By Robert Scucci
| Published 12 seconds ago

Growing up with unrestricted access to the internet in the late 90s and early aughts, my friends and I were no strangers to the kind of leaked videos and images you’d see on sites like Rotten, along with video series like Faces of Death that traumatized us well into adulthood. When 1999’s 8mm was making its rounds on the movie channels, it wasn’t nearly as shocking as it should have been for a bunch of preteens who had already been exposed to the worst corners of the internet. I’m not saying this as a brag, but to frame why adults paying to see 8mm in theaters were probably left with a terrible taste in their mouths given the film’s subject matter. They didn’t grow up with the same access to disturbing content that desensitized an entire generation way too early.

One of the reasons I’ve taken so long to revisit 8mm as an adult is because it’s not readily available on streaming, and the list of Nicolas Cage films I still haven’t seen keeps growing. The man is a movie-making machine. You simply can’t watch everything all the time, and on-demand purchases are a strong enough barrier for most people to avoid throwing down cash for a rental when they could just fire up Netflix or Max instead.

Telling a story about a detective investigating a snuff film that may or may not be real, 8mm is one of those films Roger Ebert gave three out of four stars for its willingness to go fully hardcore with its premise. He even stated it likely would have received an NC-17 rating for its content if it hadn’t been released by a major studio like Sony Pictures Releasing. While it’s a genuinely unsettling film that explores underground exploitation in graphic detail, 8mm is also a masterclass in suspense and tension thanks to Nicolas Cage’s lead performance and Joel Schumacher’s direction.

If you’re the type who can take or leave Nicolas Cage because of some of his more questionable roles, 8mm is one of those films that will make you reconsider your stance. He goes all in here, and it’s an absolute joy to watch, even when the subject matter feels overwhelmingly heavy.

Fact Or Fiction? Tom Welles Is On The Case

8mm centers on Nicolas Cage’s Tom Welles, a private investigator hired by wealthy widow Mrs. Christian (Myra Carter) and her attorney Daniel Longdale (Anthony Heald). While reviewing her late husband’s estate, Mrs. Christian discovers what appears to be a snuff film hidden away in a private vault and tasks Tom with determining whether it’s real. She can live with the possibility that her husband had a disturbing fetish he kept secret, but her real concern is whether the tape documents an actual murder.

Unsettled by what he sees and offered a life changing amount of money to trace the tape’s origin, Tom says goodbye to his wife Amy (Catherine Keener) and infant daughter Cindy before embarking on a journey that will permanently change him. Once he starts digging into the case, Tom’s investigation leads him to a missing person report involving 16-year-old Mary Ann Mathews (Jenny Powell), who he believes may be either the actor or the victim in the film. This trail leads him to Mary Ann’s mother Janet (Amy Morton), who isn’t sure she wants answers if the truth is as bad as Tom suspects.

Taking a classic noir approach, 8mm sends Tom Welles to Los Angeles to explore the seedy underground pornography circuit in search of any tangible connection to the tape. Along the way, he teams up with video store clerk Max California (Joaquin Phoenix), who serves as both a guide and moral sounding board as Tom sinks deeper into depravity. Together they navigate back-alley swap meets and shadowy contacts populated by some of the most disturbing people Tom has ever encountered.

Hoping to finally break the case and give both Janet and Mrs. Christian some form of closure, Tom meets with talent scout Eddie Poole (James Gandolfini) and notorious underground filmmaker Dino Velvet (Peter Stormare). Both men point him toward an elusive figure known only as Machine, a name whispered with enough fear to suggest Tom may be getting closer to something he can’t walk away from.

Fantastic Neo-Noir Crime Thriller Regardless Of Subject Matter

As a father with kids of my own, 8mm was an unsettling watch for me as an adult, but it’s still an incredibly solid film for any crime thriller fan, heavy subject matter notwithstanding. At its core, it’s a classic private eye story that drags its protagonist into increasingly depraved territory as he slowly loses his grip for reasons that feel completely justified. Like an unsupervised millennial in the 90s hunting for shocking images online, Tom is exposed to things he desperately wishes he could forget, but keeps pressing forward because it’s his job to find the truth.

While Tom becomes increasingly desensitized in his pursuit, he’s driven by a moral obligation to see the case through, even as it strains his marriage back home. He has a daughter of his own, and that personal connection fuels his determination to stop the people he’s tracking from hurting anyone else. I agree with Roger Ebert’s stance on the film. If it had been released by a smaller arthouse studio, 8mm likely never would have reached a mainstream audience.

Potential license issues notwithstanding, it makes sense that 8mm remains hidden behind a paywall. It’s a gruesome film that refuses to soften the depravity it condemns, choosing instead to confront the audience with it.

Still, 8mm is a stunning exercise in cinema that only Nicolas Cage could convincingly pull off, supported by a cast that never treats the material lightly. If you’re looking for a thriller that will stick with you for days, you owe it to yourself to rent or purchase it digitally through Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Apple TV+, or Fandango at Home.