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Why is death and violence so fascinating? Is it morally correct to show violence in movies? If so, is there a limit to what we should show? That is the subject of Ángela's examination paper.

As a film made by a film student about film students, much of "Tesis" is metafilmic and comments on the Spanish film industry, Hollywood influence and the voyeuristic nature of the horror and snuff genres. Following the aesthetic of the American horror genre, Angela operates as the "Final Girl," or resourceful female protagonist that defies stereotypical feminine traits.

This is every bit as gritty as a Hollywood horror film or thriller, and it is something of a surprise that it seems to be largely unknown. Even though it is foreign, die-hard horror fans should have latched on to it. And these days, it is a bit of a shock no one tried to remake it.

"Tesis" is not only a tantalizing Horror Thriller, but is also an intelligent study of people's fascination with death and the imagery of death. Several movies about the topic of snuff films have come up in the last several years (8 MM, for example), this one is definitely the best.

Angela is a young woman who is writing a thesis on violence in the media, in order to get her degree in communication science. Doing research, she gets to know Chema, a fellow student who is obsessed with violent movies. Angela finds a snuff video of a girl tortured to death, Chema recognizes the girl as a former student from their school, who disappeared several years ago. Angela and Chema get themselves into great danger, trying to find out who killed the girl.

Thrilling from the first to the last minute, and sometimes quite shocking and disturbing, "Tesis" is a movie that will definitely not disappoint you if you're looking for suspense. But not only is the movie thrilling and entertaining it also makes some very interesting points in the questions why people are fascinated with death and violence, what the effects of fascination with violence are and how media are dealing with it. I'll never forget the beginning of the movie, when a suicide occurs in the Madrid subway and Angela, although she doesn't want to be 'fascinated with violence', can't help but try to get a look at the dead body.

The acting in the movie is very good, specially Ana Torrent as Angela and Fele Martínez as Chema. A good cinematography supports the suspense and the thrilling atmosphere. Alejandro Amenábar did a great job writing and directing this movie, one of the most thrilling of the 90's. A great horror thriller, researching people's fascination with violence and death, 'Tesis' is disturbing, terrifying and intelligent! 8 out of 10!

First effort by now affirmed Spanish director Amenebar, Tesis starts brilliantly (with a magnificent mix of music and images) and it develops perhaps too slowly and with a unsatisfying ending - at least for a mystery lover - butt it is for a rest a perfect machine explaining how a movie works, how it captures the attention of the viewers. Its aim and final analisys of the movie event and how violence is the basis of today's society could be debatable, but Amenebar has a gift to take good script and turn them in masterpieces.

Tesis is a film about a film student writing an assignment on violence on film, which is appropriate because Tesis is itself, an assignment written by Alejandro Amenábar on violence and the state of the Spanish film industry. Amenábar has packed the film with nods towards the industry, and the reasons why it isn't working and this ties in excellently with the central theme of violence. The director professes that Spain's film industry will not be a success until it gives the people what it wants - and that theory in it's purest form is snuff films. Snuff films don't have any production values and exist purely to please their audience on an aesthetic level - and the snuff industry in this film is in a boom period! The idea of violence and why we find it is fascinating has made the base for many films, and it serves this one excellently too. The scene at the start sums all up; we open in a train station where someone has committed suicide. The station guards are trying to ensure that nobody sees the horror, and yet there's scores of people surrounding the tracks and Amenábar makes sure that even you - the viewer - want to survey the horror for yourself.

I don't know how successful Tesis was in it's native Spain, but it's certainly one of the best films to come out of the country in recent memory, and a lot of the reason for that is that the director has heeded his own advice and given the audience what they want. Rather than try and be deep and complex like many other foreign films, Tesis is a straight thriller, not unlike what would come out of America's thriving industry, and the fact that Amenábar has knowingly accepted what his film is and hasn't tried to make it any more than that does it no end of favours. The film follows a relaxed pace, and the basic structure follows a mystery, which is being unravelled by two students; Angela, the one doing the thesis and Chema; someone she met because of his infamous love for violent films. The way that Amenábar keeps the film flowing steadily ensures that we are really able to get into the mystery, and this makes the film far more thrilling overall. The film is about snuff films, but it shouldn't be mistaken for one itself. The focus is often kept away from violence, and the director only shows us just enough of the snuff to whet our appetites.

