Hottoceame The Age of Commercialism

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

jadavix "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.

Danny Blankenship "Snapshot" is one of those odd and different kind of films that show a side of the world that is uncommon, and within this film that is the world of a young fashion model. During this showcase of a different world the film blends well as a comedy and drama spoof. This is the type of movie you view late night on TCM's underground in which I did. Anyway overall for a late 70's independent low budget film it wasn't bad as it entertained.Set in an international country I believe Australia it involves Angie a young girl who's unhappy she works as a local hairdresser. Yet upon meeting a fashion model Angie is convinced she will give the fashion world a try. And against her mother's wishes she moves out and gets ready to travel the world. Soon Angie sees snapshots of sunny sand beaches, all night dance parties, topless shots and also plenty of alcohol and drugs.Also the downside of the job is the struggle with weight and depression most alarming is the many perverts and creeps she will encounter. As the mystery and suspense arrives in this film when a strange and mysterious stalker arrives. Overall pretty good B film to watch one late night to pass the time, a pretty good take on the highs and lows of the fashion model world.

thomandybish This Aussie flick from the early 80s never found the audience it deserved. Marketed in the US to coat-tail on the success of the then-popular HALLOWEEN and other slasher flicks, SNAPSHOT(or THE NIGHT AFTER HALLOWEEN)is hardly in the same league. In fact, SNAPSHOT bears more of a resemblance to the sleazy, psycho-sexual exploitation flicks of guys like Harry Novak and Barry Mahon than John Carpenter and Wes Craven. The story, about a Melborne hairdresser who falls into the world of modeling with unexpected consequences, seems to parallel the set-up of many a grind house flick. Take a fresh young thing, put her in the unfamiliar environs of the big city, and watch while an assortment of predators, pimps, pervs, and pornographers have their way with her. What is almost never in question in those flicks is the innocence of the fresh young thing, or the corruption of those using her. SNAPSHOT takes that convention and twists it with no small amount of sadistic glee. The movie is rather slow-moving by today's standards, being essentially a grimy character study, but it leaves many tantalizing possibilities for the intelligent viewer. Nobody is what they seem, from the seemingly innocent Angela, to her weepy boyfriend Daryl, to Angela's too-cool-for-everything friend Madeline. Virtually everyone Angela encounters wants a piece of her sexually, commercially, psychologically. In fact, the only seemingly benign character she encounters, the kooky photographer Linsey, makes no demands on her whatsoever. He simply smooths out the sheets on a bed previously occupied by some transient acquaintance's and invites Angela to stay in his communal studio/crash pad, a domicile occupied by various helpers, hangers-on, and sex partners (it's interesting to note the mural on the brick facade prominently displays the title, "Paradise") The movie's packed to the gills with great characters, from the eccentric Linsey (who shoots dead animals in his spare time), to Madeline's pervy, film producer husband, to a bizarre nightclub performer who looks like a refugee from a community theater production of CABARET. The final scene has Angela acting on her initial wish to depart the country and start over, although one may feel that, given what has just happened prior, her reaction indicates a serious emotional disconnect. And given who is helping her, the outcome may be nothing like Angela anticipated.

