Snuff-Movie

The storyline, settings and production values of this film are all strangely similar to the notoriously sick horror classic "Last House on Dead End Street". Could it possibly be that pure grim grindhouse exploitation is back from the dead?!? Well, not really, but the least you can say about "Snuff-Movie" is that it's a reasonably good attempt to revive the misogynous shock-cinema from the 70's. Even more surprising is that the film is a one-man project of Bernard Rose, a director whose older films "Candyman" and "Paperhouse" are still regarded as stylish and prominent horror classics. The underrated Dutch actor Jeroen Krabbé stars as the embittered filmmaker Boris Arkadim who lost his beautiful wife and a share of close friends because they were killed by a bunch of violent maniacs who videotaped their crimes. Fourteen years later, Boris decides to make a new movie that tells the story of that night and thus four actors are lured to his isolated mansion full of cameras. It takes quite a while before anyone notices, but Boris plans to slaughter his guests on camera for real. Bernard Rose's script tries to be a little TOO intelligent (especially near the end) and the tension-level lowers with every plot twist. The gore is incontestably NASTY and there's plenty of authentic sleaze (there's a blond Playboy model in the cast, people!), so fans of underground-trash horror will love those moments! Despite the promising title, however, "Snuff-Movie" isn't half as disturbing, offensive or controversial as it wants to be and the film definitely needed a better climax. The acting performances are more than adequate and the cinematography with a Sony hand-camera is fairly well-handled. Worth a look if you're into semi-extreme cinema.