snuff

While the major studios do a fairly good job of documenting their own movie history, it’s up to niche companies like Blue Underground to unearth cinema’s seedier footnotes like Snuff (1976), which inspired a good share of controversy from anti-violence protestors and even prompted an official FBI investigation into the rumors surrounding real-life murders captured on film.

Purchased for $5000 by producer Allan Shackleton, Snuff began as a slapdash production from the filmmaking team of Roberta and Michael Findlay called Slaughter. Filmed in Argentina with a plot mixing Mason family-style murders with South American melodrama, there is little to recommend about the first hour and fifteen minutes (despite director Nicolas Winding Refn’s appreciation of its “rock ‘n rock aesthetic” included in the extras). But Shackleton’s 10-minute coda, filmed five years after the fact, made all the marketing difference.

As the final scene of Slaughter fades, we widen out to reveal the filmmakers who were actually shooting the movie. The director convinces one of the actresses to “turn each other on” while the cameras are rolling, only to then torture and murder her onscreen with the help of his crew. This film within a film is an obvious, but still distasteful, fake. Yet the effects were good enough to convince more than a few audience members who claimed what they saw wasn’t a hoax.

To be fair, Snuff never marketed itself as the real thing, only bragging that it was “made in South America…where life is cheap.” It’s the sort of ingenious “of-the-moment” brainstorm that uses bad publicity for maximum effect. Regardless of the film’s quality, which was bottom of the barrel, it was making money on reputation alone.

Retired FBI agent Bill Kelly describes his investigation into Snuff and related films as part of the extras. His verdict? They were all just rumors. But the legend of Snuff lives on which explains this unexpected blu-ray version of Blue Underground’s previous DVD release. Even fans of the film would likely admit the upgraded image quality an unnecessary extravagance. But upgrading the extras makes sense, including a conversation with filmmaker Carter Stevens, whose home studio was used to film the controversial scene; another interview with director Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive) who tries to explain his fascination with the film; plus posters, trailers and an article by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas examining the feminist aspects of the film.