Steve Nyland (Squonkamatic) Now here is a strange beast, an Australian made thriller about life on the edge of the Melbourne art, fashion & entertainment industry that can only be described as "A Dingo Slacker Soap Opera From Hell". That the original North American distributors were so cynical themselves as to re-name the film from SNAPSHOT to THE NIGHT AFTER HALLOWEEN to trick North American viewers into watching is actually par for the course, since this is one of the most cynical movies I have ever enjoyed seeing. But it sure ain't a slasher horror film even if its story does manage to sport at least two homicidal psychopaths, possibly even a third if you count the slaughterhouse worker who carved the head off a pig for one of the film's props. You will also note that I have enabled the Spoiler Warning disgronifier, mostly because every event in this film could amount to a spoiler if described. Every scene is significant to the point of literal overkill. By the end I was drained just trying to keep up with the rush of drama & crisis flung at the likable young woman at the heart of the story.Who would be Angela, described in today's terms as a slacker reluctantly working at a hair salon, where she struck up a relationship with an actress who has taken a bit more than a shine to the girl. Played by Sigrid Thornton, Angela is a wholesome natural beauty unsure of herself after a lifetime of cruel negative reinforcement at the hands of her insufferably narcissist mother & creepy sociopathic younger sister. Her daffy but sincere actress friend introduces Angela to a photographer whose devotion to his craft is maniacal in a way that is actually right on the money without being cliché. He is the best character in a film overflowing with a wealth of potentially fascinating characters trapped in a very believable community; LOCAL HERO has nothing on this baby.Including "Mr. Whippy" (Vince Gil, the Nightrider from MAD MAX), Angela's way unlikely former boyfriend, openly obsessed with her to the unhealthiest degree, half-comically stalking her around the backstreets of Melbourne in his Mr. Whippy ice cream truck, kindly given its own menacing musical theme by Australian composer Brian May (THE ROAD WARRIOR). Mr. Whippy's ice cream truck's canned jingle is "Greensleeves", not the happiest song ever, though nobody in the film is happy. In fact they are all insane. Singling Mr. Whippy out for his madness misses the point that EVERYBODY in this movie is crazy, warped, twisted, psychotic, deranged, manipulative, egotistical, or at least living some sort of unwholesome lie. All except Angela, of course, unsullied in her drab existence before coming in contact with this cast of lunatics.Angela agrees to participate in an advertisement shoot for a cologne that requires her to frolic topless in the freezing ocean, bringing her to the attention of industry bigwigs who see an opportunity to use her freshness to sell garbage people don't really need. It also brings her to the attention of a truly frightening psycho who goes so far as to paper a secret room with her picture. Floor, ceilings, walls, everywhere. His primary ambition is to lure her to the room, have her pose topless for his own camera, then murder her. Imagine Angela's surprise!That would have been enough for any other thriller, but this one goes overboard wedging in all too cleverly written scenes that bombard the viewer with eccentric behavior, menacing undertones, twisted manipulations, bizarre unexpected developments galore, and an ending that unravels rather than is arrived at by conventional means. In many ways SNAPSHOT anticipated two more contemporary films that re-defined the urban thriller by telling their stories unconventionally: David Lynch's MULLHOLLAND DRIVE, and Christopher Nolan's MEMENTO.In fact I was sort of thinking that because actress Naomi Watts is herself Australian that there as a tenuous connection between the films. If one interprets MULLHOLLAND DRIVE as depicting a psychotic vision concocted by Watts' character, SNAPSHOT could be a model of how a character like hers was driven insane trying to earn their big break, which is how SNAPSHOT ends up. The dead bodies are just a part of how that happens, but by then she could care less. Angela is driven to madness by the madness unraveling around her and decides to go with it, shuttling off to her big legit modeling break with her sanity shattered as the fire rescue squads clean up the bodies of the people killed in the hysteria inducing final moments.Fanciful but hey, the movie made me think. Which is all but impossible given the amount of material that Chris & Everett de Roche (RAZORBACK) packed into their script for director Simon (FREE WILLY) Wincer's breathlessly hyperventilated camera to record. I'm not sure if it turned out to be the film it should have been, with musical interludes including a visit to a nightclub to see a bizarre Elvis impersonator's act that is itself a study in psychotic obsession. And has also surely proved problematic in securing North American home video distribution rights for a proper DVD restoration (the one circulating is a commercialized bootleg of an Australian DVD release incorrectly framed at 1:85:1), which the film is in need of to be properly evaluated. Until then it's sadly going to remain an enigmatic curiosity. The film aspires to really be "something" and I'm not entirely sure if it was successful in doing so. A bit less might have amounted to more, though the film was hardly boring, is fast paced, has some subtly hilarious touches, a great Unlooked-For Hero at the climax (two, come to think of it), several twists & turns that were nifty to ride along with, and yes, Sigrid Thornton is a total hottie. I hope she got whatever therapy might have been needed after making this.6/10