YMMV / Tesis

• Anvilicious: The ending has the general populace looking forward to watching Bosco's violent death on TV, implying that everyone is similar to the freaks that bought snuff movies from the killers.
• Complete Monster: Professor Jorge Castro and Bosco Herranz are the serial killers behind the Snuff Film operation. While Castro is obsessed with the necessity of violence in media, Bosco is a natural-born sadist who simply likes to hurt other people. Bosco lures girls to his film set and videotapes himself brutally torturing them for several minutes, with Castro editing the footage for him and anxious to have him murder even more people. When a fellow student, Ángela, begins getting too close to the truth, Bosco kills his own ex-girlfriend to cut off loose ends and tries to torture Ángela for getting in his way.
• Diagnosed by the Audience: Ángela is introduced while trying to peek on a man who has committed suicide by jumping before the train she's travelling in. After that, she seems to never smile, is obsessive about her chosen violent theme, and has no apparent friends. Though to be frank, every character with more than a couple of lines seems to be off in some way.
• Nightmare Fuel: Vanessa's brutal torture and murder in the snuff movie. Her blood-curdling screams don't make anything better.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: Many people remember the film because of Amenábar writing the villainous Castro as a fictional version of his own real life college tutor, whom he accused of being unfair with him back in his college days. This was controversial enough by itself, but it only turned worse when the tutor in question revealed that Amenábar's accusations were farfetched, from which Amenábar had to backpedal awkwardly. Considering how polarizing Amenábar is in Spain, it goes without saying his detractors have always rejoiced at this.
• Signature Scene: Ángela looking at the camera and saying she's going to be murdered. The shot is used in every trailer, cover, poster, and promo of the movie and is the first anyone remembers about it.

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