Thesis - Morte ao Vivo

This film is an efficient thriller from Spain. It deals with the popular urban legend of "snuff" films (films which depict a real-life murder committed purely for the sake of the film).

The plot involves a young film student Angela (Ana Terrant) who is doing a thesis on cinematic violence. To research her thesis she seeks out the most extreme violence films she can find and accidentally stumbles upon a snuff film depicting the torture and murder of a fellow student from her university. She soon starts investigating the film.

The film is well-made and well-acted with several effective scares and twists. It's main message is that the people who watch violent films are in some way accomplices to the violent acts that they watch. This is an old point that has been made several times before. It also deals with the attraction of the forbidden. For example, in the opening scene, Angela goes to see a dead body on a railway track, partly because she has been told not to. Just when she, and the audience, are about to see the body she is stopped. In another scene, Angela is looking away from the snuff film but takes a quick look when she is told not to.

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.

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 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).

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.