The critics hated this one. But I suspect some of that was aimed at the subject matter. Who wants to have this shoved in their face? But there it is.
I tend to approach it more as did Roger Ebert [who gave it 3 stars out of 4]:
“8mm is a real film. Not a slick exploitation exercise with all the trappings of depravity but none of the consequences. Not a film where moral issues are forgotten in the excitement of an action climax.”
And yet some suggest the cause of morality is dealth a blow when “the Machine” explains his motivation for doing these things.
You have to dig deep down under the bottom of the barrel to find the scum that populate this world. Those who make the stuff and those rich enough to purchase it. Stuff and snuff. As in the real thing.
IMDb
The actress (Jenny Powell) playing the character of Mary Ann Mathews was originally a stripper hired in to act as a stand-in. Joel Schumacher gave her the part of the victim on the 8mm film as she had a suitably “haunted” look about her.
8MM [1999]
Directed by Joel Schumacher
[b]Tom: I want you to listen carefully. What you’re talking about is a “snuff film.” But, from what I know, snuff films are a kind of…urban myth. There’s no such thing, I can assure you. Please, believe me. This is probably an S&M film of some sort. Simulated rape, simulated violence. Hard to stomach, and it might seem real, but there are ways of making it look realistic…fake blood and special effects.
…
Tom [speaking to missing girl’s mother]: Can you tell me if you had to make a choice…if you were forced to choose between imagining her out there somewhere living a good life…being happy…but you don’t know…you never find out…or the worst being true…her being gone…but you know…you finally know what’s happened to her.
Mother: What would I choose?
Tom: Yes.
Mother: I would choose to know.
…
Max [to porn store customer]: Hey! It’s like a gas station, you pay before you pump!
…
Max: I can hook you up, though. You name the vice I name the price.
…
Max: It’s not too late to change your mind about this. There are some things that you see, and then you can’t unsee them.
…
Max [about the porn industry]: All I’m saying is…it can get to you.
Tom: No worries. Thanks for the warning, though.
Max: You’re welcome. Pops. Just remember. If you dance with the devil, the devil don’t change. The devil changes you.
…
Max: There’s two kinds of specialty product; legal and illegal. Foot fetish, shit films, watersports, bondage, spanking, fisting, she- males, hemaphrodites…it’s beyond hardcore, but legal. This is the kind of hardcore where one guy’s going to look at it and throw up, another guy looks at it and falls in love. Now, with some of the S+M and bondage films, they straddle the line. How are you supposed to tell if the person tied up with the ball gag in their mouth is a consenting or not? Step over that line, you’re into kiddie porn. Rape films, but there aren’t many. I’ve never seen one.
…
Max: You’ve got Penthouse, Playboy, Hustler, etc. Nobody even considers them pornography anymore. Then, there’s mainstream hardcore. Triple X. The difference is penetration. That’s hardcore. That whole industry’s up in the valley. Writers, directors, porn stars. They’re celebrities, or they think they are. They pump out 150 videos a week. A week. They’ve even got a porno Academy Awards. America loves pornography. Anybody tells you they never use pornography, they’re lying. Somebody’s buying those videos. Somebody’s out there spending 900 million dollars a year on phone sex. Know what else? It’s only gonna get worse. More and more you’ll see perverse hardcore coming into the mainstream, because that’s evolution. Desensitization. Oh my God, Elvis Presley’s wiggling his hips, how offensive! Nowadays, Mtv’s showing girls dancing around in thong bikinis with their asses hanging out. Know what I mean? For the porn-addict, big tits aren’t big enough after a while. They have to be the biggest tits ever. Some porn chicks are putting in breast implants bigger than your head, literally. Soon, Playboy is gonna be Penthouse, Penthouse’ll be Hustler, Hustler’ll be hardcore, and hardcore films’ll be medical films. People’ll be jerking off to women laying around with open wounds. There’s nowhere else for it to go.
…
Max: What about you, Tom? You got a wife and a daughter and a nice little yellow house and a dog named ‘Shep’. What the hell are you doing here?
…
Max: Do you get turned on at places like tonight?
Tom: No, I do not.
Max: But you don’t exactly get turned off either, do ya? Devil’s changing you already.
…
Tom: Whoa, who said anything about a victum?
Max: There’s three rules in life: One, there’s always a victim; two, don’t be it.
Tom: And three?
Max: I forgot that one.
…
Dino Velvet [holding a picture of Tom’s wife and daughter]: What I could do with faces like these on film. On second thought, why would I need their faces?
…
Tom: Why would Christian want this?
Longdale: You’re asking me why? Why?!
Tom: Yes, why would he want a film of a…a little girl being butchered?!
Longdale: Because he could! He did it because he could. What other reason were you looking for?
…
Dino Velvet: Mr. Longdale, if there was no honor among perverts and pornographers, the whole fucking business falls apart.
…
Tom: Take off the mask.
Higgins [after removing it]: What did you expect, a monster?
…
Higgins: Can’t get your mind around it, huh? I don’t have any answers. Nothing I can say is going to make you sleep easier at night. I wasn’t beaten. I wasn’t molested. Mommy didn’t abuse me. Daddy never raped me. I’m only what I am. That’s all there is to it. There’s no mystery. The things I do, I do them because I like them. Because I want to.[/b]