Snuff film
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A snuff film is a film that depicts an actual murder, produced explicitly for commercial entertainment purposes (and not as an incidental record of a murder committed for other purposes).
The actual existence of snuff films has been questioned, and they have long been relegated by skeptics to the realm of urban legend and moral panic. To date, no example of a film of an actual murder that was created for commercial entertainment and distribution purposes has ever surfaced, leading to a common theory that they do not exist. [Institute for Psychological Therapies Journal,Volume 4, 1992]
History
It is popularly believed that the first recorded use of the term snuff film was in Ed Sanders's book about the Manson Family murders, (1971). In Sanders' book the interview subject who described the production of said films had never actually seen such a film himself. The term "snuff" meaning death is older than that. Use of the word "snuff" as a synonym for "kill" is used in Edgar Rice Burrough's fifth Tarzan book Tarzan And The Jewels Of Opar (1916), while "snuff it", meaning to die, was used repeatedly in the novel A Clockwork Orange (1962).The concept of a snuff movie subsequently reappeared and became more widely known in 1976 in the context of the film Snuff. Originally a horror film designed to cash in on the hysteria of the Manson Family murders, the film's distributor tacked on a new ending that allegedly depicts an actual murder. In order to generate buzz the producer wrote angry letters to the New York Times posing as a concerned citizen and hired actors to stand outside and protest against the film. The concept of snuff films was further publicised by the Paul Schrader film Hardcore (1979).
Recorded murders
Some murderers have in various instances recorded their acts on video; however, the resultant footage is not usually considered to be a snuff film because it is not made for the express purpose of generating a profit from distribution. An example is the video taken in 2001 by Armin Meiwes of the murder of Bernd Jürgen Armando Brandes.The number of Internet downloads of videos depicting actual murders (e.g. the filmed decapitations of Daniel Pearl, Nick Berg, Paul Johnson, Kim Sun-il, the shooting of Yitzhak Rabin, and the gun suicides of Ricardo Cerna and Budd Dwyer), plus the popularity of television programs and video releases showing actual or recreated deaths (e.g. Faces of Death, World's Wildest Police Videos—though the latter program usually edits out the more violent footage), reveals how large a market for genuine footage of murderous violence exists, whatever the context. In addition, historical footage of actual murders, such as the assassination of John F. Kennedy (in particular the Zapruder film) have often been incorporated into entertainment programs, such as the Oliver Stone film JFK. However, it is not clear that the fascination engendered by these records would extend to filmed murders carried out expressly for the purpose of filming a murder (actual snuff films). Since it is trivially easy today to produce a film that simulates a murder in a completely believable way, there is little commercial incentive to risk the legal repercussions of producing a film in which a murder is actually committed (much less documented on film).
In 1994, Russia was exposed to a stream of videos depicting real murders, production of which started during what was dubbed as Russian genocide in Chechnya (1991-1994), and peaking during and between both Chechen Wars (1994-1996) and (1999-). Videos, freely available in Chechnya for sale on local bazaars, depicted slaves and POWs tortured, mutilated and killed. Some of this footage was shown on Russian State TV during prime time, resulting in the boost of strong anti-Chechen sentiments and general support of the war. Most of the murderers in these movies pose without masks, and in 1999 the most famous one, nicknamed Traktorist (The Mechanic), was captured in Dagestan and sentenced to life in prison; his identification was comparatively easy, given the high quality of the tapes. Yelena Masyuk, a well-known Russian journalist and strong former supporter of Chechen fight for independence, retired her pro-Chechen stance after being kidnapped and repeatedly gang-raped in these movies. Unlike most of the victims she was able to get out when a 2 million dollar ransom was paid. She was the first media personality to mention the existence of the snuff video market in Chechnya. After the active phase of the conflict Chechen videos vanished from the news. However, a fair number of these are still available on peer-to-peer networks.
, a film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, contains a sequence that depicts an actual execution by firing squad.
