Thesis (1996) User Reviews

Interesting Film, Vastly Overlooked

[gavin6942 · 7/10 · 17 November 2015]

Why is death and violence so fascinating? Is it morally correct to show violence in movies? If so, is there a limit to what we should show? That is the subject of Ángela's examination paper.

As a film made by a film student about film students, much of "Tesis" is metafilmic and comments on the Spanish film industry, Hollywood influence and the voyeuristic nature of the horror and snuff genres. Following the aesthetic of the American horror genre, Angela operates as the "Final Girl," or resourceful female protagonist that defies stereotypical feminine traits.

This is every bit as gritty as a Hollywood horror film or thriller, and it is something of a surprise that it seems to be largely unknown. Even though it is foreign, die-hard horror fans should have latched on to it. And these days, it is a bit of a shock no one tried to remake it.

Terrifying And Intelligent!

[Witchfinder-General-666 · 8/10 · 12 July 2006]

"Tesis" is not only a tantalizing Horror Thriller, but is also an intelligent study of people's fascination with death and the imagery of death. Several movies about the topic of snuff films have come up in the last several years (8 MM, for example), this one is definitely the best.

Angela is a young woman who is writing a thesis on violence in the media, in order to get her degree in communication science. Doing research, she gets to know Chema, a fellow student who is obsessed with violent movies. Angela finds a snuff video of a girl tortured to death, Chema recognizes the girl as a former student from their school, who disappeared several years ago. Angela and Chema get themselves into great danger, trying to find out who killed the girl.

Thrilling from the first to the last minute, and sometimes quite shocking and disturbing, "Tesis" is a movie that will definitely not disappoint you if you're looking for suspense. But not only is the movie thrilling and entertaining it also makes some very interesting points in the questions why people are fascinated with death and violence, what the effects of fascination with violence are and how media are dealing with it. I'll never forget the beginning of the movie, when a suicide occurs in the Madrid subway and Angela, although she doesn't want to be 'fascinated with violence', can't help but try to get a look at the dead body.

The acting in the movie is very good, specially Ana Torrent as Angela and Fele Martínez as Chema. A good cinematography supports the suspense and the thrilling atmosphere. Alejandro Amenábar did a great job writing and directing this movie, one of the most thrilling of the 90's. A great horror thriller, researching people's fascination with violence and death, 'Tesis' is disturbing, terrifying and intelligent! 8 out of 10!

Clever debut

[pumaye · 8/10 · 2 June 2002]

First effort by now affirmed Spanish director Amenebar, Tesis starts brilliantly (with a magnificent mix of music and images) and it develops perhaps too slowly and with a unsatisfying ending - at least for a mystery lover - butt it is for a rest a perfect machine explaining how a movie works, how it captures the attention of the viewers. Its aim and final analisys of the movie event and how violence is the basis of today's society could be debatable, but Amenebar has a gift to take good script and turn them in masterpieces.

Absolute first rate thriller!

[The_Void · 9/10 · 19 October 2005]

Tesis is a film about a film student writing an assignment on violence on film, which is appropriate because Tesis is itself, an assignment written by Alejandro Amenábar on violence and the state of the Spanish film industry. Amenábar has packed the film with nods towards the industry, and the reasons why it isn't working and this ties in excellently with the central theme of violence. The director professes that Spain's film industry will not be a success until it gives the people what it wants - and that theory in it's purest form is snuff films. Snuff films don't have any production values and exist purely to please their audience on an aesthetic level - and the snuff industry in this film is in a boom period! The idea of violence and why we find it is fascinating has made the base for many films, and it serves this one excellently too. The scene at the start sums all up; we open in a train station where someone has committed suicide. The station guards are trying to ensure that nobody sees the horror, and yet there's scores of people surrounding the tracks and Amenábar makes sure that even you - the viewer - want to survey the horror for yourself.

