S&Man (Sandman)

Five years ago, aspiring filmmaker J.T. Petty set out to make a documentary entitled Peeping Tom, which have would examined the dangers of voyeurism by tracking down the peeping Tom who had deeply affected his childhood neighbours. Although being denied access to interview the peeper, Petty instead set out to make a harrowing documentary about the underground horror scene and its effects on the directors, voyeurs and sexual deviants attracted to it. Unfortunately in his pursuit of making an informative documentary, Petty is introduced to Eric Rost, an underground horror filmmaker who has the looks of Ricky Gervais and the mind of Ted Bundy, and Petty slowly comes to realize that Rost's fake snuff films may in fact be legit, putting the real-life filmmaker in genuine danger. Like Man Bites Dog and Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, S&Man is a mockumentary examining the glamorization of horror and misogyny via insightful probing and parodic situations. However, unlike those films, viewers are never quite sure if what they are watching is fact or fiction, for Petty makes the provocative decision to interview real-life filmmakers, sexologists and professors, including August Underground's Fred Vogel and Men, Women and Chainsaws' Carol Glover (a key participant in the documentary and the inspiration for the film). Mixing real commentary with meta, S&Man is a disturbing, unsettling piece of work that will win over cultists, the morbidly curious and writers for Criminal Minds desperate for new storylines. The DVD features include underground horror trailers, deleted scenes and a complete S&Man episode that will most likely be enjoyed by real-life voyeurs. The DVD also includes two commentary tracks with director J.T Petty and actor Erik Marcisak, as both themselves and their characters, which surprisingly makes for an interesting listen.