Review of 8MM (1999) by Stuart K — 30 Apr 2014

You could easily say Joel Schumacher was in a dark place after the mauling and death-threats he got for Batman and Robin (1997)), it could explain his mood for picking up this seedy and dirty murder mystery written by Andrew Kevin Walker (Se7en (1995) and Sleepy Hollow (1999)), it delves into the world of illegal films, and it's a tale of obsession ultimately, and it's actually a chilling and dark thriller.

Private investigator Tom Welles (Nicolas Cage) is contacted by widow Mrs. Christian (Myra Carter) to look at an 8mm film found in her late husbands safe, which seems to depict a real murder of a girl.

Mrs. Christian wants to know if the murder is real or not, Tom promises to investigate. The girl turns out to be Mary Ann Mathews (Jenny Powell), who went missing 6 years previously, her mother Janet (Amy Morton), wants closure on what happened to her daughter.

The search takes Tom to Los Angeles, where he is thrown head-first into the world of underground, illegal films, with adult video store employee Max California (Joaquin Phoenix) as his guide. It's not a film for everybody, and it does spend a little too much time setting up the plot and the leads Cage follows, but for Schumacher, it was a breath of fresh air for him after his ill-fated superhero films, it would also lead to Schumacher making a slew of small budget films, to help rebuild his creative energy.