Joel Schumacher isn't exactly one of the most beloved filmmakers as far as film geeks like myself are concerned. "The Lost Boys" was a fun teen horror/comedy. "Flatliners" was a fairly entertaining supernatural chiller, but failed to disturb as much as it wanted to. "Batman Forever" was utter garbage, and quite a few others he made I don't wish to see. Still, I had heard that "8MM" was a grim, disturbing movie. Anyone I know that's seen it always felt the same way about it in that respect, whether they loved it or hated it. Well, for me, "grim" and "disturbing" are terms that prove enticing, and I finally had to see this film. I was not only not let down, but found it to be a far more grim and disturbing (and GREAT) movie than I had expected. It starts off with the feel of almost any other "detective/cop-in-over-his-head" movies that have been coming out left and right for quite some time. Nicholas Cage plays a private eye who, when away from his job, seems to be your everyman with a family. He is paid to check out whether an alleged "snuff" film was real or not, and what he discovers are not only terrifying realities around him, but also terrifying realities inside him. At the beginning, because I was used to the aforementioned types of big-budget thrillers that have become all too common even years after "8MM" (which itself is easy to accidentally lump in along with the mediocrity if you haven't seen it), I quickly began to suspect that people found this disturbing because of its snuff depictions, but, even still, from that shaky start, I was fairly interested. What I didn't know was that this hard-hitting humdinger (as much of a horrifying journey of self-discovery as a suspense thriller) would slowly begin piling up the almost unbearable heaps of tension more and more throughout the film so heavily that, by the end, all bets were off and, as much as I loved it, I couldn't wait for this spellbinding and intense movie to relax its crushing grip. I found "8MM" to be moving in ways both negative and positive, and, though its violent scenes certainly didn't shock me at all, how good and effective the movie was certainly did. Believe you me, this is not your typical "taut thriller" (as many "critics" are often paid to call mediocre movies). If this were even just up to the expectations I had, I probably would see it as too mediocre for review. But, thankfully, this was no average time-waster, as it is surprisingly an edge-of-the-seat masterpiece that I enjoyed much more than I thought I would. I would like to note furthermore that one shouldn't get the wrong idea about people into bondage when they watch this movie. Some people out there are sickos (and I'm sure that there are people all over the world and in this country who are very much like the hateful, smut-peddling killers in this film), but many bondage fans would consider this film (and the films that it is about) too negative. Regardless, this is a fine film, and is probably one of the few thrillers from the 1990s that I could honestly say I was thrilled by. If you like those dark, emotionally intense movies that touch upon the savage and base desires of the often fragile human psyche, I would seriously recommend this. It is an excellent film.
8MM
(1999)
"When you dance with the devil, the devil don't change... the devil changes you."
11 June 2004