The First Movie To Scare Me in a Long Time: S&Man

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that most movies don’t scare me anymore. In fact, it’s hard to find a movie that makes me cringe, or think that there’s something sinister about life in general. Well, I have finally found such a movie, and it is a documentary/mockumentary entitled S&Man. The movie is pronounced Sandman, and the director is J.T. Petty. I admit, I didn't expect a whole lot from this movie, as I never really expect a whole lot from straight to dvd looking movies, nor anything that I can get on netflix streaming that I haven't already heard of. But, today, I was bored, and finally finished a semester of grad school, so I decided to try my luck at something new, something sinister, something that wasn't necessarily in the mainstream, and here it is, a nifty documentary of sorts, and something that interests me greatly. For those of you that work from home, you know what the urges to watch others might feel like, especially if you're as fascinated by people, then this movie sheds light on something even further...and that's where things take a nasty turn.On the surface this movie is just a fascinating look into voyeurism and underground filmmaking. The underground movies are quite interesting, and they are true to life. There are real people making low budget, near snuff films that they sell at a variety of trade shows and beyond. The films that the movie refers to are worst than those that are put out by Troma and others. Although, if you ever saw “THE TAINT” then you know what bad can be made in terms of gore and sickness.

This film is straightforward documentary style and is not at all scary. Until the crew run into a very real looking voyeur that tracks women and kills them on film. The movies that he produces are sinister, and they are true to life stalker footage films with pseudo death at the end of each episode. The character played by a real actor really gets into your head, and by act 3 you’re starting to believe that there are stalkers out there that do this and trade tapes on a regular basis.

It’s sick. Then you realize that you’re not watching something real, and that’s when you start to examine why you watch horror to begin with, and what your limits are as a voyeur into the inappropriate world of scary film. I for one don’t have a limit, and have seen the worst of the worst, but this film made me think that there is something even more terrible. S&Man is a very fascinating film, it is truly terrifying when you start to realize that this really is a true to life subculture, even if the film doesn’t fit into only one genre. I recommend this film, it scared me in many ways, especially because of the opening statements by the director about his neighbor, the voyeur….next time you see a camera, you’ll start to think of the characters in this film, and what might be…and what isn’t really there.