Editing Snuff film

{{Short description|Film showing real murders}}
{{Redirect-distinguish-for|Snuff movie|Snuff-Movie{{!}}''Snuff-Movie''|the 1976 splatter film|Snuff (film){{!}}''Snuff'' (film)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2014}}
A '''snuff film''', '''snuff movie''', or '''snuff video''' is a type of film, sometimes defined as being produced for profit or financial gain, that shows, or purports to show, scenes of actual [[homicide]].

The concept of snuff films became known to the general public during the 1970s, when an [[urban legend]] alleged that a clandestine industry was producing such films for profit. The rumor was amplified in 1976 by the release of a film called ''[[Snuff (film)|Snuff]]'', which capitalized on the legend through a disingenuous marketing campaign. However, that film, like others on the topic, relied on [[special effects]] to simulate [[murder]]. According to the [[fact-checking]] website ''[[Snopes]]'', there has never been a verified example of a genuine commercially produced snuff film.<ref name=snopesApril2021>{{cite web|author-first1=Barbara|author-last1=Mikkelson|url=https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/a-pinch-of-snuff/ |title=Snuff films — are they for real? |date= 23 April 2021 |work=[[Snopes]]}}</ref> Videos of actual murders (such as [[beheading video]]s) have been made available to the public, generally through the [[Internet]]. However, those videos have been made and broadcast by the murderers either for their own gratification or for [[propaganda]] purposes, and not for financial gain and thus do not qualify, according to one author, as a "snuff film".<ref name="whowatchesthisstuff">{{cite web|url=https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1359&context=flr/ |title=Who Watches this Stuff ?: Videos Depicting Actual Murder and the Need for a Federal Criminal Murder-Video Statute|date= November 2016 |author=Musa K. Farmand Jr.|work=Florida Law Review, Volume 68, Issue 6}}</ref>

==Definitions==
A snuff film is a movie in a purported genre of films in which a person is actually [[murdered]], though some variations of the definition may include films that show people committing [[suicide]]. According to existing definitions, snuff films can be [[Pornographic film|pornographic]] and are made for financial gain but are supposedly "circulated amongst a jaded few for the purpose of entertainment".<ref name=snopesApril2021/> The ''[[Collins English Dictionary]]'' defines a "snuff movie" as "a pornographic film in which an unsuspecting actress or actor is murdered at the climax of the film";<ref name=Collins>{{cite web|url= https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/snuff-movie  |title=snuff movie  |work=collinsdictionary.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120618215514/https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/snuff-movie |archive-date=18 June 2012}}</ref> the ''[[Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary|Cambridge Dictionary]]'' defines it more broadly as "a violent film that shows a real murder".<ref>{{cite web|url= https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/snuff-movie |title=snuff movie  |work=dictionary.cambridge.org|access-date=7 October 2022 }}</ref>

[[Horror film]] magazine ''[[Fangoria]]'' defined snuff movies as "films in which a person is killed on camera. The death is premeditated, with the purpose of being filmed in order to make money. Often times, there is a sexual aspect to the murder, either on film (as in, a porn scene that ends horribly) or that the final project is used for sexual gratification." Films featuring deaths that are authentic but accidental  "are not considered snuff because the deaths were not planned. Other death on video, such as [[Beheading video|terrorists beheading victims]], are done to fulfill an ideology, not to earn money."<ref name="Fangoria">{{Cite news |last1=Wax|first1=Alyse|url=https://www.fangoria.com/original/snuff-the-biggest-myth-in-film/ |title=Snuff: The Biggest Myth In Film  |website=Fangoria|date=May 21, 2021|access-date=October 10, 2022}}</ref>

==Reality==
Some filmed records of executions and deaths in war exist, but in those cases the death was not specifically staged for financial gain or entertainment.<ref name=snopesApril2021/> There have been a number of "amateur-made" snuff films available on the Internet. However, such videos are produced by the murderers to make an impact on an audience or for their own satisfaction, and not for financial profit. Some [[Shock site|specialized websites]] show videos of actual killings for profit, as their [[shock value]] will attract an audience; but these websites are not operated by the perpetrators of the murders.<ref name="whowatchesthisstuff"/>
 
