Imagine if the man behind Batman & Robin directed Se7en, and… okay, on second thought, don’t imagine that. But in 8MM, the dark underworld of snuff films is drenched in neon and populated by sleazebags with multiple tattoos and piercings, a place so overrun with bizarre fetish and impossibly art-directed imagery that it could only exist in Joel Schumacher’s fevered brain. Nicolas Cage plays a private investigator who must traverse these unholy streets on his mission to prove whether a certain snuff film is “real” or not, meeting the likes of Joaquin Phoenix, James Gandolfini and Peter Stormare along the way. As Cage’s character becomes obsessed with the snuff film, so too does 8MM cast an evil spell on the viewer — should you decide to watch this gleefully sordid trash, we guarantee you won’t be able to look away.