I don't know how successful Tesis was in it's native Spain, but it's certainly one of the best films to come out of the country in recent memory, and a lot of the reason for that is that the director has heeded his own advice and given the audience what they want. Rather than try and be deep and complex like many other foreign films, Tesis is a straight thriller, not unlike what would come out of America's thriving industry, and the fact that Amenábar has knowingly accepted what his film is and hasn't tried to make it any more than that does it no end of favours. The film follows a relaxed pace, and the basic structure follows a mystery, which is being unravelled by two students; Angela, the one doing the thesis and Chema; someone she met because of his infamous love for violent films. The way that Amenábar keeps the film flowing steadily ensures that we are really able to get into the mystery, and this makes the film far more thrilling overall. The film is about snuff films, but it shouldn't be mistaken for one itself. The focus is often kept away from violence, and the director only shows us just enough of the snuff to whet our appetites.

The film's main point is to show us the mystery, but the characters are never made to take a backseat. The two central figures are given time to grow as people so that we can really get to know them, and even feel for them. In many thrillers, the characters and the mystery can't be weighed up evenly; but despite the fact that he's only a young filmmaker, Amenábar has shown his brilliance by doing it to perfection. The characters actually compliment the mystery, in fact, because at times it flows because of who the characters are. This really allows the film to become compelling, and this is also where most of the true greatness lies. The characters are brought to life by a great cast of young actors. The beautiful Ana Torrent takes the lead role, and is joined by débutant Fele Martínez, who plays her opposite number. These two have an awkward chemistry, and this is capitalised on brilliantly. The third lead is played by Eduardo Noriega, who would go on to make a splash in Amenábar's Open Your Eyes a year later.

Tesis doesn't get mentioned all that often in discussions about great horror/thrillers - and I really have no idea why. This is a first rate film, and really shows its cast and director's talent. The Spanish film industry may be on the decline - but it wont be if they can pump out a few more films like this one!

If it were in English, it would have made millions

[guiricinefilo · 29 August 2001]

Tesis is one of the finest Spanish films of the last 10 years. God help us if Tom Cruise remakes this first Amenabar gem as he has Abre los ojos> Vanilla Sky coming soon, blech! Using the iconic gaze of Ana Torrent--see her at 6 in Spirit of the Beehive or at 10 in Cria!-- Amenabar makes an obvious but still gripping statement about modern society's facination with violence in the media. Using phenomenal tracking shots, cross-referenced pov and suspenseful tension to maximum effect, he and his cast convert what could have been a hack DePalma style Hitchcock ripoff into art. An awareness of contemporary Spain certainly helps, as much that we Americans consider passe was fairly new over there at the time (not in 2001, alas.) Fele Martinez at his best, too.

Another Magnificent Thriller of Alejandro Almenábar, the Best New Director of Thrillers Arose in the 90s

[claudio_carvalho · 9/10 · 29 February 2004]

In Spain, Ángela Márquez (Ana Torrent) is a student of cinema preparing her thesis about the violence in the media. She approaches to the strange student of an another class, Chema (Fele Martínez), who is fan and has a collection of violent movies, to improve her research about this theme. She is receiving orientation of Prof. Figueroa (Miguel Picazo), who finds a `snuff' movie in the library of the university, showing the death of another student, Vanessa, violently killed by a man. While watching this film, Prof. Figueroa dies, and the new professor assigned to give orientation to Ángela, Jorge Castro (Xabier Elorriaga), questions many points in her thesis, inclusive the achievement of information. Meanwhile, Ángela is introduced to Bosco Herranz (Eduardo Noriega), a handsome and nice student of the university, and she suspects he made the violent movie and killed Vanessa. The plot is only resolved in the end of the film. The first film directed by Alejandro Almenábar that I watched was `Abre Los Ojos'. This masterpiece is very unknown here in Brazil. `Abre Los Ojos' is only available on VHS, and it certainly is in my list of the best thirty favorite movies. The common viewers only know the sophisticated and spoiled Hollywood version `Vanilla Sky'. The pretentious, wealthy and ham actor Tom Cruise impaired one of the most original screenplays ever made. Then I watched the marvelous `The Others'. Last month, his first movie, `Thesis', was released on DVD in Brazil. Yesterday I saw this magnificent low budget thriller. A very simple and realistic story, which keeps the viewer in tension until the last scene. There is no clichés, the performance of the cast is very credible, and it is impossible not to like this film. I did not know the meaning of `snuff' films. Based on these three foregoing mentioned movies, I dare to say that Alejandro Almenábar is the best new director of thrillers arose in the 90s. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): `Thesis - Morte Ao Vivo' (`Thesis - Death Live')

Bone-chilling film with gory killings, tension and top-notch direction

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 3 June 2008]

This suspenseful movie concerns about Angela(Ana Torrent), she's an university student at a journalism university in Madrid. She comes across a snuff movie that shows a girl being tortured and killed. She befriends Chema(Fele Martinez), a young completely obsessed with violent films. They find out that the girl was an university at their school and her former fiancé named Bosco(Eduardo Noriega) holds a camera similar to the snuff's shooting. They early discover the killing was actually filmed on campus.