According to ''[[Snopes]]'', the idea of an actual snuff film "industry" clandestinely producing such "entertainment" for monetary gain is preposterous because "capturing a murder on film would be foolhardy at best. Only the most deranged would consider preserving for a jury a perfect video record of a crime they could go to the executioner for. Even if the murderer stays completely out of the camera's way, too much of who the killer is, how the murder was carried out, and where it took place would be part of such a film, and these details would quickly lead police to the right door. Though someone whose mania has caused them to lose touch with reality might skip over this point, those who are supposedly in the business for the money would be all too aware of this. It doesn't make sense to flirt with the electric chair for the profits derived from a video."<ref name=snopesApril2021/>

Furthermore, ''[[Fangoria]]'' has also described the very concept as a "myth" and "a [[Fearmongering|scare tactic]], dreamt up by the media to terrify the public."<ref name="Fangoria"/>

==History of the concept==

===Origins of the urban legend===
The noun ''snuff'' originally meant the part of a candle wick that has already burned; the verb ''snuff'' meant to cut this off, and by extension to extinguish or kill.<ref>''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', 1st ed, 1913</ref> The word has been used in this sense in English slang for hundreds of years. It was defined in 1874 as a "term very common among the lower orders of London, meaning to die from disease or accident".<ref>[[John Camden Hotten]], ''[[A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words]]'', 5th edition</ref>

Film studies professor Boaz Hagin argues that the concept of films showing actual murders originated decades earlier than is commonly believed, at least as early as 1907. That year, Polish-French writer [[Guillaume Apollinaire]] published the short story ''A Good Film'' about [[newsreel]] photojournalists who stage and film a murder due to public fascination with crime news; in the story, the public believes the murder is real but police determine that the crime was faked.<ref>Boaz Hagin. Killed Because of Lousy Ratings: The Hollywood History of the Snuff Film. Journal of Popular Film and Television, 2010 DOI: 10.1080/01956050903578414</ref> Hagin also proposes that the film ''[[Network (1976 film)|Network]]'' (1976) contains an explicit (fictional) snuff film depiction when television news executives orchestrate the on-air murder of a news anchor to boost ratings.

According to film critic [[Geoffrey O'Brien]], "whether or not commercially distributed 'snuff' movies actually exist, the possibility of such movies is implicit in the stock [[B-movie]] motif of the mad artist killing his models, as in ''[[A Bucket of Blood]]'' (1959), ''[[Color Me Blood Red]]'' (1965), or ''Decoy for Terror'' (1967) also known as ''Playgirl Killer''."<ref>{{cite news|author=O’Brien, Geoffrey|author-link=Geoffrey O’Brien|date=1993|title=Horror for Pleasure|work=[[The New York Review of Books]]}} (April 22 issue), n.1.</ref> Likewise, the protagonist of ''[[Peeping Tom (1960 film)|Peeping Tom]]'' (1960) films the murders he commits, though he does so as part of his mania and not for financial gain: a 1979 article in ''[[The New York Times]]'' described the character's activity as making "private 'snuff' films".<ref>{{Cite news|author=[[Vincent Canby]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/10/14/archives/film-michael-powells-peeping-tomthe-cast.html|title=Film: Michael Powell's 'Peeping Tom':The Cast |date=1979-10-14|access-date=2022-10-12 |work=The New York Times}}</ref>

The first known use of the term ''snuff movie'' is in a 1971 book by [[Ed Sanders]], ''The Family: The Story of Charles Manson's Dune Buggy Attack Battalion''. This book included the interview of an anonymous one-time member of [[Charles Manson]]'s "[[Manson Family|Family]]", who claimed that the group once made such a film in [[California]], by recording the murder of a woman. However, the interviewee later added that he had not watched the film himself and had just heard rumors of its existence. In later editions of the book, Sanders clarified that no films depicting real murders or murder victims had been found.<ref name=snopesApril2021/><ref>{{cite book| url = https://archive.org/details/familystoryofcha00sande| title = extract from book| year = 1971| publisher = New York, Dutton| isbn = 9780525103004}}</ref>

During the first half of the 1970s, [[urban legend]]s started to allege that snuff films were being produced in [[South America]] for commercial gain, and circulated clandestinely in the United States.<ref name="csicop.org"/><ref name="Cashing">"Cashing in on rumors that a 'snuff' film had been smuggled into the United States from South America, Schackleton retitled his movie Snuff and released it in late 1975, advertising its faked evisceration as the real thing", David A. Cook, ''Lost Illusions: American Cinema in The Shadow of Watergate and Vietnam'', page 233 (University of California Press, Ltd., 2000). {{ISBN|0-520-23265-8}}</ref>

