TESIS (THESIS, 1996)

-


Snuff Film (noun)
"A pornographic movie of an actual murder. May or may not be distributed for financial gain."


So, I'm sure most of you have heard about "snuff films", and that most of you know that the existence of said films, as defined, is pretty much complete, moral-panic bullshit. 


In TESIS, we have a young film student named Ángela who want to write her thesis on films containing violent imagery, and why such images hold fascination for people. She openly considers such footage to be "disgusting", and yet, at the start of the film, she tries to get an eyeful of a man who has been gruesomely killed on a subway track, but she is escorted away before she can see past the paramedics. Clearly, Ángela herself is morbidly interested in the concept and imagery violent death.


She hears through the grapevine that another student, Chema, has a large collection of porn and violent horror films. Though he is uninterested and off-putting at first, he eventually relents and allows Ángela over to see some of what she's asking for, mostly because she's "gorgeous". Before long, her curiosity will lead her to steal a videotape from a university viewing-room when her professor is found dead of an asthma attack. Hearing some of the audio later, she takes the tape to Chema, afraid to watch it herself, and they both find that the tape has been used to deliberately record the torture and death of a young woman, who turns out to be a missing university student.


Unable to let this go, Ángela becomes determined to find out where the tape was hidden, and the identity of the murderer as well. This, quite naturally, puts her in deadly danger, as she tries to unravel a mystery that has become her obsession.


TESIS is a well-made thriller, with a nice pace that builds and builds over its run-time, and it does a very good job of keeping you guessing about the identity of the killer. You end up with several suspects and red-herrings, each of whom seems a valid possible culprit, before everything is finally and violently revealed. And, we get some great performances from Ana Torrent and Fele Martínez who play Ángela and Chema, respectively.


4.5 stars (****.5), highly recommended.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Toys on Tour: Linfield Industrial Park, guest-starring Evasion Optimus Prime

-
Image
L infield Industrial Park is a huge, 192 acre multi-use facility in Limerick, PA, that has been around for around 100 years or so, and like all places that are that old, it has a rather spotty past to go with its uncertain future. The site was closed down in 1986, and has laid fallow and unused ever since. However, the site has found a life of its own by being a popular spot for explorers of abandoned places, and also the local youth as well, who like to go there and do things like smoke pot, despite the possibility of arrest for trespassing. I don't get to do much urban exploring, but this site was too interesting to pass up. So, I hit up the property with my Girlfriend in August of 2015. And, like the geek I am, I brought my beat-up Evasion-Mode Optimus Prime along with.  Yes, I have non beat-up versions, but this one was a used figure I picked up off eBay for cheap, and it sometimes gets carted around to various places. Anyway, you could explore this site all day, a...
Read more

You are seen. You are seen. You are seen.

-
When you feel defeated and alone, remember that you may not be as invisible as you feel. “ Dear you . I see you, turning on the shower and standing under the hot spray, hoping that waterfall of sound is enough to muffle the signs of your tears from the children outside. I see you, holding up the weight of the world and trying so very hard and knowing, in your bones, that it just won’t be enough to keep it all from crashing down. I see you there; arms stretched in asana, the mantra of your heart beating steady onward – Stay true. Stay true. Stay true. I see you, loving so good and strong. And losing it all anyway. I see you, being judged and found wanting. I see you looking at her. I see your naked desire. I see your relentless need. I see you, flawed and humble and road weary and proud and still in spite of the deep ache, somehow sure you’ve done all you can. I see all you feel but cannot speak. I see the way the words grow and swell, expanding your chest and pressing against the c...
Read more

GIRLS WITH BALLS (2018)

-
Image
The team is held hostage, but looks bored. I feel ya, ladies. Oh man, if only this flick was as entertaining as its poster and promo images lead you to believe its going to be.  GIRLS WITH BALLS is a French/Belgian sports-themed horror-comedy, directed by Olivier Afonso, that simply manages to lose track of what sort of film it wishes to be, and flounders its way to an unsatisfactory ending. To be honest, I should have known from the start that the tone-deaf vagabond-cowboy-bard narrator with a penchant for spoilers was a bad sign. Unfunny singing-narrator aside, the first act does its job well, and establishes the characters in rip-roaring fashion, via a Volleyball cup-match, and subsequent character-interaction inside the team's RV once the game is won. Schlocky, silly, and sophomoric, it manages to be a lot of goofy fun for the first 15 minutes. When the team gets lost and detoured towards a backwoods hostel populated by inbred, cannibal-hicks, the bad-guys are established, an...
Read more