The motion picture displays genuine chills, suspense, mystery and dark atmosphere with a shocker finale . Packs excellent creation of tension, thriller, terror , emotions and brief gore. It's an exciting, bizarre film; skillfully proceeded by Alejandro Amenabar and turns out to one of the most unusual Spaniard horror movie ever made and certainly one of the most unsettling. Plenty of shocks, the eerie images deliver the exciting united a creepy score by Amenabar, also screenwriter, along with Mateo Gil, of the thrilling plot. Intelligent edition, special use of murky sets and slick utilization of shock images make this one, a magnificent terror film. Gloomy and sombre cinematography by Hans Burman which heightens the suspense. The picture is well directed by Amenabar in his first movie. After he achieved various hits, such as : 'Open your ears, The others and Mar adentro' . Rating : Better than average.

Brilliant, but Blunt

[Foggy-7 · 9/10 · 5 December 2000]

A brilliant, gritty thriller more in the style of an American film noir than anything else. This film, more a statement on the appeal of violence in the media than anything else, deserves credit for the way it handles the characterisation of Angela, Chema and Bosco. Without giving away too much of the plot, this is a film that is not a mystery, but an indictment of our own human fascination with snuff films and death. The message communicated by the last scene should be as subtle as a full moon, but feels natural.

Theece ees...DISAPPOINTING!!! *SPOILERS*

[FeverDog · 6/10 · 11 July 2003]

I was expecting good things from THESIS, but, long story short, if a movie's gonna keep jerking me around, it should do it quickly.

The movie starts out well. We've got a spooky opening sequence, a mysterious video tape of unknown origin (where have we seen *that* before?), an early unexplained death, and a gorehound/Keith Gordon lookalike as a possible hero/love interest. But from the beginning credibility leaks out of the production, which always tests my patience.

First of all, the heroine is, for a college student, pretty stupid, choosing to hide in isolated corridors when being chased rather than remain in the safety of a public place. And she's turned on by her suspect? The possibility of him being a sadistic killer gives her erotic nightmares? That I can believe, I guess; I should give the movie the benefit of the doubt, ignoring the fact that she had no meaningful talk with him, knows nothing about him, and, if she were half as intelligent as her professor claims she is, would wake up and realize her predicament is reminiscent of the plot of BASIC INSTINCT. Wouldn't she have seen this movie? She's a film student writing her thesis on "audiovisual violence" in the media. Surely she'd be familiar with the work of Paul Verhoeven, since this movie obviously takes place in the real world, as evidenced by the real movie posters seen scattered throughout. Movies like this make the pop-culture savvy SCREAM troupe a blessing to us who grow tired of trying to relate to characters who exist in a closed-off world, where nothing exists outside the plot.

Are my points up to now ridiculous? Probably. I should focus on the plot instead of the milieu. But the plot, as I've said, is as close to BASIC INSTINCT's as can be without actually lifting dialogue verbatim from it. First she thinks her suspect is the killer. Then she thinks her partner is involved. Then her suspect again. Then her partner, and back and forth until they're both in the same room and she doesn't know which one to trust. It's Sharon Stone and Jeanne Tripplehorn with a sex change and a different passport.

What I also can't believe is that it takes her the whole movie to deduce what's been obvious to the viewer from the get-go. We know what's up, and wait for the characters to catch up to us. How frustrating is that when there's nothing else to occupy our minds? THESIS is visually drab and uninterestingly acted, and no dialogue is worth repeating, much less remembering.

And the conventions of this genre are of course present and accounted for. The old newspaper clippings. The photograph linking the past of two opposed characters. The hero bursting in not a moment too late. The climatic showdown. One that's missing, thanks, is the bad guy popping up for one last *boo!*. Guess the filmmakers couldn't afford that one at the Movie Cliché Store.