===''Snuff'' controversy (1976)===
{{main article|Snuff (film)}}
The idea of movies showing actual murders for profit became more widely known in 1976 with the release of the [[exploitation film]] ''Snuff''.<ref name="csicop.org">{{cite news |url=http://www.csicop.org/si/show/snuff_film_the_making_of_an_urban_legend/ |author=Scott Aaron Stine |title=The Snuff Film: The Making of an Urban Legend |work=Skeptical Inquirer |volume=23 |date=1999 |issue=3 |access-date=December 13, 2010 |archive-date=September 25, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180925180514/https://www.csicop.org/si/show/snuff_film_the_making_of_an_urban_legend |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2p7i4oL6Dk | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100814214951/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2p7i4oL6Dk| archive-date=2010-08-14 | url-status=dead|title=Do snuff movies exist? |series=Documentary, part 1 |publisher=YouTube}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Cook, David A. |title=Lost Illusions: American Cinema in The Shadow of Watergate and Vietnam |page=233 |publisher=University of California Press |date=2000 |isbn= 0-520-23265-8}}</ref> This low-budget [[horror film]], loosely based on the [[Tate–LaBianca murders|Manson murders]] and originally titled ''Slaughter'', was shot in [[Argentina]] by [[Michael Findlay (filmmaker)|Michael]] and [[Roberta Findlay]]. The film's distribution rights were bought by Allan Shackleton, who eventually found the picture unfit for release and shelved it. Several years later, Shackleton read about snuff films being imported from South America and decided to cash in on the rumor as an attempt to recoup his investment in ''Slaughter''.<ref name="csicop.org"/><ref name="Cashing"/><ref name="Press">{{cite news |url=http://www.nypress.com/article-11831-the-curse-of-her-filmography.html |title=The Curse of Her Filmography: Roberta Findlay's grindhouse legacy |work=New York Press |date=July 27, 2005 |access-date=February 11, 2010 |archive-date=17 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100517115336/http://www.nypress.com/article-11831-the-curse-of-her-filmography.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Shackleton retitled ''Slaughter'' to ''Snuff'' and released it with a new ending that purported to depict an actual murder committed on a film set.<ref name="Cashing"/> ''Snuff'''s promotional material suggested, without stating outright, that the film featured the real murder of a woman, which amounted to [[false advertising]].<ref name="poison">{{cite news|last1=Eder|first1=Richard|authorlink1=Richard Eder|title='Snuff' Is Pure Poison|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/03/07/archives/snuff-is-pure-poison-poison-snuff.html|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=March 7, 1976|page=13}}</ref><ref name=Leonard>{{cite news|last1=Leonard|first1=John|authorlink1=John Leonard (critic)|title=Commentary: Cretin's Delight on Film|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/02/27/archives/commentary-cretins-delight-on-film.html|work=The New York Times|date=February 27, 1976|page=21}}</ref> The film's slogan read: "The film that could only be made in South America... where life is CHEAP".<ref>{{cite book |author=Hawkins, Joan |title=Cutting Edge: Art-Horror and The Horrific Avant-Garde |page=136 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |date=2000 |isbn=0-8166-3413-0}}
</ref> Shackleton put out false newspaper clippings that reported a citizens group's crusading against the film,<ref name="csicop.org" /> and hired people to act as protesters to picket screenings.<ref name="csicop.org"/>

