Snuff Movie?

[Luke Bannon]

Can anyone please define for me what the heck a snuff movie is? I've heard people talk about them but have no idea what they are.


THIS I COMMAND!

[Luke Bannon]

My mother told me, and I wish I didn't ask.

[Cullen]

A "Snuff" movie  is a movie where an actor is murdered on film as a part of the plot (saving money on special effect, doncha know.)  It comes from the movie Snuff which the makers claimed to have a person's death recorded expressly for the film.  Turns out that was a lie, as I recall.

[mark chopper]

dear Luke, it's interesting you bring up this topic. a snuff film is basically a documentation of a person really being killed/tortured, whatever in front of the camera. urban legends constantly surface they exist but the for the longest time the F.B.I. hasn't been able to prove it. a lot of people believe they exist in Latin America, since the cost of living is so low there. Dennis Hopper claims he saw one when he was there filming the Last Movie. apparently they wrote a book on the subject: Gods of Death, but a friend of mine wasn't able to find it in print. some good films that deal with the subject are Videodrome, Thesis (a recent great Spanish film, i'd highly recommend this one), and 8MM, (this one got a lot of negative criticism, but i didn't think it was too bad). hope this info. is of interest. oh an Snuff basically mean to kill, "to put out, to snuff someone." hope you never have to sit through one.

[Pete]

Snuff is also a pretty cool English punk band.

Pete

[jmc]

I saw GODS OF DEATH years ago, when it first came out.  I remember glancing at it...it's almost like a fictionalized account, with zero documentation or anything.

[Luke Bannon]

Once again I asked a question without being prepared for the answer. I feel sick...

[Vermin Boy]

Don't worry, they don't exist. The publisher of Screw magazine put out a $1,000,000 reward to anyone who could turn in a copy of one; the offer still stands. What it comes down to is that anyone who'd be competant enough to film a murder for distribution would be competant enough to realize that'd be a really, really dumb idea.

Oh, yeah, and the term was around before the movie "Snuff"; IIRC, it was coined by an anonymous member of the Manson family in an interview, describing a movie he'd heard about (but never seen).

[mark chopper]

yeah, i read a review of it on amazon.com, it didn't sound to hot, not based on much fact also.

[jmc]

KILLING FOR CULTURE is a good read about the whole "snuff movie" phenomenon, also a good overview of Mondo films.  It's one of my favorite film books.

[John]

There's a short video clip floating around the net that shows a girl sitting in a chair with a guy holding a gun to her head. She cries "Snuff films do not exist", then she gets her brains blown out. I assume it's a fake although it looks pretty real to me.

[none]

Just have a look on a french site: x.imavision.fr.

It is quite interesting. I'm not sure they really know what they have found...

[raj]

The whole thing gets a good treatment over at Straightdope.com:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?
s=5c813b4e49479fd61ff8b358e9dcf1bf&threadid=133495

(sorry for the long URL, if you go to http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/
and click on  Comments on Cecil's Columns you'll see it.  The debunking of snuff films is done by Cecil himself)

[transamguy]

John in that film of the girl getting her brains blown out they used a cabbage that had been soaked in red food coloring for a week i used the same trick for a spook house

[JohnL]

I don't know about the cabbage, but for those who are curious to see the video I mentioned, you can find it here, along with a detailed analysis of why it's fake.