Blair Loveday
The 90’s was a wild time for crime thrillers movies.
I think of movies like the Bone Collector to really emphasise the tone of this era where so many murders were being committed with intriguing hooks. I’m not sure how much of it was the lack of widespread internet allowing people to just soak in what is going on as well as the lack of millions of cameras meaning they can make open and intriguing movies.
Somehow, despite loving Nicholas Cage to an unhealthy degree, I had never seen 8mm. Minutes into the movie all I could think about was how wild the 90’s crime thrillers were, and I am glad to have added this one to my collection.
8mm follows the PI Tom Welles (played by Nicholas Cage) who is hired to investigate a mysterious film. It appears to show a young woman being murdered, and the widower wants to know if it’s real. Tom goes and finds the identity of the girl and speaks to her mother, to find out she has been missing for years after moving out to try to become a star. And things turn dark.
Tom starts to go down a rabbit hole of the fetish world trying to find out where and how it was created. He befriends Max (played by Joaquin Phoenix, I told you the 90’s were wild) who works in a fetish porn store. They both start looking through the underground fetish world to find out if snuff films are actually real or not, and if they are, if this one is real.
They dig deeper, find out it was real, and then keep digging to find out who created it, who the killer was, and so much more. It is in many ways kinda messed up, but just on the right side of messed up to be a little disturbing and very intriguing. Okay, it’s kinda very messed up. Still, the 90’s crime thrillers walk that line of having some truly horrific ideas and themes, but not being so explicit as to make the movie too cringy.
There is a lot of excellent acting on offer here. Nicholas Cage is very solid, not his best job of acting, but miles above his worst. Joaquin Phoenix is fantastic in his weirdness, and everyone else does their parts. Peter Stormare does his usual unsettling acting style that makes every performance of his an intrigue to watch, and so many others stick to their landings.
8mm is probably not going to be your next favourite move, and it’s also not one of those must see movies you have missed. But if you enjoy 90’s crime thrillers, this is a fantastic example of one that is well worth your time. There are some great bonus features on there from the release time and newer, and honestly I am just glad to have it on my shelf now.