(Oh, am I wondering just where the hero was before he made his entrance. Off in the restroom? Waiting for his cue?)

I will give credit to THESIS for beating 8MM to the punch, so to speak. Snuff is a fascinating (if depraved) aspect of our imagination, and the movie does make some astute commentary on our culture's appetite for violence. And the final scene, while blunt and obvious, wraps everything up satisfactorily.

I"m making this sound like a terrible movie, but it's really not. While knowing the destination, I was still enjoying the trip, more or less. It's always nice when the movie geek is the hero and gets the girl. Some scenes (like the pivotal phone call) are successful in creating suspense, and despite my grousing, I still liked it, kinda.

6/10

Very good first feature

[vostf · 8/10 · 31 January 2002]

A promising director: it's what I thought after the screening of Amenabar's first feature. There is a compelling story told with bright creative ideas.

Eventually I felt the first part of the movie was really great and the following went a little under. Sure, it is more difficult to bring all sorts of things together after you built up an exciting suspense. Still you don't feel bored once you are getting to know what it is really all about, but you got more free 'RAM space' to think it over. Perhaps accelerating the rhythm would have kept Tesis on the same high level of suspense. Perhaps it would have been a mistake to change the pace.

Among things you can take away with you is the background theme about our attraction for the morbid. It opens and closes the movie and really gives it one further dimension - one could say it's a bit didactical but it's a least flaw for a first major effort.

Next step Senor Amenabar: a little less personal work (as compared with the experimental Abre los ojos) but still something personal (The Others is the least interesting work so far).

Chilling themes, but an uneven pace

[mdnobles19 · 6/10 · 22 January 2013]

While doing a thesis about violence, Ángela finds a snuff video where a girl is tortured until death. Soon she discovers that the girl was a former student in her faculty...

I've been wanting to watch this film for a couple of years now, but was hard to tract it down until it was finally available to rent on Netflix. To my disappointment, I should have not even bothered. The film has an intriguing theory about our society's attraction for the morbid, but it just didn't have that powerful impact it needed for it to be effective. Thesis was way too slow and took too long to get to the action. It has some suspenseful and atmospheric scenes that play off our fears of the dark and the unknown, but few and far between. For having a subject matter like this, the film was just not terrifying enough, but definitely a lot more intelligent than most thrillers that get released to theaters these days.

The acting was very subtle and focused and Ana Torrent makes for an engaging lead as Angela, a student who stumbles upon a Snuff film while doing a thesis about violence. She figures out that the victim in the video was also a student in her faculty that went missing. Angela does some of her own investigation while the killer or killers is on her tail. The film was filled with an uneasy feeling that crawls under your skin, but never leads to anywhere haunting to make you lose sleep over. The characters where also not that interesting other than the lead actress and made some pretty weak decisions, which made me yell at the screen. Nothing that amazing here, just decent.

Director, Alejandro Amenábar best known from the modern horror classic The Others. He definitely likes to inject his pictures with atmosphere, suspense, character, and story and fear the old fashioned way than relying on CGI and bloodshed. For this being his first feature, it's not half bad and pretty gripping, but has pacing issues. I can tell though that he is in his element here and was in his element in The Others, so I hope that we get another thriller or horror movie in the future from him, as he seems to be the most skillful in those genres.

Overall, It's not a must see and not for all tastes, but for its time it's kind of a one of a kind thriller and I would of probably appreciated it more if I watched it when it came out in 1996. Watching it now though, some of it just came off as a made for TV. movie and clocking in at 125 minutes, the film took too long to get going. Worth a look if you have nothing better to watch and if you were a fan of 8MM, but don't expect a fast paced thrill ride. 6 out of 10

Not Amenábar's best, but quite possibly the best film concerning the phenomenon of snuff films

[TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews · 8/10 · 16 October 2004]