Shackleton's efforts succeeded in generating a [[media frenzy]] about the film: real [[Feminism|feminist]] and citizens groups eventually started protesting the movie and picketing theaters.<ref name=Leonard/><ref>David A. Cook, ''Lost Illusions: American Cinema in The Shadow of Watergate and Vietnam'', page 233 (University of California Press, Ltd., 2000). {{ISBN|0-520-23265-8}}</ref><ref name=varrev>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=February 25, 1976|title=Film Reviews: Snuff|last=Jac.}}</ref> As a result, New York District Attorney [[Robert M. Morgenthau]] investigated the picture, establishing that it was a [[hoax]].<ref name="The New York Times">{{cite news|title=Morgenthau Finds Film Dismembering Was Indeed a Hoax|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/03/10/archives/morgenthau-finds-film-dismembering-was-indeed-a-hoax.html|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=10 March 1976|page=41}}</ref><ref>Charles Lyons, ''The New Censors: Movies and the Culture Wars'', Temple University Press, 1997, pages 64-70</ref> The controversy nevertheless made the film financially profitable.<ref name="csicop.org"/><ref>{{cite episode|title=Does Snuff Exist?|series=The Dark Side of Porn|series-link=The Dark Side of Porn|network=[[Channel 4]]|date=April 18, 2006|season=2|time=6:27}}</ref>

===Rumors related to serial killers and other controversies===
In subsequent years, more urban legends emerged about snuff movies. Notably, multiple [[serial killer]]s were rumored to have produced snuff films: however, no such videos were proven to exist. [[Henry Lee Lucas]] and his accomplice [[Ottis Toole]] claimed to have filmed their crimes, but both men were "pathological liars" and the purported films were never found.<ref name="Fangoria"/> [[Charles Ng]] and [[Leonard Lake]] videotaped their interactions with some of their future victims, but not the murders. [[Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris]] made an audio recording of their encounter with one victim, though not of her death. Likewise, [[Paul Bernardo]] and [[Karla Homolka]] made videos of Bernardo sexually abusing two victims, but did not film the murders. In all those cases, the recordings were not intended for public consumption and were used as evidence during the murderers' trials.<ref name=snopesApril2021/>

Over the years, [[#False_snuff_films|several films were suspected of being "snuff movies"]], though none of these accusations turned out to be true. A similar controversy concerned the filming of the video for the 1989 song "[[Down in It]]" by [[Nine Inch Nails]], in which [[Trent Reznor]] acted in a scene which ended with the implication that Reznor's character had fallen off a building and died. To film the scene, a camera was tied to a balloon with ropes. Minutes after filming started, the ropes snapped and the balloons and camera flew away, eventually landing on a farmer's field in [[Michigan]]. The farmer later handed it to the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]], who began investigating whether the footage was a snuff film portraying a person committing suicide.<ref name="Convulsion Nine Inch Nails 1991">{{cite web
 |url=http://www.obsolete.com/convulsion/interviews/convulse/1.5.html 
 |title=Nine Inch Nails 
 |access-date=2008-04-12 
 |url-status=dead 
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927045622/http://www.obsolete.com/convulsion/interviews/convulse/1.5.html 
 |archive-date=2007-09-27 
}}</ref><ref>''Welcome to the Machine'' ([http://theninhotline.net/archives/articles/manager/display_article.php?id=536 transcript]). ''Industrial Introspection'' (June 1991). Retrieved 2011-06-18.</ref> The FBI identified Reznor and the investigation ended when it was confirmed that Reznor was alive and the footage was not related to crime.<ref name="Convulsion Nine Inch Nails 1991" /><ref>{{Cite web|website=Mental Floss|publisher=Minute Media| url=http://mentalfloss.com/article/548360/nine-inch-nails-trent-reznor-fbi-murder-investigation-down-in-it|author-first1=Sean|author-last1=Hutchinson|title=When the FBI Investigated the 'Murder' of Nine Inch Nails's Trent Reznor|date=2018-06-22|access-date=2018-07-19|language=en}}</ref><ref>Huxley (1997), p. 40</ref>

