History Film / EightMM

* AntiClimacticUnmasking: [[TheDragon Machine]] is nothing more than a bald guy who does it ForTheEvulz. He even has a speech about it.

* MadArtist: Dino Velvet has his men do horrible things in the name of art.

Not to be confused with ''Film/EightMile''.

* AxCrazy KnifeNut: Machine, the man who committed the murder on the 8mm tape. Wears a BDSM mask and likes to murder people with a long knife.

* HateSink: Pretty much all persons involved in the snuff film's creation. Between Mr. Christian and Machine's {{For The Evulz}} attitude towards the project, Dino Velvet's pretentious and hammy demeanour regarding his work, Eddie Poole's {{Politically Incorrect Villain}} comments and Longdale's SmugSnake greedy nature, there is little to no EvilIsCool to be found.

* MalevolentMaskedMen: Machine is a tremendous one.
* MoodWhiplash: Welles and Max finally stumble upon a purported snuff tape which shows hardcore sex followed by a grisly, real-looking murder of the victim. Horrified, they skip forward... and find that the slasher's next soon-to-be 'victim' is the same woman. Cue relieved, if disappointed groaning.
* MysteriousWatcher: [[spoiler:He turns out to be the attorney Daniel Longdale, who commissioned the snuff film for Mr Christian. While it's odd that surveillance expert Welles doesn't notice him, Longdale has the advantage in that Welles is reporting everything he does back to his client, in order to show how hard he's working on the case.]]

* {{Hate Sink}}: Pretty much all persons involved in the snuff film's creation. Between Mr. Christian and Machine's {{For The Evulz}} attitude towards the project, Dino Velvet's pretentious and hammy demeanour regarding his work, Eddie Poole's {{Politically Incorrect Villain}} comments and Longdale's SmugSnake greedy nature, there is little to no EvilIsCool to be found.

* NightmareFuelStationAttendant: Machine.

* {{Politically Incorrect Villain}}: Eddie Poole, who is not only misogynistic but homophobic.

** SerialKiller: He also might be this.
-->'''Machine:''' You know the best part of killing '''someone?''' The look on '''their''' face. It's that look. Not when '''they're''' threatened. Not when you hurt '''them.''' Not even when '''they''' see the knife. It's when '''they''' feel the knife go in. That's it. It's surprise. '''They''' just can't believe it's really happening to '''them.''' She had that look, the girl, when she knew it wasn't just porno.
* PsychopathicManChild: Machine is a sadistic pervert who kills people on film. He also still lives with his mom despite being a middle-aged guy.

-->'''Machine''': "Mommy didn't beat me. Daddy didn't rape me. I'm this way ''because I am''."

* SmugSnake: [[spoiler: Daniel Longdale.]]

* BaldOfEvil: Machine.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: When Tom first investigates the underground porn rings for snuff films he is driven out at gunpoint for daring to ask for it. Others into extreme bondage rape and sell kiddy porn are likewise angry at being asked about it. It takes a real sicko to find one, and even then it's fake (simulated, no one dies.)

* HeManWomanHater: Eddie Poole.

* OhCrap: Eddie Poole barely has time to scream [[BigNo "No!"]] when he realizes that Welles is about to ''beat him to death'' with his gun.

* PsychoForHire: Machine

-->"What were you expecting? A monster?"

* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: [[spoiler: Machine is revealed to be a psychopath mama's boy who only loves his mother]].

* SnuffFilm: Welles can find no proof that snuff films are anything other than an UrbanLegend. [[spoiler:It turned out that Mr Christian discovered this, too, so he hired Velvet to create one.]]
** Actually, it was Longsdale who came to that conclusion and improvised by contracting Velvet to make one. The movie strongly indicated that he was merely an interested purchaser.

* ForTheEvulz: Machine's only reasons to kill and butcher women in Dino Velvet's movies.

* LargeHam: Creator/PeterStormare as Dino Velvet. Seems like he had a lot fun playing him.
** Also NicolasCage in at least one scene.

PrivateDetective Tom Welles (Creator/NicolasCage) is hired by wealthy widow Mrs. Christian, who has discovered a reel of 8mm film in her late husband's safe that depicts what appears to be the brutal murder of a teenage girl by a hulking man in a mask. Mrs. Christian wants Welles to find out whether the incident in the film is real.

It was directed by Creator/JoelSchumacher. A direct-to-video "sequel" called ''[[TitleByNumber 8mm 2]]''. [[InNameOnly It has no connection whatsoever to the original]].

It was directed by Creator/JoelSchumacher. A direct-to-video "sequel" called ''[[TitleByNumber 8mm 2]]''. [[InNameOnly It has no connection]] [[TheyJustDidntCare whatsoever to the original]].

* OnlySaneMan: In the hard-core underworld, Max California is the only one who is "normal" - he reads Truman Capote and he has dream of becominga Rock star.

-->'''[[spoiler:Longdale]]''': "Because he could. He did it because he could."
* FreudianExcuse: Machine goes out of his way to [[DefiedTrope defy the trope]]. The idea that some people are ''[[ForTheEvulz just plain twisted]]'' is one of the core ideas explored in the film.

* ImpersonatingAnOfficer: Welles poses as a government investigator to interview the girl's mother. As he's working for a highly paying client, I guess he thinks it's worth the risk. Toward the end of the movie, he claims to be a police officer when ringing around the hospitals [[spoiler:looking for the man he stabbed]], but by that stage Welles is so personally involved in the case that he doesn't care about the legality.

* NotSoHarmlessVillain: Inverted. [[spoiler:The terrible masked Machine turns out to be a glasses-wearing geekish character who [[BasementDweller lives in his mother's basement]].]]
-->"What were you expecting? A monster"

* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse

* FiveBadBand:
** Dino Velvet: TheBigBad.
** Machine: TheDragon.
** [[spoiler: Daniel Longsdale]]: TheEvilGenius.
** Eddie Poole: TheBrute.
** Mr Christian: TheManBehindTheMan / BiggerBad.

* LargeHam: PeterStormare as Dino Velvet. Seems like he had a lot fun playing him.

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Lampshaded by Max, who notices that Welles isn't as grossed out by what he's seeing as he used to be.

* ItsPersonal: Welles is eager to solve the case, but only because he believes it will give him an entrance into the lucrative world of high-society clients. By the time the movie has finished, he's graduated to full-on VigilanteMan.