The film's main point is to show us the mystery, but the characters are never made to take a backseat. The two central figures are given time to grow as people so that we can really get to know them, and even feel for them. In many thrillers, the characters and the mystery can't be weighed up evenly; but despite the fact that he's only a young filmmaker, Amenábar has shown his brilliance by doing it to perfection. The characters actually compliment the mystery, in fact, because at times it flows because of who the characters are. This really allows the film to become compelling, and this is also where most of the true greatness lies. The characters are brought to life by a great cast of young actors. The beautiful Ana Torrent takes the lead role, and is joined by débutant Fele Martínez, who plays her opposite number. These two have an awkward chemistry, and this is capitalised on brilliantly. The third lead is played by Eduardo Noriega, who would go on to make a splash in Amenábar's Open Your Eyes a year later.

Tesis doesn't get mentioned all that often in discussions about great horror/thrillers - and I really have no idea why. This is a first rate film, and really shows its cast and director's talent. The Spanish film industry may be on the decline - but it wont be if they can pump out a few more films like this one!

Tesis is one of the finest Spanish films of the last 10 years. God help us if Tom Cruise remakes this first Amenabar gem as he has Abre los ojos> Vanilla Sky coming soon, blech! Using the iconic gaze of Ana Torrent--see her at 6 in Spirit of the Beehive or at 10 in Cria!-- Amenabar makes an obvious but still gripping statement about modern society's facination with violence in the media. Using phenomenal tracking shots, cross-referenced pov and suspenseful tension to maximum effect, he and his cast convert what could have been a hack DePalma style Hitchcock ripoff into art. An awareness of contemporary Spain certainly helps, as much that we Americans consider passe was fairly new over there at the time (not in 2001, alas.) Fele Martinez at his best, too.

In Spain, Ángela Márquez (Ana Torrent) is a student of cinema preparing her thesis about the violence in the media. She approaches to the strange student of an another class, Chema (Fele Martínez), who is fan and has a collection of violent movies, to improve her research about this theme. She is receiving orientation of Prof. Figueroa (Miguel Picazo), who finds a `snuff' movie in the library of the university, showing the death of another student, Vanessa, violently killed by a man. While watching this film, Prof. Figueroa dies, and the new professor assigned to give orientation to Ángela, Jorge Castro (Xabier Elorriaga), questions many points in her thesis, inclusive the achievement of information. Meanwhile, Ángela is introduced to Bosco Herranz (Eduardo Noriega), a handsome and nice student of the university, and she suspects he made the violent movie and killed Vanessa. The plot is only resolved in the end of the film. The first film directed by Alejandro Almenábar that I watched was `Abre Los Ojos'. This masterpiece is very unknown here in Brazil. `Abre Los Ojos' is only available on VHS, and it certainly is in my list of the best thirty favorite movies. The common viewers only know the sophisticated and spoiled Hollywood version `Vanilla Sky'. The pretentious, wealthy and ham actor Tom Cruise impaired one of the most original screenplays ever made. Then I watched the marvelous `The Others'. Last month, his first movie, `Thesis', was released on DVD in Brazil. Yesterday I saw this magnificent low budget thriller. A very simple and realistic story, which keeps the viewer in tension until the last scene. There is no clichés, the performance of the cast is very credible, and it is impossible not to like this film. I did not know the meaning of `snuff' films. Based on these three foregoing mentioned movies, I dare to say that Alejandro Almenábar is the best new director of thrillers arose in the 90s. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): `Thesis - Morte Ao Vivo' (`Thesis - Death Live')

I haven't seen a lot of Spanish films, however the synopsis for 'Thesis' was too good for me to turn it down as my 1996 film. I'm also a big fan of Alejandro Amenábar's English language film 'The Others'. This was his debut film and it was a pretty good one considering that.

