''8mm'' is a 1999

neo-noir Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates literally to English as "black film", indicating ...

psychological Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between t ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

directed by

Joel Schumacher Joel T. Schumacher (; August 29, 1939June 22, 2020) was an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Raised in New York City by his mother, Schumacher graduated from Parsons School of Design and originally became a fashion designer. H ...

and written by

Andrew Kevin Walker Andrew Kevin Walker (born August 14, 1964) is an American screenwriter, producer and script doctor. He is known for having written ''Seven'' (1995), for which he earned a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay, as well as s ...

. A German–American production, the film stars

Nicolas Cage Nicolas Kim Coppola (born January 7, 1964), known professionally as Nicolas Cage, is an American actor and film producer. Born into the Coppola family, he is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Gu ...

as a private investigator who delves into the world of

snuff film A snuff film, or snuff movie, or snuff video, is a type of film that shows, or purports to show, scenes of actual homicide. The concept of snuff films became known to the general public during the 1970s, when an urban legend alleged that a cland ...

Joaquin Phoenix Joaquin Rafael Phoenix (; né Bottom; born October 28, 1974) is an American actor. He is known for playing dark and unconventional characters in independent films. He has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academ ...

James Gandolfini James Joseph Gandolfini Jr. (; September 18, 1961 – June 19, 2013) was an American actor. For his role as Tony Soprano, the Italian-American Mafia crime boss in HBO's television series ''The Sopranos'', he won three Emmy Awards, five Scree ...

Peter Stormare Rolf Peter Ingvar Storm (born August 27, 1953), better known as Peter Stormare (), is a Swedish actor who holds both Swedish and American citizenship. He played Gaear Grimsrud in the film '' Fargo'' (1996) and John Abruzzi in the television ser ...

, and

Anthony Heald Philip Anthony Mair Heald (born August 25, 1944) is an American character actor known for portraying Hannibal Lecter's jailer, Dr. Frederick Chilton, in '' The Silence of the Lambs'' and '' Red Dragon'', and for playing assistant principal Sco ...

appear in supporting roles. The film received negative reviews, but was a box office success. It was followed by a sequel, ''

8mm 2 ''8mm 2'' is a 2005 direct-to-video thriller film directed by J. S. Cardone and starring Johnathon Schaech and Lori Heuring. The film was distributed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. When the film was in production, it was titled ''The Vel ...

'', in 2005, although the storylines of the two films are not related.

Plot

Private investigator Tom Welles is contacted by Daniel Longdale, attorney for wealthy widow Mrs. Christian, whose husband has recently died. While clearing out her late husband's safe, she and Longdale find an 8mm movie which appears to depict a real murder of a girl, but Mrs. Christian wants to know for certain. Welles is instructed by Longdale and Mrs. Christian not to reproduce the

in any way, and to not tell anyone else about the investigation. After looking through missing persons files, Welles discovers the girl is Mary Ann Mathews and visits her mother, Janet, in North Carolina. She allows Welles to search her house, and he finds Mary Ann's diary, in which she says she went to Hollywood to become a film star. He asks Mrs. Mathews if she wants to know the truth, even if it is unbearable. She says that she wants to know what happened to her daughter. In Hollywood, with the help of adult video store employee Max California, Welles delves into the world of underground (and sometimes illegal)

fetish pornography Sexual fetishism or erotic fetishism is a sexual fixation (psychology), fixation on a nonliving object or nongenital body part. The object of interest is called the fetish; the person who has ''a fetish'' for that object is a fetishist. A sexua ...

. He attempts to find out if snuff films are real, or if there is anyone in this underworld who was connected to this film. Contact with sleazy talent scout Eddie Poole leads them to director Dino Velvet, whose violent pornographic films star a masked man known as "Machine" who rapes and tortures women. To gain more evidence, Welles pretends to be a client interested in commissioning a hardcore

BDSM BDSM is a variety of often erotic practices or roleplaying involving bondage, discipline, dominance and submission, sadomasochism, and other related interpersonal dynamics. Given the wide range of practices, some of which may be engaged ...

