S&Man (2006)

When the narrator/director of the film begins with praising a neighborhood peeping tom for "getting away with it" you can pretty much guess what this is all about. Ostensibly an attempt to uncover the world of proto-snuff and other depraved 'underground film making', it becomes a numbing vehicle for it- tarting itself up with intellectual deconstructions and interviews with the participants of these movies and and ultimately revealing itself as another sad exercise of the... form.Bitter, sociopathic white males acting out their inner rage by staging graphically detailed depictions of the murder of one woman after another may be a lot of things, but one thing it will never be is *art*. Gaspar Noe's movies are better-produced versions of the same thing, and just as unworthy of your time. Proceed accordingly.2 Stars for genre fans' ability to harvest anecdotes/background information on these movies and that's about it.

I'm surprised there are not more reviews also. Movie kept my attention and was informative; creepy at times and funny. It's not a masterpiece but I liked it better than "Perfect Host" which bored me at times. If you paid attention, you can see where the ending is going but it is done well and actually scarier than some the the high budget movies being produced.I never knew about the "Chiller" Festival - certainly opens your eyes to different strokes for different folks...Horror movies are such large part of society. There are so many TV shows and police dramas focusing on killing and we are obsessed with it. S&Man delves into the psychology of this, but I do think there was much more they could have discovered or analyzed.

Too bad, I guess this most excellent horror spoof is not getting the attention it deserves. Of course, I saw it with the live "reveal" at TIFF, so maybe my impression of it's entertainment value is skewed somewhat. The film itself is a deliberately cheap-looking "documentary" about the sleaziest, most misogynistic face of horror films - the no-budget, horror-porn indie films that exist only to show beautiful women being killed while undressed. Each film crew shown are real, however -- except one! This misdirection fooled my wife and I completely, and we had a huge laugh when the truth was revealed. After the credits rolled the director and lead actor came out to give the punch line. I hope the DVD of this film includes something to approximate the delight we felt at that moment.When this becomes available (i presume it will - almost everything does, eventually,) rent it, partake of some "attitude adjustment" and watch it in the company of one or more fellow horror fans. Satisfaction or your money back (in Canadian Tire bucks, natch!)

A tricky film examining the underground horror film scene, this "documentary" examines the lines between reality and fantasy, the voyeurism of horror and the desensitizing of modern culture. With modern special effects and camera trickery, how do we determine what is really real? In a world where gore and horror films show us the most gruesome deaths, does this cause us to see a real death as looking fake? Could we identify it, or would we pass it off as fake? And with low-budget horror striving for reality, where does the line get drawn? The film interviews horror experts, "scream queens" and several filmmakers, including Eric Rost, creator of voyeuristic stalker/killer films called the "S&Man" series. In this shocking documentary from JT Petty, we delve into these issues with real life examples, but when the documentary makers begin to probe the maker of the S&MAN series deeper, a shocking conclusion will cause you to ask: Did that just really happen?A really great movie and sure to be a cult hit, S&Man (had its Canadian) premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival.