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.

Snuff 102 is a poor-quality attempt at a shocking, brutal thriller, but I cannot bring myself to hate it or even really dislike it. It is one of the few films with a relentless, oppressively grungy atmosphere that manages to be surprisingly disturbing. It is not as full of maiming and torture as you may think, sometimes dragging out long scenes of conversation and philosophy, yet it is much more disturbing than garbage like the sorry excuses of filmmaking August Underground.

Low on plot, yes, but high in its atmosphere and and aesthetic. The camera lens is grainy and dark, the gore effects are realistic, the film is soaked in a sickening brown-reddish lighting, but easily the best aspect of the film, which largely contributes to its disturbing nature, is the sound design. It's loud, overbearing, and clanging. We are blasted with loud industrial metal beats, synth and drums. There are gruesome sounds of wailing, screaming, and gory squishing, all while we are presented gruesome scenes of torture. Snuff 102 uses its low quality \cheap filmmaking to provide an outstandingly atmospheric film, one that leaves you feeling like you just need to take a long shower afterwards. Even without all the brutality, the grimy grittiness is almost sickening in this film, and it is the main reason I did not rate this film lower.

Additionally, Snuff 102 is more thought-provoking than I expected it would be. I would be hesitant to say this is not torture porn, but I also would not say it's a completely pointless film. The goal of the film is clear: to make a disturbing film with a message against human exploitation. The film makes its comparisons of pornography with snuff, as both are rely on abuse of the human body for personal enjoyment, all at the cost of the victim. It additionally argues that lack of restriction and privacy of pornography results in people willing to fall into total degeneracy; when you no one to stop you or discover you, why should you not fall into utter hedonism? It's a similar point made by Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (albeit a lot more effectively), but it uses snuff as an example to argue against pornography's perversion and evil.

Now, given my few praises of the film, why did I rate it so low? Truthfully, it's a bad film. It has earnest and respectable intentions, and it has some redeeming things about it, but it's technically atrocious. The camera quality is horrid, the cinematography is poor, the acting is stilted, the plot is practically non-existent, it's dragged out far too long in many scenes, and the editing is generally terrible. Though there are some interesting editing tricks using acceleration (visually reminiscent of Tetsuo: The Iron Man) the film's pasting of images on the screen, transitions and slow-motion outweigh the few decent cases of acceptable editing. Seriously, it sometimes looks like it was put in any old video editor, and random effects were just dragged onto the editing timeline. I have little to say here, as the technical quality is sloppy in quite literally every way, but it's honestly hard to blame the filmmakers, as it's clearly low-budget, and it isn't completely pointless, mindless exploitation (looking at you, August Underground).

Watch the film if you wish for a disturbing, gritty, and legitimately harrowing experience. Do not watch it if you are expecting a film of decent quality. Its brutal reputation is well-warranted, and it's far better and more disturbing than August Underground or Slaughtered Vomit Dolls. Still, it is hard to recommend unless you want some shocks.

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.

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!

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.