film to be directed by Velvet and starring Machine. Velvet agrees and arranges a meeting in New York City. The meeting turns out to be an ambush. Longdale and Poole appear and hold Welles at gunpoint. It is now clear that the film was real; Mr. Christian contacted Longdale to procure a snuff film, and being unable to find one, he commissioned Velvet and Poole to make one. Velvet and Machine produce a bound and beaten Max, whom they abducted to force Welles to bring them the only surviving copy of the film. As Longdale and Welles go to Welles' car to retrieve the film, Longdale admits that he never thought Welles would get as far as he did, and just wanted to placate Mrs. Christian with the investigation. Once he delivers it, Longdale and Velvet burn it and kill California. As they are about to kill Welles, he tells them that Mr. Christian paid $1 million for the film; Velvet, Poole, and Machine received $50,000 and Longdale kept the major portion. In an ensuing fight, Velvet and Longdale are both killed; Welles wounds Machine and escapes. Welles calls Mrs. Christian to tell her his discoveries and recommends going to the police, to which she agrees. Arriving at her estate, Welles is told that Mrs. Christian committed suicide after hearing the news. She left envelopes for the Mathews family and Welles: it contains the rest of his payment and a note reading, "Try to forget us". Welles warns his already frantic wife of the impending danger and to seek shelter in a location known only to them, and hands her his half of the money. Welles decides to seek justice for Mary Ann by killing the remaining people involved. Welles returns to Hollywood and tracks down Poole. He takes him to the shooting location and tries to kill him, but he is hesitant. He calls Mrs. Mathews to tell her about her daughter and asks for her permission to punish those responsible. Mrs. Mathews breaks down hysterically once presented with the truth, but affirms that she loved her daughter. With that, Welles returns and beats Poole to death with his pistol, burning his body and the pornography from his car. Welles discovers Machine's address in New York, and attacks him at his home. Welles unmasks him, revealing an unremarkable, bespectacled man named George. He reveals to Welles that his

sadism Sadism may refer to: * Sadomasochism, the giving or receiving of pleasure from acts involving the receipt or infliction of pain or humiliation * Sadistic personality disorder, an obsolete term proposed for individuals who derive pleasure from the s ...

did not result from neglect or childhood abuse; he kills people simply because he enjoys it. They struggle, and Welles kills him. After returning to his family, Welles breaks down in front of his wife as he tries to process all of the evil that he had seen over the course of the investigation. Months later, Welles receives a letter from Mrs. Mathews, thanking him and relating her gratitude for the fact that, in spite of everything, she and Welles were the only people who really cared about Mary Ann.

Cast

as Tom Welles *

as Max California *

as Eddie Poole *

as Dino Velvet *

as Daniel Longdale *

Myra Carter Myra Carter (October 27, 1929 – January 9, 2016) was an American stage, screen and television actress. Career Carter is most known for her work on stage and in particular the works of Edward Albee including the original casts of ''Three ...

as Mrs. Christian *

Catherine Keener Catherine Ann Keener (born March 26, 1959) is an American actress. She has portrayed disgruntled and melancholic yet sympathetic women in independent films, as well as supporting roles in studio films. She has been nominated twice for the Acad ...

as Amy Welles *

Norman Reedus Norman Mark Reedus (born January 6, 1969) is an American actor best known for starring as Daryl Dixon in the AMC (TV channel), AMC horror drama series ''The Walking Dead (TV series), The Walking Dead'' (2010–2022). He also starred as Murphy Mac ...

as Warren Anderson *

Amy Morton Amy Morton (born April 3, 1959) is an American actress and director, best known for her work in theatre. Morton was nominated two times for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performances in '' August: Osage County'' and ''Who's Afra ...

as Janet Mathews *

Torsten Voges Torsten Voges is a German actor who appeared in ''The Big Lebowski'', '' Funny People'' and two Rob Zombie Rob Zombie (born Robert Bartleh Cummings; January 12, 1965) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, filmmaker, an ...

as Stick *

Luis Saguar Luis Saguar (October 6, 1957 – July 8, 2009) was an American writer, professor and actor in theater and films. Saguar played characters as diverse as wise elders, terrifying addicts, and strange sidekicks. He was also co-founder of Campo Santo, ...

as Manny *

Chris Bauer Mark Christopher Bauer (born October 28, 1966) is an American actor. He is best known for his television work in ''The Wire'', ''Third Watch'', ''True Blood'', ''Survivor's Remorse,'' '' The Deuce and'' the Apple TV+ original science fiction spac ...

as George Anthony Higgins / Machine

Production

Principal Photography began February 1998 in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. And filming also took place in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, and

Sony Pictures Studios The Sony Pictures Studios is an American television and film studio complex located in Culver City, California at 10202 West Washington Boulevard and bounded by Culver Boulevard (south), Washington Boulevard (north), Overland Avenue (west) and ...

