Snuff 102

Once again... very good reviews, bad rating. Now which should you trust on this movie?? In my case I should have trusted the vote... like expected "Snuff 102" is another take on the Snuff-Genre with DV-Cameras and low production value, much reminding of course of August Underground. But in contrary to the other reviewers I found this one much less shocking. Mainly because it tries to be intelligent by incorporating psychological statements, dialog thats as endless as the sequences of screaming girls and some artsy shots of meaningless pictures... which by the way look rather cheap to me. I was about to end the movie after the bleached out opening sequence. The movie is roughly about the snuff genre and a woman investigating on it.. wasn't Tesis a similar plot, don't remember for sure. Anyway ... you got her talking to a psychologist, surfing the web and looking at strange sites all mixing with the sequence of 3 girls bound and gagged and tortured while stumbling into the chaos of course. Now there is some plot and they even tried a kind of twist in the end but basically of course its about seeing girls bashed and tortured and even cheaper ... they regularly mix in stupid pictures from Rotten.com which gives the movie a real cheap and stupid feel. The mixture just doesn't work although the gore FX looks pretty realistic... anyway, with such bad picture quality its not such a big deal. So if you mix movies like August Underground, Scrapbook and the style of Slaughtered Vomit dolls and add some try of being intelligent on it you can watch this since you already know what kind of production value is awaiting. After all I found this one extremely boring and by far not as sick as Slaughered Vomit Dolls which had a very similar noisy and artsy collage style or as realistic as August Underground which was boring anyway.

This movie isn't rubbish because it's extreme, hardcore, brutal, or any of that. This movie is rubbish because it failed an attempt at a plot, it failed attempts of shock with unoriginal filmography, just drop the quality of other shock films by around 95% and you have snuff 102.

Gore 4/10 Camera 1/10 Music 1/10 Acting 3/10 Overall 3/10, feeing generous.

Just go watch Atroz.

Snuff 102 is a new movie in the "overhyped and labeled as most brutal ever" category. Like all the movies in that category (Murder Set pieces, chaos,etc) its not "that brutal" as reviews and comments wants us to believe (there are lots of fake reviews in this kind of movies, specially on MSP). What is Snuff 102? Well, lets start from whats not. This ain't a new August Underground, its a completely different kind of movie. Snuff 102 Its a movie with a traditional plot, its not a "fake snuff". The story is similar to Thesis or 8 mm but featuring some gross and very well done gore FX and some internet footage of animal killings. Overall, its worth a look, its boring sometimes (its too long and very slow-paced IMHO), the plot twist at the end is very predictable but its well done and its a good movie.

As the title suggests, this is a Snuff version of classic I Spit On Your Grave. Three chicks get tortured, until one of them escapes, and kills the main villain. There's also a side plot to this film, that the chick that escaped did a investigation on the suspect, that did his mass-murders.

I'm going to be brutal honest here, when it comes to fictional Snuff-Movies, this one is probably the tamest i have seen, which was really a let down. Comparing this to Guinea Pig, Grotesque, Altroz and The Butcher, it's safe to say that Snuff 102 has no weight to the fictional snuff movies i have listed and seen.

The main problem i got with this film, is how boring it was. The whole movie was so slow, and repetitive, half of the scenes could of been cut out in order for this film to flow better. Until the last 20 minutes, everything else in this movie was painfully boring, and i could not wait for it to end. I have to mention, this movie does contain scenes of some real death gore scenes, one of which is where they slaughter a pig in Croatia, and they present is as snuff, which is understand why, is to compare the human body to a pig, for Snuff killers, the victims body is just like a Pig.

The movie is trying to prove a point, that Snuff-filming is just equal as Pornography, in the sence, that the human body is being exploitated and humiliated, and that there's no limits on the internet, that you can be perversed as you wish on the internet.

This movie could of been way better, if we had more likeable victims, that had any kind of backstory, the only one that has a flat barely exsisting backstory and development, is the chick that is investigating this guy. Sad to say but hour and twenty minutes of this was so boring, and you barely cared really. Yes the movie has some graphic scenes, if you never watched a fictional snuff flick, this probably could move you ill, however if you are somebody that is a veteran to extreme cinema, it's probably not going to bother you, and most of the effects look really cheap, and all of it is blacked out, probably because the budget was not there.

The only thing keeping this film at two stars, is the fact that it has a plot, because there's movies out there that nearly have zero plot, and are just a brain melter, like Gummo, Where The Dead Go To Die, and Begotten.

Like almost all (horror) films, Snuff 102 requires a minimum of open-mindedness, and above all trying to understand what it is: like what is this work? (this is a clichéd remark, but I insist and I will explain).

In my opinion, snuff 102 is first and foremost an excellent survival movie. We follow characters involved in bizarre events, we see them suffer, look for solutions to escape, communicate, etc. There are some ultra-thrilling scenes and I love survival! Especially when survival appears realistic within the ecosystem of the film.

So: 1st point: a great survival.

Then, Snuff 102 is a very gripping snuff movie, with a careful, glossy atmosphere, AND it is a formally very original film, on the border between reality and fiction.

Mariano Peralta wrote and directed a work that mixes genres: we follow a journalist, the film is like a documentary of her work. There are videos of real violence, real-fake snuff passages created by the director, and flashbacks to the daily lives of the tortured characters. I really try not to spoil anything, so it's not easy to tell the story. The mix is perfect, it really feels like it's a real doc and a real snuff (both at the same time). The structure is therefore quite complex, even if the narration is very refined.

So: 2nd: an extraordinary found-footage.

Finally, there are the directing choices: Mariano Peralta did not want to make a classic torture-porn (a genre that I really like). Above all, he wanted to cover important subjects with his film, to make himself think and make the viewer think. This film is from 2007, and poses very interesting questions about our relationships with image, bodies, violence, private life, etc. Far from being a film that wants to shock or delight in violence (and there are plenty of them that are cool), we are almost faced with a social chronicle approach (which requires fans of splatters to move on, the goal is not to push the limits of gore). It also shows a very critical view of society (and many other things), while letting the viewer form their own opinion about the events (there is no over-commenting on what we are told ; just food for thought). In short, it is this accumulation of elements which makes it so striking, which blurs the boundaries between myth and reality. Snuff 102 is therefore astonishing, glib, sticky, intelligent and the young director has produced a committed film with mature writing. The two main characters are brilliantly written.

I would add that the actors are great (the pregnant woman was actually pregnant: everyone was very involved) and you never feel a lack of budget.

So, 3rd: rich content that will work with you long after, if you accept the journey

Needless to say, I love the ending, perfectly in keeping with the spirit of the film.

Here are my impressions of this remarkable first film. We have excellent entertainment and a great horror film (which offers its share of strong sensations and cold scenes - one of the true extremes movies), which also allows itself to be exciting. I've seen it 3 or 4 times, it's a sure/solide thing!