problems she cuts herself.Which happens to people who are in extreme distress and are generally quiet,keep to themselves,and just have trouble communicating there feelings.I'm very passionate about the issue of Self Injury and i love when movies,TV shows and whatnot actually represent the issue in an accurate form.From beginning to end i really think that you can connect with the character of Dawn and feel her pain.She seems to be painfully shy and all she wants is to fit in and make friends.The mother in this movie is just terrible but in reality i think this may actually be the way that a lot of mothers may act in reaction to finding out that there child is a self injurer.At first when i was watching this movie and i saw the mom's character play out and i thought maybe she was just scared of losing her daughter to cutting, but then i realized she was just plain selfish and that all she cared about was people knowing that she raised a daughter that was a cutter, and it wasn't even that she was worried about the embarrassment that Dawn would face because of her cutting but the embarrassment that she,the mom, would face because of Dawn's cutting.That is why i believe the mom told everyone that Dawn was cutting,to force Dawn to stop cutting so that she wouldn't have to deal with the fact that her daughter was a cutter and her embarrassment.The Dad on the other hand seemed like he genuinely cared but no longer had a good relationship with his daughter so he wasn't quite sure how to communicate with her.He wanted to help her but had no idea how to go about it.There were a couple scenes in this movie that demonstrated that wonderfully.The so called popular girls in this movie were completely ruthless and enjoyed every moment of Dawn's pain.I have never seen girls this terrible before.The only people in this movie that really seemed to care about Dawn's pain was her new friend Lorraine, and her father.Lorraine was definitely one of the best things that happened to Dawn.You could tell that Lorraine really cared about Dawn and just wanted to help her.The best acting in this movie was definitely provided by the teenagers.They were all really great and completely believable.One real issue that i had with this movie was in fact the ending.The ending was very unsettling and left a lot of unanswered questions.I really think that more should have been added to clear up a few things but overall this was a good movie and i give it a 9/10.Also,i suggest to anyone who is a Self Injurer or has been a Self Injurer, or knows someone who is a Self Injurer to give this movie a chance and watch it you might just learn something.

I saw this movie when it first came out, but when I watched it again a few months ago it stuck more. I've seen other movies, television shows, etc. about self injury. This one has got to be in the top 3. Besides the Degrassi episode "Whisper to a Scream." I think self injury was best shown here. It didn't make Dawn out to be a monster, even though her classmate's were pukes about it. It showed her having fun and leading a normal life at times, but then the pain and feelings of hopelessness as well. This is a very very hard subject to tackle well, but this one did it. There were a lot of very good quotes by her therapist (Pearlman) that really hit home. The end needed to be a bit longer, it wrapped stuff up too quick. Still an amazing movie, and performance by Kimberlee Peterson.

I first watched this film on the Lifetime channel because my favorite actor, Kett Turton, was in it. I was hesitant to watch it at first, being a self injurer myself, I was worried it might be triggering for me. The first time I watched it, I had though it was done with an outstanding accuracy and had applauded it openly.I saw it again recently and realized, judging from my own personal experiences, that it isn't as accurate as I had once thought, but not too far off. A prime example of it's inaccuracy would be how excited Dawn seemed to get while cutting. It might be that way for some, but for me it seemed odd and a very unrealistic reaction unless she happened to be masochistic. But it's inaccuracy there is outnumbered by the accuracy I did find. The franticness in which she cut was precise and realistic. I also found the way she was so ashamed of her cuts and always hiding them is extremely characteristic of a self-injurer. It shows that contrary to popular belief, us self-injurers aren't all "attention whores", parading our scars and cuts, flaunting our pain. I believe that the first time I watched it when I was 13, I think I got what I wanted to from the film, and now being 16, I realize it's still the same: self-injury is slowly but surely making itself more main-stream and something needs to be done about it. I am an avid cutter myself, but luckily go through bouts of time where I won't even look at a sharp object. Self injury is a condition people should recognize more and this movie shows how serious it can get without the cutter realizing that it only takes one cut too deep and it could all be over. I will admit, I am a total hypocrite towards this issue: I say don't do it and I do it myself. I suggest this movie to anyone who is a self-injurer or have a friend or family member who injures themselves. If you hurt yourself or know someone who does, you should go to this site, it has a lot of good information whether you cut or not. http://www.self-injury.net/