Snapshot (1979) ** (out of 4)Angela (Sigrid Thornton) is a rather timid 19-year-old who lives in fear of her mother. Her model friend talks her into taking a job where she will be shot by a famous photographer. The job requires nudity, which Angela is talked into but soon afterwards her mother kicks her out of the house. Angela soon finds herself living with friends and all is going well until she begins getting stalked.This Ozploitation movie also goes under the titles ONE MORE MINUTE, THE DAY AFTER HALLOWEEN and THE NIGHT AFTER HALLOWEEN. The "Halloween" titles were an obvious attempt to try and cash in on John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN and it's those titles that probably gave this film its cult following. With that said, you're best to just forget all about that because this film isn't a slasher and it barely contains any horror elements.So, what is SNAPSHOT? Well, it's basically a drama and a sometimes dark one at that. The film is really a character study of this young lady as we see her go from this weak child to somewhat of a stronger adult. She makes a few bad mistakes, finds herself on her own and she must fight to get everything back and oh yeah, there's the stalker aspect that turns up around the hour mark. Is this a good movie? I would say no but there are at least some interesting things that make it worth watching.For starters, the performance by Thornton is one that I really enjoyed and for the most part I thought the supporting players were good as well. The film does a nice job with this woman's story but the director just never brings any real drama or tension to the film. You're basically mildly entertained by what you're watching but at the same time you're not really connected to any of it. The stalker stuff pretty much comes out of nowhere and it really doesn't pay off as one would hope.SNAPSHOT is an interesting film and a mildly entertaining one but that's pretty much as far as the praise will go.

"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.

If you're Australian and this flick means something to you, i.e. you and the future love of your life enjoyed it together on a first date, forgive what I'm about to say. "Snapshot" is a huge snore. It should have been better, Simon Wincer is a director of talent and taste and Anthony Giname is an excellent producer. But the script was obviously written by a moron. Besides scenes like the usually wonderful Chantal Contouri explaining her lesbianism to the main character by telling her, "I bang a different gong", which you can at least laugh about, it has a totally confusing and ridiculous ending, preceded by about 90 minutes of snoozy dialog and cartoon cutout antagonists, none of which have anything to do with reality. Even the beautiful Sigrid Thornton being topless can't save it. She plays Angela, a hairdresser-cum-model who, the opening would have us believe, has been incinerated by someone. The remainder is a flashback. If the pacing and script don't reveal, after about 10 minutes, that she's not truly a corpse after all, then you may be able to actually get into this. I could not. It's a mess of 70's clichés, which, since it came out in 1981 (although it might have been on the shelf for a while), you've got to believe were stale, even then. The ending is a disagreeable mess. The person you were supposed to believe is a stalker, is not. The killer isn't the stalker either (or maybe he's a different stalker entirely). Contouri and Thornton happily wind up driving down the street in the ice cream truck owned by the stalker's (who isn't the stalker) ice cream truck, after running him over. Confused? Welcome to the club. At any rate, it's all wearing, inconsequential and ultimately anti-climactic. No scares, no thrills at all.

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