I've seen all of Alejandro Amenábar's features, except for Mar Adentro. This is less "Hollywood" than The Others, but I do find Abre Los Ojos to be a better film than this one(have more flu-induced nightmares, Alejandro! Just kidding), more themes, perhaps. That is by no means to disregard this film... never. It is a well-done psychological horror-thriller of well-established moods and atmosphere, and the themes explored, the questions raised... the film is sure to spark debate. A feature directing debut, this fact is at times evident... it has a slow pace at times, and seemed to move at a rather bland pace throughout the film. It often jumps from a potentially exciting scene to a dull one, as well. I won't claim that the plot is ingenious... it's, in fact, almost more of a vehicle for the themes. It drives the film just fine, but if what you want is a well-crafted mystery or crime story, look elsewhere. The direction has clever moments, and is just about flawless, throughout. The film manages to be somewhat unpredictable, by having many scenes take unexpected turns, but the mystery was a little predictable, and too easy to figure out; who the villains were came as no real surprise. What I liked about it, what I really liked, was the way it questioned the idea of snuff films, and the way it further explored the reason snuff films exist... they didn't come out of nowhere or nothing, and this acknowledges that fact. It doesn't say that violence is wrong, nor does it claim that only mentally unstable people enjoy watching it... in fact, it takes a neutral stance on the subject, and lets the viewers decide for themselves... but not before showing us that even the most non-violent and emotionally stable person can - if only slightly - be driven towards watching and maybe even slightly enjoying violence, and/or being fascinated by death. Amenábar reaches out and pulls out everyone's dark side in this movie; no one who watches it will come out entirely without questioning their own thoughts about violence. The acting is good, the characters are generally well-written, the film manages to build up a lot of suspense(even though it is somewhat easy to figure out who the "bad guys" are) and tension(masterfully so). Near the middle of the film there is a truly claustrophobic sequence, which anyone suffering, even mildly, from claustrophobia will have a hard time getting through. The film carefully dodges most(!) of the typical Hollywood clichés, and manages to keep the film interesting and exciting, despite being somewhat poorly paced. All in all, a thriller which should be worthwhile to, well, pretty much anyone. It doesn't require you to be a certain age to understand it(though I will recommend that you are at least old and/or hardened enough to take the themes, and what violence is featured). This isn't about showing violence(I challenge anyone to claim or prove the violence herein can be classified as exploitative, by almost any standard), all the violence shown is there for a reason. I recommend it to fans of horror-thrillers, in particular psychological ones, fans of Amenábar's other work, and people who just like a movie to mess with their minds a little, and have their values screwed up a little. 8/10

Rudimentary thesis on violence in film

[p-stepien · 7/10 · 2 November 2012]

A film student Ángela (Ana Torrent) decides to write her thesis paper on violence in cinema, hence deciding to focus on less known works, especially those banned from general viewing. Her professor Figueroa (Miguel Picazo) decides to assist her by accessing movies from the university archive, but unwittingly stumbles across a snuff movie made by a local ring. After Figueroa dies whilst viewing the picture, Ángela with the assistance of gore aficionado Chema (Fele Martínez) decides to unravel the ring and discover the creators of the on-screen murder movie. Her prime suspect is Bosco (Eduardo Noriega), an attractive co-student with access to a camera of the exact make used for the snuff film...

As a pure thriller "Tesis" is an effective and pivotal piece by director Alejandro Amenábar, which jump-started the Spanish horror renaissance. Despite some wooden acting by Torrent, unfocused story and a large debt owed to Italian giallo, the overall atmosphere is strikingly different, ominous and unrelenting. However apart from the base thrill factor offered by "Tesis" there is also an underlying element of commentary on film and its inherent value. Essentially countering the voyeuristic repulsiveness of "Funny Games" by Michael Haneke, Amenabar approaches the theme without such self-defeating hypocrisy talking much about exposure of violence, but offering little in terms of visible gore. Even the snuff videos are mostly showed from a close-up perspective obscuring real visibility, instead keeping it outside the lens. Even the suspense is restrained with the thrill coveted by grim darkness.

The overall commentary is rather straight-forward, subdued and limited in scale, hitting home a similar message as the controversial Haneke piece - the suggestion that by watching violence you inadvertently become an accomplice to the act. A cynic professor suggests that everyone needs to drop false pretence and instead partake in the money grab - deliver bigger, better and more gruesome junk, instead of sticking to artistry (something apparently soon to be perfected by the French film industry).