The thing that holds it back for me from being truly special was just some sloppiness in certain areas. Certain things didn't make sense or were very unrealistic. Also there were some character decisions that simply didn't follow logic and were clearly included only to drive the story forward. I also would've liked if the film had gotten a little more violent and shown more of what was going on.

The things I liked though were plentiful. I was a big fan of the lead character 'Angela'. She was never annoying and very easy to root for. I was invested in her story and wanted her to be alright in the end. I also liked the way the story twisted back and forth and had you guessing right until the end.

I think if this had been made a couple of movies later into Amenábar's career he could've done something really amazing with it. It remains a very good movie nonetheless though and is worth a watch.

A brilliant, gritty thriller more in the style of an American film noir than anything else. This film, more a statement on the appeal of violence in the media than anything else, deserves credit for the way it handles the characterisation of Angela, Chema and Bosco. Without giving away too much of the plot, this is a film that is not a mystery, but an indictment of our own human fascination with snuff films and death. The message communicated by the last scene should be as subtle as a full moon, but feels natural.

This suspenseful movie concerns about Angela(Ana Torrent), she's an university student at a journalism university in Madrid. She comes across a snuff movie that shows a girl being tortured and killed. She befriends Chema(Fele Martinez), a young completely obsessed with violent films. They find out that the girl was an university at their school and her former fiancé named Bosco(Eduardo Noriega) holds a camera similar to the snuff's shooting. They early discover the killing was actually filmed on campus.

The motion picture displays genuine chills, suspense, mystery and dark atmosphere with a shocker finale . Packs excellent creation of tension, thriller, terror , emotions and brief gore. It's an exciting, bizarre film; skillfully proceeded by Alejandro Amenabar and turns out to one of the most unusual Spaniard horror movie ever made and certainly one of the most unsettling. Plenty of shocks, the eerie images deliver the exciting united a creepy score by Amenabar, also screenwriter, along with Mateo Gil, of the thrilling plot. Intelligent edition, special use of murky sets and slick utilization of shock images make this one, a magnificent terror film. Gloomy and sombre cinematography by Hans Burman which heightens the suspense. The picture is well directed by Amenabar in his first movie. After he achieved various hits, such as : 'Open your ears, The others and Mar adentro' . Rating : Better than average.

A promising director: it's what I thought after the screening of Amenabar's first feature. There is a compelling story told with bright creative ideas.

Eventually I felt the first part of the movie was really great and the following went a little under. Sure, it is more difficult to bring all sorts of things together after you built up an exciting suspense. Still you don't feel bored once you are getting to know what it is really all about, but you got more free 'RAM space' to think it over. Perhaps accelerating the rhythm would have kept Tesis on the same high level of suspense. Perhaps it would have been a mistake to change the pace.

Among things you can take away with you is the background theme about our attraction for the morbid. It opens and closes the movie and really gives it one further dimension - one could say it's a bit didactical but it's a least flaw for a first major effort.

Next step Senor Amenabar: a little less personal work (as compared with the experimental Abre los ojos) but still something personal (The Others is the least interesting work so far).

As the director's Alejandro Amenábar film debut (he was still at University himself when he wrote this film!), 'Thesis' (or 'Tesis' in its original Spanish) is nothing short of an outstanding horror and psychological thriller. 'Thesis' should be considered as one of the best examples from the 1990s of these genres to this day.

What sets 'Thesis' apart from other horror films is that despite the director Amenábar's supposed 'inexperience' at that point in his career, he still manages to employ a lot of professional techniques like phenomenal tracking shots which keeps the audience totally captivated. Furthermore, Amenábar is also a great writer, and despite the limited budget of this film, Amenábar, along with the rest of the team and cast who contributed to this film's success, creates a story full of plot twists while still maintaining a degree of believability and interest to the general audience.

