When you watch any lesser known VHS tape you need to throw all expectations out the window. We are all familiar with the Halloween franchise. Everyone knows that there is no sequel or spin off entitled The Night After Halloween. Well, after the great success of John Carpenter's Halloween the American distributors re-titled this film to fool viewers. Even the tagline states "They thought it was over, but the real horror began..." The funny thing is that its hardly even a horror film and it certainly has nothing to do with Halloween or the month of October at all. Snapshot or One More Minute is actually a drama/thriller with some horror sprinkled into it.
"She's young, she's successful, and she's deeply in love- with a kill-crazed maniac! Our heroine glides happily through life, until she finds out that her "perfect" mate is indeed a carnal criminal. Not satisfied with merely raping and killing, this psycho takes lurid photographs of his helpless female victims (among other things). When she stumbles upon his secret den of kinky collector's items, her love turns into horror and utter desperation. She is the next target, and yet no one will believe her, despite her persuasive gathering of evidence. As time runs short, she is eventually lured into one of his more ingenious and lethal traps. Only the strongest will survive..."
So that's what the back of the box reads when, unsurprisingly, that really isn't what happens in the movie at all. Our heroine has just broken up with her horrifyingly ugly ex who is stalking her and she never really falls in love with anyone else. Nobody is raped but the main antagonist does in fact want nude photos of Angela (Despite having a healthy collection of them already since she did a nude photoshoot.) and ends up going to extreme lengths for her cooperation. Another guy takes photos of dead animals but he ends up being pretty innocent.
So what's Snapshot really about? Angela is an attractive young hairdresser looking for an opportunity to escape her controlling, puritanical mother. Angela befriends a young model who introduces her to a photographer with promises of a modeling career. Angela's first shoot is nude and goes very well. Her photos are used for a perfume ad in a magazine. Meanwhile, her heartbroken ex boyfriend stalks her despite countless rejections. A movie producer shows interest in Angela and invites her to his home. When an impromptu photo shoot gets too provocative, she storms out. But to what lengths is he willing to go to get these photographs? And at what point will he ex boyfriend snap? And is Angela a lesbian?
Sound like there's a lot going on here? There is. The film can't even figure out what it is. Some of it is a drama about the struggles of a young woman attempting to break into a modeling career. Some of it is a thriller involving suspicious characters out for their own perverted gain. Amidst all of this are random scenes of pure horror such as Angela finding a severed pig head in her bed. I don't even know if they truly reveal who placed the head there.
Angela's ex boyfriend is absolutely hideous! According to the movie they dated for nearly 4 years!! How?! Take my word for it when I say that she is a beautiful girl who seems charming enough. How in god's name did she end up dating a creepy stalker who resembles Frankenstein's Monster?!
How does this happen?!
Another strange plot point is the motive of our deranged movie producer. We don't find out that he's even psychotic till the end of the film. He has a suspicious moment earlier before he's represented as just a harmless pervert and all but written out of the movie. Upon his grand return to the film he's now a presumably homicidal lunatic out for some nudes. I guess the naked female form will drive a man to do some crazy things. But he literally has an entire room covered in topless photo's of Angela already. So why does he need more? It doesn't make any sense.
There is an interesting cast of characters at play here and all the actors are decent enough. If anything, it held my attention for the majority of its run time. But it doesn't have enough focus to be considered a good film. I didn't mind it but I doubt I'd ever watch it again.
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