Other motives concern that of the powerful obsession with the forbidden apple and an often missed question of guilt / redemption. In the previous matter the interest in on-screen violence is incrementally reinforced by restrictions. In the latter is solidly focused around the most captivating character of Chema, who delivers a very ambiguous portrayal, but pivotal to the story and its outcome. An intriguing and satisfyingly cinemaphile jab at "The Third Man" and a key scene, where Chema tells a dark fairy-tale, subtly invokes his remorse for directly / indirectly being part of the expansion of violence. The movie ends with his guilt never fully disclosed, instead making him a 'reformed' individual, who actually may have been the instigator of the snuff ring, but no longer wants to attribute himself to the violence.

Maddeningly Bad

[saltsan · 4/10 · 3 January 2015]

This is one of those films that has you wanting to yell at the characters on screen starting about 20 minutes in: "Go to the police! Why don't you go to the police?" They wade into some deep crap and have no reason NOT to go to the police, but hey! Why don't they just try to solve the big mystery of the snuff film and the missing girls by themselves (even though the have enough evidence to give to the police to have the thing wrapped up in probably a day)? Only ninety minutes in, after another death and more threats on their lives, do they even mention the possibility of maybe, you know, going to the police. Of course they never do, and seem completely idiotic for that. The actors are very good, especially Ana Torrent, Fele Martinez, Xabier Elorriaga, and Miguel Picazo, maybe too good for such a lame script. Ana Torrent especially seems far too intelligent to be acting as stupid as she (or her character) does for 121 minutes. I mean I get that horror films have characters doing stupid things, like NOT GOING TO THE POLICE when they should, but this one seems especially bad in that regard. It's not even particularly stylish which sometimes covers for bad script problems. The director would do far better in his later films.

Succeeds as a cheap thriller, NOT as serious exploration of anything.

[tostinati · 9 April 2003]

Some spoilers:

Gleaning Thesis for profundity may carry the unhappy side consequence of making you look a little too closely at the content of what is essentially a sick little flick. And we wouldn't want that.

It's a chiller, plain and simple.

If you relate it more to the Euro tradition of Jess Franco and Dario Argento than that of Bergman or Bresson, you get the joke. The production is as sleek and seamless as any Hollywood film of the period. The bonus here is that there is a superbly accomplished atmosphere of immense dread throughout most of the film that mainstream films always seem to lack. There is a grime, a dark grubbiness that perfectly matches the minds of the films villains, real and apparent. Hitchcock would applaud the makers ability to stretch scary moments beyond real time and milk audience identification with his characters if nothing else.

The film goes astray, for me, in suggesting the heroine is close to being seduced at one point by the awful thrill of the violence she is investigating. (In a dream sequence, she kisses the hand of the man who has just cut her throat.) Ditto the scenes that show slack-jawed average citizens drawn to violence on TV. It rather too patly suggests that all you have to do is put unbearable violence out there, and all people (not just some) will be unable to resist its allure. These are cliches, a kind of pandering to those who are quick to bemoan how base human beings really are. They are NOT profound observations on human nature. Sorry.

Thesis keeps your interest. That is what a good thriller does. So it gets 6 stars from me. It loses a point or two for exploiting violence for our entertainment, then, at the close, self-righteously pointing a finger at us for being interested enough in the first place to sit through (and enjoy?) the very same. A fairly questionable enterprise, over all.

THIS IS TALENT!

[rolherr · 10/10 · 2 July 2000]

Wow! Young Amenabar has shown us that you only need imagination and a great plot to make a wonderful film! Amenabar bet for new actors (such as Eduardo Noriega (Bosco)and Fele Martinez (Chema) and succeded. With a soundtrack that makes you scare and without showing a lot of blood, he has made a great job. He is also a big worker (he is the director, he wrote the music, the script...)

This film reminds me that some boring movies like "Blair Witch Project", without any plot and spending also few money, had, somehow, a great success.

A hidden gem of Spanish cinema.

[filipemanuelneto · 8/10 · 5 January 2023]

What would we do if, while preparing our doctoral or master's thesis, accidentally came across evidence of a murder? I bet with most people, the obvious thing would be to go straight to the police and hand the matter over to the professionals, right? This is not what Angela decides to do when, while preparing her thesis on violence in cinema, she comes across a "snuff" video, showing a student from her college being savagely murdered and chopped into pieces. A video that caused her thesis advisor's sudden death when he saw it.

