While investigating violence for her thesis, a young female student learns of a snuff movie making ring and, I guess, tries to expose it. This is one of those movies that is completely scenario driven. Alas, the scenario makes no sense and feels like it was written by a way too ambitious but ultimately talentless writer. Super far fetched contrivances just go on and on for hours, losing the viewer as a result. This is a typical B-movie that stands out only in the filming department apparently confusing a few people into thinking this was a work of art. It shouldn't take more than half a brain to figure out why this is obviously not the case. 1/10

The premise for "Tesis" sounds intriguing: apparently it's a film about a girl that is looking for academic answer to questions such as "Why is death and violence so fascinating?", "Is it morally correct to show violence in movies?" and "If so, is there a limit to what we should show?" Genre-wise, "Tesis" is promoted as a thriller offering that could potentially satisfy horror aficionados or at least the audience of the first "Scream" film, which was released around the same time. Also, "Tesis" is a film that is virtually impossible to avoid in any serious list of genre films in the 1990s.Given this preface, why am I so disappointed in this little Spanish flick? I'll give three reasons: 1. It never bothers to answer or discuss the questions it raises. The main character, Angela, seems to be clueless about what her thesis is about: what does she really mean when she says "violence" and how does she intend to approach it? Is it enough to approach a random guy, watch a tape with him and then scribble random thoughts on what she has seen? Is it possible that she has not heard of snuff films before the events represented in "Tesis"? Why is she interested in this subject in the first place? At one point she says that she is interested in the subject because she doesn't like violence, but this cannot be true at any level unless Angela is fully retarded (does Angela write theses on everything she doesn't like??? like badly cooked macaroni???)...2. Then again, it is quite possible that Angela is a special needs case given that she never contacts the police even though she is sitting on a pile of evidence that will completely unravel the thriller portion of the film. To make things worse, once she has everything she needs to deduce who the killer is, she does not bother to look at the evidence. I mean, you would like to know who it is that has been killing girls all around you, wouldn't you? Especially if the killer could target you next? And all you would need to do is just pop a tape into the VCR and watch for about 5 or so minutes. But of course, such an action would cut "Tesis" for about 20 minutes off its running time...3. Scrap that. If Angela follows logic at any of the crucial beats of "Tesis", the film would never pass the 1 hour mark. In fact, "Tesis" might never take off without stupidity. Just why does Angela take the tape? When she finally watches it, why doesn't she hand it over to the police? Why does she ever get involved with Chema and Bosco? There are so many opportunities to get rid of both of these arrogant pricks, and that none of them is used is utterly insulting. If Angela is suspicious of both, she fails completely at self-preservation by associating with them, doesn't she? So, given these three points, by the last third of "Tesis" I stopped caring about the outcome, and it is quite possible that the director Amenabar had also quit at making any sense out of it while filming. My final question is: why is "Tesis" in such good standing despite its flaws? The only answer I can think of is that it's a Spanish film, which means that it is a bit harder to get to in America, and is therefore largely seen by genre fanatics that give it a pass based on its non-American origin. Some say that "Tesis" would have made a lot of money as American flick but there is also the possibility that the American production would have also brought a level of scrutiny that would have killed its cult status.

"Thesis" by director Alejandro Amenábar is interesting movie. The first part builds up suspense well. Angela is doing an examination paper at film school in Madrid. She wants to explore why is death and killing so fascinating to so people. She teams up with another student called Chema, who is pathologically obsessed with violence. They discover snuff movie that shows a young woman torture horribly and killed. When they find out it was actually a student at the university, things take more drastic turn into the morbid. While the first half was done fairly gd the second part of the movie was a big disappointment. It moved at a snail's slow pace and was far too seedy to be enjoyable to my taste, even if the point is that maybe we should not explore these types of things past certain limits. I would have rate this higher, but the movie took a turn for the worse. If you into snuff movie analysis, this is probably worth a look, otherwise stay away.

Ángela is a university student who decides to base her thesis on the effects of violent images on society. She asks her professor Figueroa to see if he can help with getting her access to the university's film library which contains all kinds of violent images. Meanwhile Angela learns that there is a fellow student, Chema who is big into such films and so she asks him to show her his collection, suspicious at first he declines, but eventually gives in. Angela is shocked that he has shelves of porn of all description and films containing scenes of actual deaths. Figueroa meanwhile gets access to the film library, but aware there is another person there and embarrassed at being caught looking for such films, he hides there, but discovers a hidden stash of video tapes, taking one he immediately returns to a screening theatre, to watch it, where he dies of a heart attack brought on by shock. Angela finds him there, takes he tape and scared to watch it alone brings it to Chema, he immediately recognizes it as a real snuff film, but not only that he recognizes the girl, a former student missing these last two years. Together they realize there must be a killer or killers within the university making these films and try and investigate further, but soon realize they are in grave danger from unknown enemies. Riveting thriller, that reaches into some very dark areas of society, its intelligently made and handles the touchy subject with class and never feels like an exploitation film. Amenebar creates an atmosphere of tension, dread and foreboding, where the foes are completely unknown to both the characters and the viewers and where everyone becomes a suspect. Amenebar really does toy with the viewer especially in the last quarter of the film where I changed my mind on the killer numerous times, in this a very accomplished debut feature.