Culver City Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Reception

''8mm'' opened in 2,730 theaters in North America and made $14,252,888 in its opening weekend with an average of $6,013 per theater ranking number 1 at the box office. The film made $36,663,315 domestically and $59,955,384 internationally for a total of $96,618,699, more than double its $40 million production budget. The film received negative reviews from critics. It has a rating of 22% on

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

based on 85 reviews with an average rating of 4.30/10. The consensus states that "its sadistic violence is unappealing and is lacking in suspense and mystery." The film also has a score of 19 out of 100 on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

based on 20 reviews indicating "overwhelming dislike." Audiences surveyed by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data. Background Ed Mintz founded Ci ...

gave the film a grade of "C−" on scale of A+ to F.

Derek Elley Derek Elley (born c. 1955) is an American film and music critic and author, best known as the resident film critic for ''Variety'' until his departure in March 2010. With over 1200 reviews to his credit as of December 2014 on ''Rotten Tomatoes'', h ...

of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' criticized the film, stating that "''8MM'' is a movie that keeps jumping the gate and finally unravels all over the floor."

Peter Travers Peter Joseph Travers (born ) is an American film critic, journalist, and television presenter. He reviews films for ABC News and previously served as a movie critic for ''People'' and ''Rolling Stone''. Travers also hosts the film interview prog ...

for ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' wrote that the film "aims for a psychological depth that the script can't sustain."

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

was one of the film's admirers and gave the film three stars out of four, stating on his website "I know some audience members will be appalled by this film, as many were by ''

Seven 7 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 7 or seven may also refer to: * AD 7, the seventh year of the AD era * 7 BC, the seventh year before the AD era * The month of July Music Artists * Seven (Swiss singer) (born 1978), a Swiss recording artist ...

''. It is a very hard R that would doubtless have been

NC-17 The Motion Picture Association film rating system is used in the United States and its territories to rate a motion picture's suitability for certain audiences based on its content. The system and the ratings applied to individual motion picture ...

if it had come from an indie instead of a big studio with clout. But it is a real film. Not a slick

exploitation Exploitation may refer to: *Exploitation of natural resources *Exploitation of labour ** Forced labour *Exploitation colonialism *Slavery ** Sexual slavery and other forms *Oppression *Psychological manipulation In arts and entertainment *Exploi ...

exercise with all the trappings of depravity but none of the consequences. Not a film where moral issues are forgotten in the excitement of an action climax. Yes, the hero is an ordinary man who finds himself able to handle violent situations, but that's not the movie's point. The last two words of the screenplay are "save me" and by the time they're said, we know what they mean."

Soundtrack

The

film score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...

was composed by

Mychael Danna Mychael Danna (born September 20, 1958) is a Canadian composer of film and television film score, scores. He won both the Golden Globe Award, Golden Globe and Academy Awards, Oscar for Academy Award for Best Original Score, Best Original Score f ...

. It was released on CD by Chapter III in 1999, with a total of 20 tracks: # "The Projector" (1:20) # "The House" (2:05) # "The Call" (1:44) # "The Film" (1:10) # "Cindy" (0:56) # "Missing Persons" (4:46) # "What Would You Choose" (3:11) # "Hollywood" (2:51) # "Unsee" (1:20) # "Dance With the Devil" (5:36) # "The Third Man" (1:14) # "Loft" (1:56) # "No Answer" (1:47) # "I Know All About..." (1:41) # "366 Hoyt Ave." (1:46) # "Scene of the Crime" (5:52) # "Machine" (3:30) # "Rainstorm" (3:49) # "Home" (1:32) # "Dear Mr. Wells" (1:54)

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:8MM 1999 films 1999 thriller films 1990s English-language films American detective films American neo-noir films American thriller films BDSM in films Columbia Pictures films Films about pornography Films about snuff films Films about violence against women Films directed by Joel Schumacher Films scored by Mychael Danna Films shot in Florida Films shot in Los Angeles Films shot in New York (state) Films shot in Pennsylvania Films with screenplays by Andrew Kevin Walker English-language German films German detective films German neo-noir films German thriller films 1990s American films 1990s German films