Despite the very low budget, the film is really very well-made, and a clear sign of the great capacity, talent and creativity of its director, Alejandro Amenábar, one of the best and most regular Spanish directors (regular in the quality of his work, because he is one of those who only make a movie occasionally). I don't know, but while watching the film, I got the feeling that the director drew inspiration from his own academic experience, especially when he studied at the Complutense University in Madrid.

We don't have, in this film, easily recognizable actors, but it wasn't difficult for me, who saw most of the director's work, to recognize Eduardo Noriega's face, and to appreciate the actor's well-done job, in the role of a magnetic, charming and elusive student, who may very well be the great villain (or not, watch the movie). Ana Torrent also did a job well done, although not much was required of her. Fele Martínez was also pleasant, giving the character a welcome irreverence and a somewhat unpredictable way of acting. Xabier Elorriaga looks a lot like some idiot college professor, so I also think he did well in the role he was given.

Being a low-cost film, with few resources, we don't have anything visually ostentatious here, nor great effects. The film was planned to be simple, and the production clearly worked with what they had at hand: the sets and costumes are quite uncharacteristic, but they are within what we expect to see, since filming was almost always done on location. I really have doubts if there was a place that we can call a "studio" in this production. The soundtrack relies on electronics and synthesizer, but it works well, and fits with the period in which the film was made. Simple, effective, with good dialogues, a good script, an excellent director and good actors: a hidden pearl.

A good movie with only a little bit of sloppiness holding it back

[jtindahouse · 7/10 · 2 June 2021]

I haven't seen a lot of Spanish films, however the synopsis for 'Thesis' was too good for me to turn it down as my 1996 film. I'm also a big fan of Alejandro Amenábar's English language film 'The Others'. This was his debut film and it was a pretty good one considering that.

The thing that holds it back for me from being truly special was just some sloppiness in certain areas. Certain things didn't make sense or were very unrealistic. Also there were some character decisions that simply didn't follow logic and were clearly included only to drive the story forward. I also would've liked if the film had gotten a little more violent and shown more of what was going on.

The things I liked though were plentiful. I was a big fan of the lead character 'Angela'. She was never annoying and very easy to root for. I was invested in her story and wanted her to be alright in the end. I also liked the way the story twisted back and forth and had you guessing right until the end.

I think if this had been made a couple of movies later into Amenábar's career he could've done something really amazing with it. It remains a very good movie nonetheless though and is worth a watch.

The best surprise in the last 10 years

[eacebes · 10/10 · 28 February 2001]

In 1996 I went to the cinema with no idea of which movie I wanted to see. This one was a spanish film, so I thought "Agh! no, please...", but the words "My name is Angela. I am going to be killed" called my attention. So I thought "OK, let's give spanish cinema one more try..." (I have to say I'm spanish, but spanish cinema before Tesis is 90% junk) And it was marvelous. I had never seen such a good spanish movie. And it had been a long time since I had seen such a good movie, spanish or foreign. Since that day many more have come: Abre los ojos, El arte de morir, Nadie conoce a nadie... Since that day, I don't think spanish cinema is junk anymore

Passable thriller

[savaovi · 7/10 · 17 January 2011]

Someone commented about this movie as being "without clichés". In fact this is the part of the picture I didn't liked. The plot is somewhat predictable: the girl on a crusade to uncover the murderer, the geeky helper, the teacher involved, the lover who turns to be the villain. There are some plot gaps also: there have been dozens of murders and we don't see any policeman during 99% of the film. If those 200 tapes of snuff mentioned by Chema in the basement scene are 200 murders, the whole goddamn Spanish police should have swarmed the city. When Bosco has Angela tied to the chair, she has a knife in her hands and she uses it to cut the rope. How did he tied her hands without noticing she was holding a knife? A man who supposedly killed many victims should be a smart killer, not a dumb one. And the greatest and most annoying cliché is one that has been haunting the final scenes of such movies for decades: the victim wounds the aggressor, yet instead of quickly going for the kill, the victim tries to run away, leaving the aggressor on the floor, wounded, but perfectly capable of going in pursuit.

I vote 7 for this picture, which is a good note, because it has solid acting and it is thrilling, like it should be.

a true terror movie...

