THESIS

Angela is a student at the Madrid Academy of Cinematography, who agrees with her professor to write a thesis on violence in films. To document herself, the student gets in touch with Chema, a student passionate about horror, splatter, and extreme films. Unexpectedly, the professor who had assigned the thesis to Angela dies, apparently killed by a heart attack while "reviewing" a videotape. The girl is the first to find the professor's body and takes possession of the video in question: it is a snuff movie in which a student, missing for two years, is tortured and killed. Turning into makeshift detectives, the two young people will try to find the thread of the story by discovering a clandestine market of snuff movies orchestrated within the faculty and risking both becoming the next protagonists of one of the videos in question... Directorial debut for one of the most promising European directors of recent years, Alejandro Amenábar. "Tesis" is a thriller that does not need to show the crude images that one would expect to see - given the film's subject - to convey tension and suspense. To terrorize the viewer, a reference, a hint, a scream is enough if, as in this case, it is combined with a skilful use of darkness, a good pace, and excellent cast direction. Released in Italian cinemas more than four years late (driven by the success of Amenábar's second film "Open Your Eyes") "Tesis" is absolutely a film to rediscover, highly recommended.