Snyder’s The Last Photograph has embarked on quite the journey to this point, beginning some 20 years ago as an idea shared between Snyder and screenwriter Kurt Johnstead as a low-budget passion project. In 2011, it was reported that Niels Arden Oplev (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) was set to direct the movie, which was rumoured to star Christian Bale and Sean Penn. But with a deal seemingly never in place, and Snyder dedicating his time to the DC Extended Universe (Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Justice League), the project never quite got off the ground. And even when the door closed behind Snyder at DC, a new one opened at Netflix, leading to the least critically favourable portion of the filmmakers career that birthed Army of the Dead and the Rebel Moon duology — further pushing back production on the film.
But finally, in September of 2024, Snyder would let slip that The Last Photograph, now titled Horse Latitudes, had found an investor, and in August of the subsequent year, it was announced via Deadline that the film, once again titled The Last Photograph, would enter production.
Two full years on, the first look at the film — which saw Snyder act as his own cinematographer — came at the Toronto International Film Festival this past weekend, to almost everybody who saw its chagrin.
Below are some reactions to the film.
I’m sure Zack Snyder believes he’s made something far more profound and artful than his previous work with THE LAST PHOTOGRAPH, and in some ways, he has. Unfortunately, it’s still a tedious, frustrating, and grueling experience. Easily the worst film I’ve seen at TIFF so far.… pic.twitter.com/I8U5fkiyJE
— Matt Neglia @TIFF (@NextBestPicture) September 14, 2026
The Last Photograph: Pains me to report that Zack Snyder spent 25 years trying to make his war journalist mercenary take on Apocalypse Now and The Searchers and the final result was functionally indistinguishable from Sound of Freedom. #tiff26
— Josh Lewis (@thejoshl) September 14, 2026
Zack Snyder's "The Last Photograph" gestures at ideas of voyeurism, beauty and brutality coexisting, and the innate need to create, but ends up a plodding, ugly, racist, misogynistic revenge drama with no real characters and nothing to say. #TIFF2026 https://t.co/MnjTi78Y7G
— Siddhant Adlakha (@SiddhantAdlakha) September 14, 2026
Zack Snyder's indie "The Last Photograph," about a photographer and DEA agent teaming up to get revenge, is "a vile, ugly piece of work," according to our review out of TIFF.
— TheWrap (@TheWrap) September 14, 2026
"It is one of the worst films to ever screen at a major film festival. Running for 135 miserable… pic.twitter.com/f4FtYehIYx
ZACK SNYDER'S "THE LAST PHOTOGRAPH" is grotesque, shameless and an utter disgrace from start to finish. It is Snyder at his most unfiltered, with no studio intervention and is the films largest problem. It's desperate to be Snyder's 'Civil War', but feels like Daily Wire slop… pic.twitter.com/WPYH8tvuIi
— DawsOn... TIFF 2026 🇨🇦 (@DawsBear) September 14, 2026
With suggestions that range from racist to misogynistic to plain boring, suffice to say, Snyder’s smallest film yet might also just be his worst.
He’s a filmmaker that’s long divided opinion; some see his down-to-earth approach to the superhero mythos as a much-needed counterpoint to the kid-friendly work that Marvel Studios had been putting out, whilst others see it as the complete antithesis of everything those characters stand for. So if nothing else, The Last Photograph might just act as a meeting point for those two cohorts, who can stand side by side, holding hands and swapping their ‘Release the Snyder Cut’ and ‘The (James) Gunn Didn’t Jam’ tops as they finally agree on one thing: The Last Photograph sucks…
Probably not, though.
The movie is yet to be purchased for distribution, and it remains to be seen if it will be available for wider viewing at any point. But if these early reactions are anything to go by, this rocky road may continue a little longer for Snyder and his fight for the movie's survival.