Around 2018, a [[conspiracy theory]] called "Frazzledrip", related to [[Pizzagate conspiracy theory|Pizzagate]] and [[QAnon]], purported the existence of a snuff video where [[Hillary Clinton]] and her aide [[Huma Abedin]] murdered a young girl as part of a [[Satanism|Satanic]] ritual.<ref name="snopes-frazzle-2018">{{cite web|last1=Emery|first1=David|date=April 16, 2018|title=Is a Hillary Clinton 'Snuff Film' Circulating on the Dark Web?|url=https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/hillary-clinton-snuff-film/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211110005050/https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/hillary-clinton-snuff-film/|archive-date=2021-11-10|access-date=27 January 2021|publisher=Snopes}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Gilbert |first1=David |title=Marjorie Taylor Greene Believes in Frazzledrip, QAnon's Wildest Conspiracy Theory |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/marjorie-taylor-greene-believes-in-frazzledrip-qanons-wildest-conspiracy-theory/ |publisher=Vice.com |access-date=7 October 2022 |date=January 27, 2021 |archive-date=February 23, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210223221234/https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3gedm/marjorie-taylor-greene-believes-in-frazzledrip-qanons-wildest-conspiracy-theory |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Internet age===
The advent of the [[Internet]], by allowing anyone to broadcast self-made videos to an international audience, also changed the means of production of films that may be categorized as "snuff". There have been several cases of murders being filmed by their perpetrators and later finding their way online. These include videos made by Mexican [[Drug cartel|cartels]] or [[Jihadism|jihadist]] groups, at least one of the videos shot by the [[Dnepropetrovsk maniacs]] in mid-2000s [[Ukraine]], the [[Murder of Jun Lin|video shot by Luka Magnotta]] from [[Montréal]] in 2012, the video shot by [[Murders of Alison Parker and Adam Ward|Vester Lee Flanagan II]] in 2015, as well as cases of [[Livestreamed crime|livestreamed murders]], including videos made by [[Mass shooting|mass shooters]].<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://time.com/5589478/facebook-livestream-rules-new-zealand-christchurch-attack/|title=Facebook Tightens Live-Stream Rules in Response to the Christchurch Massacre|last=Gunia|first=Anna|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|access-date=18 May 2019|date=15 May 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://bnonews.com/index.php/2022/05/mass-shooting-supermarket-buffalo-10-dead/|title=Gunman kills 10 at New York store while livestreaming on Twitch|work=[[BNO News]]|date=14 May 2022|access-date=14 May 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | last=Meyer | first=Robinson | date=August 26, 2015 | url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/08/snuff-film-unavoidable-twitter-facebook-autoplay-roanoke/402430/ | title=When a Snuff Film Becomes Unavoidable | work=The Atlantic | publisher=Emerson Collective | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150826215303/https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/08/snuff-film-unavoidable-twitter-facebook-autoplay-roanoke/402430/ | archivedate=August 26, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | last=Keller | first=Jared | date=August 27, 2015 | url=https://psmag.com/environment/is-it-ethical-to-watch-murder-caught-on-tape | title=Is It Ethical to Watch Murder Caught on Tape? | work=Pacific Standard | publisher=The Arena Group | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180313194052/https://psmag.com/environment/is-it-ethical-to-watch-murder-caught-on-tape | archivedate=March 13, 2018}}</ref>

Author [[Steve Lillebuen]], who wrote a book on the Magnotta case, commented that [[social media]] had created a new trend in crime where killers who crave an audience can become "online broadcasters" by showing their crimes to the world.<ref name=steve>{{cite news |last=Lillebuen |first=Steve |title=The sick fascination with a death video |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2012/06/06/opinion/lillebuen-killing-video/index.html |access-date=June 9, 2012 |newspaper=CNN.com |date=June 6, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120610064608/http://edition.cnn.com/2012/06/06/opinion/lillebuen-killing-video/index.html |archive-date=June 10, 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=steve2>{{cite news |last=Lillebuen |first=Steve |date=2 June 2012|title=Murderers have become online broadcasters. And their audience is us |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/murderers-have-become-online-broadcasters-and-their-audience-is-us/article4226048/ |access-date=June 9, 2012 |newspaper=The Globe and Mail |location=Toronto |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160403085409/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/murderers-have-become-online-broadcasters-and-their-audience-is-us/article4226048/ |archive-date=April 3, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>

