Snuff killer - La morte in diretta

Snuff Killer otherwise known as Snuff Trap is an Italian thriller that is all too familiar yet doesn't give credit where credit is due.

What I mean by that is this is a blatant remake of the excellent 8mm (1999) but doesn't acknowledge itself as such. The plot is the same just with a minor character tweak, many scenes are near identical and it randomly flicks to 8mm's script to the very letter.

I'm not keen on movies being remade at all truth be told but when a filmmaker doesn't even have the decency to tip his hat to the source material that's seven shades of disrespect.

But putting that aside what is the film like? Well it's not actually that bad. It tells the story of a woman who learns that her missing daughter may have been kidnapped to be put into the seedy world of extreme cinema and snuff. To save her daughter she must dive into the bowels of the industry and put herself at risk.

The tweeked plot of 8mm does give the film its own identity, right up until the point it suddenly decides to reinact a scene line for line.

As for the content it manages to be both tamer and more hardcore at the same time. 8mm was grittier, darker and more brutal while Snuff Killer/Snuff Trap opts for considerably more nudity yet little actual unpleasantness by comparison.

I sadly couldn't get over the 8mm remake factor, but I could still recognise that this piece of Italian cinema is perfectly watchable and not the needless T&A or torture porn movie many might assume.

The Good:

All round passably made

Lead was surprisingly competent

The Bad:

Shameless remake

Couple of plot points made absolutely no sense

Weak dub

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Even the sight of people smoking makes me nauseas

I'm glad I've never been asked to pay the go down payment!

Are we really making 'video nasties' again? In the guise of a digital wide screen big budget remake of 8MM, this is quite a ride. Unfortunately there is a bit too much story and at times this becomes like a travelogue as our heroine searches the sleaze spots of Paris, Hamburg and Amsterdam. I am however being rather churlish for the 'depraved' scenes, including everything from, hot wax, harsh whipping and rough sex to drowning, beheading and some. These scenes are immaculate and it's a pity Bruno and his budget couldn't stretch to make all the many characterful creatures introduced become more than simply caricatures.

Veteran sleazeball Bruno Mattei is at it again with this erotic thriller that clearly echoes Joel Schumacher's 8MM. But, as expected, Mattei does his movie on a minuscule budget - so that it already looks obscure when it's newly released.

After her daughter gets abducted, a mother enters the dark world of underground pornography, because the kidnappers belong to an international organization that direct snuff films as long as the exclusive clients pay well. The search for her daughter does not only lead the mother across Europe, but also into prostitution. She goes to bed with some guys to get her clues. When she finally reaches contact with the snuff organization lead by the mysterious Doctor Hades, she's getting into great danger herself.

There is not much good to say about this one, even though it starts promising. Problem is that the movie is by far not as sleazy or explicit as one might expect from the director who made films like BLADE VIOLENT. SNUFF TRAP (which was first released in Russia!) is neither gory enough nor does it contain the amount of nudity and sex to really keep the viewer's attention. The plot isn't that special either, except maybe for the surprisingly many different locations throughout Europe. The ending is hugely disappointing. The acting isn't really remarkable either, except for Anita Auer who plays Doctor Hades: She looks and acts extremely creepy. You don't want to meet her like this in a dark alley (or Your bedroom, for that matter).

All in all, SNUFF TRAP only appeals to collectors of Bruno Mattei's films. But it's good to see the man back on the helm again: It was his first thriller since 1994's giallo GLI OCCHI DENTRO.

Snuff Trap (2003)

** (out of 4)

Before his death in 2007, Italian director Mattei, known in some placed as the Ed Wood of Italy, made a semi-comeback with a string of low-budget movies ranging in various subjects from cannibals to zombies and of course women-in-prison. This film here comes off as a semi-remake of HARDCORE but those expecting a lot of sleaze might be disappointed. In the film, a mother (Carla Solaro) goes into the darkest corners of Italy and France trying to track down her daughter who was kidnapped and might have been sold for a snuff film. The mother must try and buy her way to the underground where killing women on film is high dollar. Mattei is known for ripping off various films and creating some of the worst bad movies ever made including the infamous HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD. His recent stuff must have been made on budgets lower than $10,000 and you can see it but at the same time I must admit that this is perhaps the best movie I've seen from him. Not in terms of gore or entertainment but in the technical sense of film-making. The movie manages to be mildly entertaining even if it does go on for way too long and Mattei actually manages to build some suspense towards the end when we start to learn what has happened to the daughter. There are a few plot twists late in the film that are easy to spot but for the most part this film works. Those expecting a lot of sleaze are going to be disappointed because Mattei actually takes it pretty easy considering the plot. There's quite a bit of nudity but the violence is pretty tame and there's no gore to see. Solaro is a lot better than you'd expect and the supporting cast are decent, if nothing great. Not only does the plot lift from HARDCORE but you've also got a sex scene in the back of a limo that rips off the one in NO WAY OUT. If you're a fan of Mattei then you'll certainly want to check this one out but just be prepared for what you're in for.

While making out in a car with a guy she picked up in a nightclub, blonde babe Lauren (Federica Garuti), stepdaughter of a French politician, is abducted by a European porn ring; when Lauren's stepfather refuses to call the police, fearing that the scandal might damage his career, his sexy wife Michelle (Carla Solaro) decides to take matters into her own hands, entering the dangerous world of extreme S&M and snuff movies to try and save her daughter.

I know that he was far from a great director, but I find it hard not to admire legendary Euro-hack Bruno Mattei for his sheer dedication to shamelessly sleazy cinema: long after most Italian rip-off merchants had packed away their Panaflex for good, Mattei kept the flame alive, continuing to churn out cheap, derivative, shot-on-video trash until his death in 2007.

Snuff Trap (2003) is his blatant imitation of director Joel Schumacher's 8MM. For the most part, Mattei is content to stick closely to his source material, even going so far as to copy entire scenes and snippets of dialogue verbatim; he does, however, add one or two touches of his own that help him to plumb the depths of depravity further than anything envisioned by 8MM's scriptwriter Andrew Kevin Walker.

By making his protagonist female (and very sexy), Mattei is able to introduce a new level of deviancy to proceedings, Michelle having to participate in sex acts to further her investigation (something that never happened to Cage's character, thank God!): she administers a blowjob to an underground filth-merchant, takes a beating to prove her interest in S&M, and humps a rich playboy (who looks like TV antiques dealer David Dickinson and whose pervy driver resembles Rolf Harris)—although that's just for the hell of it.

Given its risqué subject matter, Snuff Trap naturally features plenty of sexual brutality, but the majority of the violence is far too clumsily handled to be considered genuinely disturbing; that said, Mattei does manage to sneak in one or two surprisingly strong blink-and-you'll-miss-'em peripheral images (as Michelle peruses a selection of porno mags and when she enters the ante-chamber of sadistic movie-maker Dr. Hades) which succeed in making the film feel authentically grubby at times.

In a finale that looks set to be suitably downbeat, Michelle and Lauren are tied to crosses to be slaughtered in front of the camera, but Mattei successfully reminds his viewers of what a craptastic director he really is by having the police burst in through the windows, rescuing the women in the nick of time—precisely the kind of stupidity that Mattei fans find so enjoyable and strangely endearing.

6.5 out of 10, rounded up to 7 for Anita Auer's unforgettable turn as creepy Dr. Hades.