The Canadian serial killers Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka videotaped some of their sex crimes. Though their crimes ended in murder, the actual murders were not videotaped. Only a select few people have ever seen this footage, viewing was restricted to the lawyers and other courtroom personnel. The footage has since reportedly been destroyed.
False snuff films
The Guinea Pig films
The Japanese Guinea Pig films are designed to look like authentic snuff films; the video is grainy and unsteady, as if recorded by amateurs. In the late 1980s, the Guinea Pig films were one of the inspirations for Japanese serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki's murders of preschool girls. The most infamous Guinea Pig film is Guinea Pig: Flower of Flesh and Blood, in which a woman, apparently drugged, is shown chained to a bed as a man in a samurai costume slowly kills her through torture and dismemberment. The film is so realistic that the FBI, acting on a tip from actor Charlie Sheen (who saw the video at a party), investigated the film, believing it to be a real murder [[Citing sources citation needed]]. In an attempt to offset further criminal investigations and ease the public mind, the producers released The Making of Guinea Pig, a film made up of behind-the-scenes footage.Other alleged snuff films
Italian director Ruggero Deodato was once called before a court in order to prove that a murder depicted in his film Cannibal Holocaust had been faked.During the early 1990s, rumors spread of gay bars in Boston showing a film involving homeless teenagers, who were told that they were going to star in a porno film, running away in horror from the movie camera until they were caught up with and shot to death on camera. The Boston Herald newspaper published an article on the subject of such murder films being shown in the Boston area, while articles on the Channel 1 computer bulletin board news groups alluded to such films and claimed they were made in New York City.
In 2000 an Italian police operation broke up a gang of child pornographers based in Russia who, it was claimed, were also offering snuff films for sale to their clients in Italy, Germany, America and Britain. It is unclear whether anything other than child pornography films were ever seized. [UK arrest of Kuznetsov]
Happy slapping
With development of new technology there have been some instances of people staging violent acts and recording the incident on portable video cameras, and sharing the footage on the internet. It has occured in the UK, and more recently in Spain and Germany.
Sometimes violence is perpetrated against school peers ['Happy slap' pupil found hanged, news.bbc.co.uk] and is perhaps part of an existing bullying situation. Sometimes homeless people are the target. According the experts [[Citing sources citation needed]] the final objective is to humiliate the victim; others think that the main objective is the desire for notoriety on the part of the recorder [[Citing sources citation needed'']].
At least one such act ended with the death of the victim; David Morley was killed in an attack in London.[ Happy Slapping: Violencia, Celulares y Muerte, ciudad.com]
Snuff in Movies and Fiction
In recent years, snuff films have captured the imagination of pop culture. Mute Witness (1994) depicts the eponymous heroine's discovery of a snuff film in progress. The Spanish horror movie Tesis (1996) revolves around a student discovering a library of snuff films hidden in a room beneath her college. 8mm (1999) is a similar movie about a private investigator hired by a widow to determine if the film her husband kept hidden in a safe is a real snuff film. My Little Eye a (2002) Marc Evans horror film depicts the story of several teenagers in a Big Brother style house who end up being part of an elaborate live snuff movie. The Brett Easton Ellis novel Less Than Zero, has a scene in which a snuff film is viewed at a party, featuring rape of an underaged girl, castration, and mutiliation with a chainsaw as well as nails being pounded into the girl's neck.Video games
The early 90s video game KGB deals with snuff films made in the then-USSR.
In the 2003 game Manhunt, the player controls an avatar who finds himself the potential victim in a snuff film.
The RPG "" has a part in which the player investigates a snuff film ring.
References
Other books
- David Kerekes and David Slater. Killing for Culture: Death Film from Mondo to Snuff (Creation Cinema Collection). London: Creation Books, 1996.
External links
- [Snopes Urban Legend Reference Pages article on 'Snuff films']
- [The Straight Dope: "Is there such a thing as a snuff film?"]
- ["Snuff Said": 'Mark Kermode on Snuff films']
- [Snuff films on imdb.com]
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