Snapshot

I imagine that the Americans and Canadians who went to see this Australian movie in theaters in the 70s felt ripped off. For starters, it was retitled "The Day Before Halloween", yet it has NOTHING to do with the John Carpenter movie of 1978. The only similarity it has is with some of the piano music, which sort of sounds like Carpenter's score at times. But even if the movie had been released over here under its original name, viewers would have felt ripped off. For large chunks of the movie, absolutely NOTHING of consequence happens. All that you'll get out of the movie is that the modelling business can be a cold and cutthroat experience, something I think that any viewer would know already. The trivia section for this movie says that the script was written in ten days. It shows.

First of all, let me say that I bought this movie with the title on the box reading "The Night after Halloween". When the opening credits came on, it said, "The Day after Halloween". And when I was done with the movie, I realized that it spans over what seems to be a month and involves nothing about Halloween, October or anything remotely connected to the holiday. Why not just stick with the appropriate title "Snapshot"? whatever...

This film is probably not for people who are bored easily. If you like interesting characters and thinking about what is going on, then you will probably like this. It is not an average horror movie with dumb, horny teens, lots of gore and funny killings. More like a thriller that gets you thinking. But not too hard.

It is an Australian film about a naive and sheltered female hairdresser whose sassy, sexy and strong lady friend convinces to leave her hairdressing career to be a model. This wholesome young woman has just broken up with her boyfriend who drives an ice cream truck called "Mr. Whippy". He is devastated by the break up and stalks her all around the city in his ice cream truck. She does her first photo shoot on a whim for a cologne ad in a magazine topless on a freezing cold beach and suddenly becomes this hot model that everyone wants. She ends up running into some slimy, sleazy characters and because her personality is so immature, she jumps to hasty conclusions and gets pushed around a lot.

The ending has some neat twists that I won't spoil for you. The thing I liked about this movie was that the viewers learn about the boyfriend character mostly by listening to the girl talk about him to other people. When we actually see him, he never seems as bad as she makes him out to be. I like how the movie leads us through the main character's irrational ideas and we are meant to believe that she is thinking correctly.

There are some odd camera movements in this film that are kind of exciting. There is also a comedy "musician" who pops up in two night club scenes. He is really awful and laughable with all his makeup and dumb hijinks.

The soundtrack is interesting, too, because it has one song near the beginning that is actually singing about the main character, "Angela" and how she is not making the right decisions. But no other songs are about the movie. The beginning sequence seems to give away the ending when you watch it, but when the end actually comes, you realize you would have had no idea what actually happened without watching the whole movie.

All in all, not a movie for the easily bored or people who don't like doing character analysis. If you want a late night movie that won't freak you out but is thrilling and somewhat suspenseful, get this one. It is also quite original. 6/10

"Snapshot" is like one of those pretend-cautionary tales churned out in England in the '70s about the dangers of whatever flashy lifestyle teens have probably heard about on the news. See "Groupie Girl", "Cool it Carol", and a bunch of other things directed by the likes of Pete Walker for some examples.

The hilarious thing about these movies was that they were always at least as exploitative as the practices and individuals they were supposed to be condemning.

"Snapshot" continues this fine trend in international cinema. There was no reason to make it except to show a very young Sigrid Thornton topless, and there is no reason to watch it except to see a very young Sigrid Thornton topless.

The movie is some nonsense about a struggling hair dresser who is thrown out of home by her bitchy mother but is then offered big money to be a model. She does one topless photo shoot, is promised many more, but the phone stops ringing unless she submits to the sleazy wiles of another photographer and finally her lesbian-in-disguise best friend.

With twenty minutes to spare, the movie remembers it is supposed to be a horror flick, perhaps because it doesn't know how else to resolve the dilemma it poses for the heroine other than killing off a bunch of the characters.

All the finger wagging, this is what happens when you dare to dream big stuff is so tedious and trite you will just be waiting for it to be over. The sleazy photographer guy invites Thornton over to his house for a nice dinner - just the two of them. But wait, he wants to take photos, and he wants her to take off her clothes! There is at least one good piece of advice in there for any model wannabes: if a photographer tells you to take off your clothes but is so desperate to sound classy that he asks you in French, you're really in trouble.

The horror stuff at the end also sucks. There is no attempt at scares or suspense or tension. It's just a boring forced ending, though you can't help but smile at someone getting run over by their own Mr Whippy van.

Quite recently I watched a marvelous documentary on Australian exploitation cinema entitled "Not Quite Hollywood: the True, Untold Story of Ozploitation" – which I highly recommend to anyone – and it really stimulated me to track down a lot of titles I've never even heard about before. "Snapshot" is one of them; a peculiar psycho-thriller/melodrama hybrid that coincidentally came out shortly after the huge box office success of "Halloween" and thus had to be re-titled "The Day After Halloween" in order to make extra money and cash in on the success of John Carpenter's classic. Obviously this movie has absolutely nothing to do with Halloween, Michael Myers or Haddonfield and hopefully not too many people will be beguiled by this cheap marketing scam. I'm not even too sure "Snapshot" fully qualifies as horror, since the film barely features any genuine moments of fright. Despite the still relatively low number of independent cult movies produced in Australia around that time, "Snapshot" is an adequate and professional accomplishment with proper production values, respectable performances and ambitious story contents. Heck, the film is so ambitious that the drama overrules and the thriller elements never really even come through. "Snapshot" is much more of a satiric portrait of the sleazy and dishonest advertising/modeling industry than it is a nail-biting suspense thriller. Director Simon Wincer ("Harlequin", "Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man") seemingly never ceases to enlarge the melodramatic universe surrounding the main character Angela, but actually there's very few action. 19-year-old Angela is lurid into shooting a topless modeling ad by an eloquent and she promptly gets offered a job as the face of a perfume brand. Angela is very enthusiast and moves in with her photographer, especially since she's tired of her domineering mother and dead-end job at the hair dresser salon. She rapidly adapts to her new classy life and doesn't even have to bother anymore about her stalking ex-boyfriend and his (not-so) inconspicuous ice cream van. However, she learns this is predominantly a rotten world full of greed, betrayal, false promises, sexual harassment, blackmail and danger. As said, "Snapshot" is a plain straightforward coming-of-age drama falsely advertised as a genuine horror movie. There are two noteworthy sequences near the very end, but they hardly seem worth waiting for. This could be an interesting and compelling viewing experience, but then you better know beforehand to expect a serious-toned film instead of a brainless slasher imitation.

I agree with the posters who liked Snap Shot, and I appreciate some of the things they pointed out. In fact, it might deserve more than six stars, but I'd have to see it again sometime and decide more if comparisons to some of the depth of Mulholland Dr. hold water.

I chanced upon it on TCM cable channel, not knowing anything much in advance. It's not a horror or slasher flick, and it's neither terrifying (well, maybe the little sister...) nor exactly campy/fun. And bad pan-and-scan movement got distracting toward the end of the movie. That seemed strange because the image didn't fill the TV screen anyway, yet clearly there was still a bunch of frame missing.

Call it a bracing slice-of-(weird)-life coming-of-age melodrama with horror aspects. Don't expect a great film and don't expect an exciting film, but you'll find an interesting film with truly odd characters and touches and a sort of jauntily grim look at one young woman's options.

A reviewer mentioned that Thornton, the actress playing the central character, is like a cross between Elizabeth McGovern and Jennifer Jason Leigh. I didn't consciously notice that while watching, but seeing it pointed out, it's quite right. And JJL is one of my favorite actresses.