While doing a thesis about violence, Ángela finds a snuff video where a girl is tortured until death. Soon she discovers that the girl was a former student in her faculty...

I've been wanting to watch this film for a couple of years now, but was hard to tract it down until it was finally available to rent on Netflix. To my disappointment, I should have not even bothered. The film has an intriguing theory about our society's attraction for the morbid, but it just didn't have that powerful impact it needed for it to be effective. Thesis was way too slow and took too long to get to the action. It has some suspenseful and atmospheric scenes that play off our fears of the dark and the unknown, but few and far between. For having a subject matter like this, the film was just not terrifying enough, but definitely a lot more intelligent than most thrillers that get released to theaters these days.

The acting was very subtle and focused and Ana Torrent makes for an engaging lead as Angela, a student who stumbles upon a Snuff film while doing a thesis about violence. She figures out that the victim in the video was also a student in her faculty that went missing. Angela does some of her own investigation while the killer or killers is on her tail. The film was filled with an uneasy feeling that crawls under your skin, but never leads to anywhere haunting to make you lose sleep over. The characters where also not that interesting other than the lead actress and made some pretty weak decisions, which made me yell at the screen. Nothing that amazing here, just decent.

Director, Alejandro Amenábar best known from the modern horror classic The Others. He definitely likes to inject his pictures with atmosphere, suspense, character, and story and fear the old fashioned way than relying on CGI and bloodshed. For this being his first feature, it's not half bad and pretty gripping, but has pacing issues. I can tell though that he is in his element here and was in his element in The Others, so I hope that we get another thriller or horror movie in the future from him, as he seems to be the most skillful in those genres.

Overall, It's not a must see and not for all tastes, but for its time it's kind of a one of a kind thriller and I would of probably appreciated it more if I watched it when it came out in 1996. Watching it now though, some of it just came off as a made for TV. movie and clocking in at 125 minutes, the film took too long to get going. Worth a look if you have nothing better to watch and if you were a fan of 8MM, but don't expect a fast paced thrill ride. 6 out of 10

I've seen all of Alejandro Amenábar's features, except for Mar Adentro. This is less "Hollywood" than The Others, but I do find Abre Los Ojos to be a better film than this one(have more flu-induced nightmares, Alejandro! Just kidding), more themes, perhaps. That is by no means to disregard this film... never. It is a well-done psychological horror-thriller of well-established moods and atmosphere, and the themes explored, the questions raised... the film is sure to spark debate. A feature directing debut, this fact is at times evident... it has a slow pace at times, and seemed to move at a rather bland pace throughout the film. It often jumps from a potentially exciting scene to a dull one, as well. I won't claim that the plot is ingenious... it's, in fact, almost more of a vehicle for the themes. It drives the film just fine, but if what you want is a well-crafted mystery or crime story, look elsewhere. The direction has clever moments, and is just about flawless, throughout. The film manages to be somewhat unpredictable, by having many scenes take unexpected turns, but the mystery was a little predictable, and too easy to figure out; who the villains were came as no real surprise. What I liked about it, what I really liked, was the way it questioned the idea of snuff films, and the way it further explored the reason snuff films exist... they didn't come out of nowhere or nothing, and this acknowledges that fact. It doesn't say that violence is wrong, nor does it claim that only mentally unstable people enjoy watching it... in fact, it takes a neutral stance on the subject, and lets the viewers decide for themselves... but not before showing us that even the most non-violent and emotionally stable person can - if only slightly - be driven towards watching and maybe even slightly enjoying violence, and/or being fascinated by death. Amenábar reaches out and pulls out everyone's dark side in this movie; no one who watches it will come out entirely without questioning their own thoughts about violence. The acting is good, the characters are generally well-written, the film manages to build up a lot of suspense(even though it is somewhat easy to figure out who the "bad guys" are) and tension(masterfully so). Near the middle of the film there is a truly claustrophobic sequence, which anyone suffering, even mildly, from claustrophobia will have a hard time getting through. The film carefully dodges most(!) of the typical Hollywood clichés, and manages to keep the film interesting and exciting, despite being somewhat poorly paced. All in all, a thriller which should be worthwhile to, well, pretty much anyone. It doesn't require you to be a certain age to understand it(though I will recommend that you are at least old and/or hardened enough to take the themes, and what violence is featured). This isn't about showing violence(I challenge anyone to claim or prove the violence herein can be classified as exploitative, by almost any standard), all the violence shown is there for a reason. I recommend it to fans of horror-thrillers, in particular psychological ones, fans of Amenábar's other work, and people who just like a movie to mess with their minds a little, and have their values screwed up a little. 8/10

