Review of 8MM (1999) by Michael Y — 26 Apr 2011

It's not the best told detective story, but it sure is an emotionally striking one. 8MM dives into a sick but all too real world, but doesn't forget the emotional expence it costs to live in such a world.

Nicolas Cage stars as a private investigator hired by a wealthy old widow who discovered a "snuff film" in her husband's private safe. Cage's job: find the girl in the video. As he dives further into the twisted world of underground porn, he finds that there is no end to the human conscience. For those who don't know, a "snuff film" is film footage of someone being murdered, not limited to torture or rape as well, all for a profit. It's more of a myth than anything because who would be stupid enough to create such evidence? 99%, of all snuff films are fake. But this movie is about the mystery of a certian special film. There's a bad rap from critics about this movie either because they were repulsed by it or because it fails as a horror movie. But I don't consider this movie to be a horror movie. It's a human movie. It could have been better though. I don't think the detective element was all that well thought of, but 8MM works extremely well as a story about the human soul. This movie isn't graphic in any way, it leaves it all to the imagination, but it's that psychological horror and repulsion of people's actions that makes for one hell of an emotional movie, that doesn't give up quite as easily as it could have simply done so.

Director Joel Schumacher certianly has a wide profile when it comes to movie genres, but I love the way he made 8MM look. The enviroment is so utterly dark and creepy, it's easy getting into this movie. Joel Schumacher movies definitely have full and creative looking eviroments, and 8MM has a very scary and realistic one. The art direction and set designs are absolutely amazing, the gritty and dark look, the graffiti on the walls of everything, the dirty look of the city, both above and underground. This might be a repulsive looking movie, but that just means that a damn good job was done by the production team. Some very nice and eeire cinematography can be seen too. Like I said, this is the kind of movie that leaves the desturbing stuff to the imagination, which proves quite effective.

8MM isn't supposed to be a controvercial bloodbath, or a cheep horror, what 8MM is about is something far worse that physicality. The true horror comes from the mental will and lack of conscience people can have. This isn't even an anti-porno movie, it just reminds it's audience that there are just some limits people do not have, and for those of us that do, we should be thankful for our blissful ignorance.