[totiespejo · 10/10 · 21 August 2000]

what will say of THESIS is not because i´m spanish...it is because it´s a new format of cinema...it´s surprising,terrifying.There are not enough adjectives to give to this brilliant film.I recommend it to whole people... not people with suffer of heart...and mainly to all americans that watch these movies and that they are left to foolsimes special effects...ALIVE THE SPANISH CINEM AND THE EUROPEAN CINEMA.

A Shocking Cartoon Feature

[nbott · 6/10 · 9 April 2003]

This film is rather interesting and held my attention. However, too many games are played on the viewer before the film reaches its telegraphed conclusion. The motivation behind the actions of most of the characters is not spelled out and they almost seem like cartoon characters not real people. One of the actors reminds me of a Spanish Johnny Depp in his approach to acting and Noriega is always his wonderful brooding self. Ana Torrent plays a character that is actually quite stupid. It is hard to believe that anyone in her positions in this film would have responded the way that she does. The characters not only do not have much character, they do not have any ability to judge the character of other people.

Having said all this, I still enjoyed watching the film. It's just important to suspend normal judgment and go with the flow. The story line itself is certainly shocking and may be the real reason that it holds the attention of movie fans. Mildly Recommended. 6 out 10.

The Sis

[michaelradny · 9/10 · 27 October 2015]

Thesis is bone chilling, mind boggling and a very fine thriller. The mystery throughout is enough to get you hooked. The whole film is so well constructed, that it isn't until the final minutes of the film that you find out what is really going on and what happened. The story is too original to put into words, so daring that it is impossible to imagine.

Thesis is a great film, an idea that has been lost in such a genre. It's hard to spot any imperfections in this film, given, that some of the decisions made are questionable. However, this is the most frightening film about a mystery hunt that I can ever remember watching.

A good start in life

[khatcher-2 · 6/10 · 9 February 2003]

And about time, too. Well, I mean, I like to see films from a director in the order they come out, the same as I prefer to read novels by an author in the same order as he writes them. This is, obviously, a logical way of following the progress and maturing of the artist. However, things escape me, I do not get to the cinema on time, and I end up having to wait for a repeat showing at the cinema, or, in the worst of cases, wait for the elusive cinematographic production to turn up on some local TV channel.

This is the case with `Tesis', an early film by that little genius Alejandro Amenábar, as I had already seen his better known and posterior films `Abre Los Ojos' (qv) and `Los Otros' (The Others) (qv), both on the big screen, which with no doubt is a totally different experience.

Whereas `Tesis' might be considered a middle-of-the-road thriller, it does have those early hallmarks which later so characterise this Chilean-born Spanish director. A university student studying film-making in Madrid (precisely where Amenábar fluffed as he did not want to study film-making but make his own films) decides to prepare a thesis on rather shady cinematographic productions such as pornography and `snuff' films.

You might like to compare this film with `8MM' (1999) by Joel Schumacher with Nicholas Cage. The concepts are very different, but both are aimed at the Hollywood industry, as can be seen from Amenábar's more recent films.

Obviously his later films are better made, but with `Tesis' Amenábar made a good start in life: we shall undoubtedly be hearing a lot more about this young man, but unfortunately not in a Spanish sense, as he is evidently bent on storming other genres which cannot be classified as Spanish in style or content. So we will impatiently await his next English-language film, and therefore should not be listed as `Spanish'. Which is a shame.

Thesis: First half exciting, second half too seedy and slow

[spookyfooks · 3/10 · 2 September 2010]

"Thesis" by director Alejandro Amenábar is interesting movie. The first part builds up suspense well. Angela is doing an examination paper at film school in Madrid. She wants to explore why is death and killing so fascinating to so people.

She teams up with another student called Chema, who is pathologically obsessed with violence. They discover snuff movie that shows a young woman torture horribly and killed. When they find out it was actually a student at the university, things take more drastic turn into the morbid.

While the first half was done fairly gd the second part of the movie was a big disappointment. It moved at a snail's slow pace and was far too seedy to be enjoyable to my taste, even if the point is that maybe we should not explore these types of things past certain limits.

I would have rate this higher, but the movie took a turn for the worse. If you into snuff movie analysis, this is probably worth a look, otherwise stay away.