''Fangoria'' commented that Magnotta's 2012 video, which showed him mutilating the corpse of his victim, was the closest thing in existence to an actual snuff movie, especially as Magnotta had done some crude editing and used a [[True Faith (song)|song]] as a soundtrack, which amounted to minimal production values. However, it did not show the murder itself and was originally published to attract attention and not for monetary gain.<ref name="Fangoria"/> The charges of which Magnotta was found guilty included "publishing [[Obscenity#Canada|obscene]] materials".<ref>{{cite news |title=Day 8 of deliberations in Luka Magnotta trial |url=http://globalnews.ca/news/1741034/day-8-of-deliberations-in-luka-magnotta-trial/ |access-date=December 23, 2014 |work=CTV News |date=December 23, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141223100827/http://globalnews.ca/news/1741034/day-8-of-deliberations-in-luka-magnotta-trial/ |archive-date=December 23, 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2016, the owner of [[Bestgore.com]], the website that originally hosted Magnotta's video, pleaded guilty to an obscenity charge and was sentenced to a six-month conditional sentence, half of which was served under house arrest.<ref>{{cite web |publisher=[[Global News]] |url=http://globalnews.ca/news/2474806/edmonton-gore-website-owner-on-trial-for-posting-magnotta-video/ |title=Edmonton gore website owner sentenced for posting Magnotta video |date=January 25, 2016 |access-date=June 7, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604231410/http://globalnews.ca/news/2474806/edmonton-gore-website-owner-on-trial-for-posting-magnotta-video/ |archive-date=June 4, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>

==In fiction==
{{see also|:Category:Films about snuff films}}
Since the concept became familiar to the general public, snuff films being made for profit or entertainment have been used as a core plot element or at least mentioned in numerous works of fiction, including the 1979 films ''[[Hardcore (1979 film)|Hardcore]]'' and ''[[Bloodline (1979 film)|Bloodline]]'', and [[Bret Easton Ellis]]'s 1985 novel ''[[Less than Zero (novel)|Less than Zero]]''. The making or discovery of one or several snuff films is the premise of various [[Horror film|horror]], [[Thriller film|thriller]] or [[Crime film|crime]] films, such as ''[[Last House on Dead End Street]]'' (1977),   ''[[Videodrome]]'' (1983), ''[[Tesis]]'' (1996), ''[[8mm (film)|8mm]]'' (1999), ''[[Vacancy (film)|Vacancy]]'' (2007), ''[[Snuff 102]]'' (2007), ''[[A Serbian Film]]'' (2010), ''[[Sinister (film)|Sinister]]'' (2012), ''[[The Counselor (film)|The Counselor]]'' (2013), ''[[Luther: The Fallen Sun]]'' (2023), and the episode "[[The Devil of Christmas]]" (2016) in the [[black comedy]] series ''[[Inside No. 9]]''. The 2003 video game ''[[Manhunt (video game)|Manhunt]]'' sees the main character being forced to participate in a series of snuff films to guarantee his freedom. The 2005 video game ''[[Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories]]'' features a mission titled "Snuff", where the main character kills a few gangsters while unknowingly being filmed for a snuff movie by a third party, which may be a reference to ''[[Manhunt (video game)|Manhunt]]''. Also, pretend snuff porn is sometimes filmed as a [[Sexual fetishism|fetish]].

Several horror films such as ''[[Cannibal Holocaust]]'' (1980) and ''[[August Underground]]'' (2001) have depicted "snuff movie" situations, coupled with [[Found footage (film technique)|found footage]] aesthetics used as a narrative device. Though some of these films have generated controversy as to their nature and content, none were, nor have officially purported to be, actual snuff movies.

===False snuff films===

====''Faces of Death''====
{{main article|Faces of Death}}
The 1978 pseudo-documentary film ''Faces of Death'', which spawned several sequels, is one of the films most commonly associated with the "snuff movie" concept, even though it was not produced by murderers nor clandestinely distributed. Purporting to be an educational film about [[death]], it mixed [[footage]] of actual deadly accidents, suicides, autopsies, or executions, with "outright fake scenes" obtained with the help of special effects.<ref name=snopesApril2021/>

====The ''Guinea Pig'' films====
{{Main article|Guinea Pig (film series)}}
The first two films in the Japanese ''Guinea Pig'' series, ''[[Guinea Pig: Devil's Experiment]]'' and ''[[Guinea Pig 2: Flower of Flesh and Blood]]'' (both released in 1985) are designed to look like snuff films; the video is grainy and unsteady, as if recorded by amateurs, and extensive [[practical effects|practical]] and [[special effects]] are used to imitate such features as internal organs and graphic wounds. The sixth film in the series, ''Mermaid in a Manhole'' (1988), allegedly served as an inspiration for Japanese serial killer [[Tsutomu Miyazaki]], who murdered several preschool girls in the late 1980s.<ref>{{cite web
| url=http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/psychology/movies_made_me_kill/11.html
| title=Serial killer inspired by Guinea Pig films
| access-date=June 17, 2008
| publisher=guineapigfilms.com
| archive-date=February 10, 2015
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150210051114/http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/psychology/movies_made_me_kill/11.html
| url-status=dead
}}</ref>

