Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #141744 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-03-11
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: Spanish
• Subtitled in: English
• Running time: 121 minutes

Amazon.com
Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar grabbed the attention of American audiences with his dreamy thriller Open Your Eyes, but he earlier sent shock waves throughout Spain in 1996 with this disturbing debut. Thesis is a quietly creepy psychological thriller about a young college student, Ángela (Ana Torrent) investigating the social fascination with sensational violence for her thesis project. In her search for violent video footage, she stumbles onto what may be a real live snuff film, a videotape that her professor was watching before his untimely death. With the help of a geeky gore junkie she uncovers a conspiracy that may include her handsome but sinister new boyfriend, her thesis advisor, and even her weirdo partner. When she uncovers one too many secrets lying in the catacombs of the university basement, she realizes that she may be the next victim. It goes on perhaps too long, and Amenábar's pointed observations on the lure of violence and the dark side of human nature are lost as the spiraling mystery spins into a first-person nightmare, but his skill at weaving a paranoid world where evil may lurk behind every friendly face is undeniable. Thesis is reminiscent of Brian De Palma's early thrillers: dark, stylish, subdued, and bubbling with the characters' guilty (and ultimately dangerous) fascination with the transgressive. --Sean Axmaker

Gary W. Tooze, DVD Beaver, February 2011
The new re-mastered Bayview looks as good as the Spanish edition, but it has no PAL speed-up and the extras have English subtitles. It is dual-layered and anamorphic. Visually it seems strong. Audio has only 2,0 channel but sounded clean and without flaw to me - in the original Spanish with optional English subtitles. Supplements include a 25-minute ''making of'' featurette, 7-mnute of deleted scenes, and an almost 10-minute piece on storyboarding. It would have been nice to have an Amenábar commentary - with English subs but I am content.

I've always liked this film - a lot - and it's nice to have a strong NTSC version finally available after all these years. Strongly recommended suspense, horror flic - let's hope we see more from Bayview Entertainment of the same caliber.