What would we do if, while preparing our doctoral or master's thesis, accidentally came across evidence of a murder? I bet with most people, the obvious thing would be to go straight to the police and hand the matter over to the professionals, right? This is not what Angela decides to do when, while preparing her thesis on violence in cinema, she comes across a "snuff" video, showing a student from her college being savagely murdered and chopped into pieces. A video that caused her thesis advisor's sudden death when he saw it.

Despite the very low budget, the film is really very well-made, and a clear sign of the great capacity, talent and creativity of its director, Alejandro Amenábar, one of the best and most regular Spanish directors (regular in the quality of his work, because he is one of those who only make a movie occasionally). I don't know, but while watching the film, I got the feeling that the director drew inspiration from his own academic experience, especially when he studied at the Complutense University in Madrid.

We don't have, in this film, easily recognizable actors, but it wasn't difficult for me, who saw most of the director's work, to recognize Eduardo Noriega's face, and to appreciate the actor's well-done job, in the role of a magnetic, charming and elusive student, who may very well be the great villain (or not, watch the movie). Ana Torrent also did a job well done, although not much was required of her. Fele Martínez was also pleasant, giving the character a welcome irreverence and a somewhat unpredictable way of acting. Xabier Elorriaga looks a lot like some idiot college professor, so I also think he did well in the role he was given.

Being a low-cost film, with few resources, we don't have anything visually ostentatious here, nor great effects. The film was planned to be simple, and the production clearly worked with what they had at hand: the sets and costumes are quite uncharacteristic, but they are within what we expect to see, since filming was almost always done on location. I really have doubts if there was a place that we can call a "studio" in this production. The soundtrack relies on electronics and synthesizer, but it works well, and fits with the period in which the film was made. Simple, effective, with good dialogues, a good script, an excellent director and good actors: a hidden pearl.

A film student Ángela (Ana Torrent) decides to write her thesis paper on violence in cinema, hence deciding to focus on less known works, especially those banned from general viewing. Her professor Figueroa (Miguel Picazo) decides to assist her by accessing movies from the university archive, but unwittingly stumbles across a snuff movie made by a local ring. After Figueroa dies whilst viewing the picture, Ángela with the assistance of gore aficionado Chema (Fele Martínez) decides to unravel the ring and discover the creators of the on-screen murder movie. Her prime suspect is Bosco (Eduardo Noriega), an attractive co-student with access to a camera of the exact make used for the snuff film...

As a pure thriller "Tesis" is an effective and pivotal piece by director Alejandro Amenábar, which jump-started the Spanish horror renaissance. Despite some wooden acting by Torrent, unfocused story and a large debt owed to Italian giallo, the overall atmosphere is strikingly different, ominous and unrelenting. However apart from the base thrill factor offered by "Tesis" there is also an underlying element of commentary on film and its inherent value. Essentially countering the voyeuristic repulsiveness of "Funny Games" by Michael Haneke, Amenabar approaches the theme without such self-defeating hypocrisy talking much about exposure of violence, but offering little in terms of visible gore. Even the snuff videos are mostly showed from a close-up perspective obscuring real visibility, instead keeping it outside the lens. Even the suspense is restrained with the thrill coveted by grim darkness.