In 1991, actor [[Charlie Sheen]] became convinced that ''Flower of Flesh and Blood'' depicted an actual homicide and contacted the [[FBI]]. The FBI initiated an investigation but closed it after the series'  producers released a "making of" film demonstrating the special effects used to simulate the murders.<ref>{{cite news|author=McDowell, R. |title=Movies to Die For|work= The San Francisco Chronicle|date=August 7, 1994|page= A5}}</ref>

====''Cannibal Holocaust''====
{{Main article|Cannibal Holocaust}}
 
The Italian director [[Ruggero Deodato]] was charged after rumors that the depictions of the killing of the main actors in his film ''[[Cannibal Holocaust]]'' (1980) were real. He was able to clear himself of the charges after the actors made an appearance in court and on television.<ref name="In the Jungle">{{cite AV media | people=Ruggero Deodato (interviewee) |date=2003 | title=In the Jungle: The Making of Cannibal Holocaust | medium=Documentary | location=Italy | publisher=Alan Young Pictures}}</ref>

Other than graphic gore, the film contains several scenes of sexual violence and the genuine deaths of six animals onscreen and one off screen, issues which find ''Cannibal Holocaust'' in the midst of controversy to this day. It has also been claimed that ''Cannibal Holocaust'' is banned in over 50 countries,<ref>{{cite AV media notes |title=Cannibal Holocaust 25th Anniversary Edition |orig-date=1980 |others=[[Ruggero Deodato]] |page=back cover |publisher=VIPCO (Video Instant Picture Company) |location=UK |id=VIP666SE |year=2004}}</ref> although this has never been verified. In 2006, ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' magazine named ''Cannibal Holocaust'' as the 20th most controversial film of all time.<ref>{{cite magazine | url=https://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1202224.html | title=The 25 Most Controversial Films of All-Time | magazine=Entertainment Weekly | access-date=September 14, 2006 | archive-date=February 14, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120214173929/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1202224.html | url-status=dead }}</ref>

====''August Underground'' trilogy====
{{Main article|August Underground|August Underground's Mordum|August Underground's Penance}}
This trilogy of horror films, which depict graphic tortures and murders, is shot as if it were amateur footage made by a serial killer and his accomplices. In 2005, director and lead actor Fred Vogel, who was traveling with copies of the first two films to attend a horror film festival in Canada, was arrested by Canadian customs pending charges of transporting obscene materials into the country. The charges were eventually dropped after Vogel had spent ten hours in custody.<ref name="bzfilminterview">{{cite web |title=Independent filmmaker Fred Vogel: Extreme artists push the boundaries and strive to provoke emotion |url=https://bzfilm.com/talks-interviews/independent-filmmaker-fred-vogel-extreme-artists-push-the-boundaries-and-strive-to-provoke-emotion/ |website=BZFilm.com |date=January 7, 2013 |publisher=BZ Film |accessdate=16 October 2019 |archive-date=October 16, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191016172529/https://bzfilm.com/talks-interviews/independent-filmmaker-fred-vogel-extreme-artists-push-the-boundaries-and-strive-to-provoke-emotion/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Ero guro]]
* [[Shock site]]
* [[Livestreamed crime]]
* [[Hurtcore]]
* [[Crush film]]
* [[Splatter film]]
* [[Cannibal film]]
* [[Dnepropetrovsk maniacs]]
* [[Martyrdom video]]
* [[Mondo film]]s
* [[Beheading video]]
* [[Ricardo López (stalker)|Ricardo López]], celebrity stalker who filmed himself committing suicide
* [[R. Budd Dwyer]], politician who committed suicide during a live press conference
* [[Murder of Jun Lin]], committed by Luka Magnotta who filmed himself mutilating the victim's corpse
* [[Peter Scully]], Australian sex offender and murderer who made a film featuring the torture and rape of three children
* [[Extreme cinema]]
* [[Shot-on-video film]]
* [[Analog horror]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* David Kerekes and David Slater. ''Killing for Culture: From Edison to ISIS: A New History of Death on Film''. London: Headpress, 2016.

==External links==
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