The overall commentary is rather straight-forward, subdued and limited in scale, hitting home a similar message as the controversial Haneke piece - the suggestion that by watching violence you inadvertently become an accomplice to the act. A cynic professor suggests that everyone needs to drop false pretence and instead partake in the money grab - deliver bigger, better and more gruesome junk, instead of sticking to artistry (something apparently soon to be perfected by the French film industry).

Other motives concern that of the powerful obsession with the forbidden apple and an often missed question of guilt / redemption. In the previous matter the interest in on-screen violence is incrementally reinforced by restrictions. In the latter is solidly focused around the most captivating character of Chema, who delivers a very ambiguous portrayal, but pivotal to the story and its outcome. An intriguing and satisfyingly cinemaphile jab at "The Third Man" and a key scene, where Chema tells a dark fairy-tale, subtly invokes his remorse for directly / indirectly being part of the expansion of violence. The movie ends with his guilt never fully disclosed, instead making him a 'reformed' individual, who actually may have been the instigator of the snuff ring, but no longer wants to attribute himself to the violence.

For it to be the first feature film by Alejandro Amenábar and Mateo Gil, being just rookies, we must admit that their first experience as filmmakers went very well and normally the first time does not always go well. It is clear that they learned a lot from their first short films for this film to become one of the best in Spanish cinema. You can tell that this film is quite influenced by giallo, mainly in the films of Dario Argento. It has an intriguing story full of tension that manages to capture the viewer's attention. It plays a lot with the suspicion of who the murderer is, managing to confuse the viewer's mind so that the story is not so predictable. In addition, he plays a little with Angela's psychology by mixing her feelings towards Bosco with her suspicion that he is the murderer. It becomes a mixture of desire and fear towards Bosco. The thesis that Ángela makes about violence in the audiovisual medium can connect very well with the theme of snuff that this film shows and make the story a reflection on the audience's attraction to violence in the world of entertainment. Of course, the film focuses so much on its intriguing story that the message it seems to want to convey takes a backseat. Without a doubt, this is a film that could be excellent, but it has a couple of things that can only be understood by watching the scenes that were removed from the final cut. Still, Thesis is definitely a great thriller that is worth seeing for the first time and again a few years later, so as not to lose the effect it generates. My final rating for this movie is a 9/10.

I can't believe that this is Alejandro Amenabar's first outing and he did such a fine job in crafting this well constructed thriller.

The movie deals with the topic of snuff films and how Angela one of the university students while working on her thesis about violence comes across one of these tapes and starts to investigate about the tape with her friend Chema, who's totally obsessed with violent and gore movies. Even though Chema looks a bit odd from the outside, you root for him from start till the end because of how the director has designed his character. He's sharp, intelligent, honest, brave and caring and whenever Angela gets sidetracked with her love interest he's always there to keep an eye on her and protect her at all times. This is a slow paced thriller but not for a second you get bored out of it, though your gut knows who the killer is you are still excited on 'what's going to happen next'. Go watch it for the brilliant screenplay and especially for Chema!

Wow! Young Amenabar has shown us that you only need imagination and a great plot to make a wonderful film! Amenabar bet for new actors (such as Eduardo Noriega (Bosco)and Fele Martinez (Chema) and succeded. With a soundtrack that makes you scare and without showing a lot of blood, he has made a great job. He is also a big worker (he is the director, he wrote the music, the script...)

This film reminds me that some boring movies like "Blair Witch Project", without any plot and spending also few money, had, somehow, a great success.

Tesis has quite a few flaws. The Chema character is very unconvincing, the plot has some rather incredible elements, and you'd have to be extremely screamish to find this movie scary. So if you're looking for true suspense and intelligence look elsewhere.

Having said that, Tesis does compare favorably to Hollywood flicks like Scream, there definitely are some nice touches, and the ending is unpredictable. In spite of the sinister subject of snuff movies, it's more of a "whodunnit" than a thriller though.