The Eclectic Choice: Snuff

SNUFF (1976)
dir. Michael & Roberta Finlay


I thought I’d recommend a DVD you don’t need to worry about buying this week while still imparting some cinematic knowledge.

This is the movie where that whole, “a real human is killed on screen” thing started. It’s all bollocks of course. The film itself is pretty tedious and boring. I ended up scanning through most of it as it tells the story of a sort of Manson-esque family. Blah, blah, blah, boring, boring, boring. (And yes, I know I’m a deviant for watching it.)

At the end of the movie, you hear the director yell, "Cut!" The film then supposedly becomes “real”, as we watch them kill a woman. This ending was added on later to try and help boost the reputation of an already crappy movie. It did solidify the term “snuff” to be forever linked with killing a person, so it does have a certain historical semblance to it.

An interesting factoid, it was directed by a husband and wife team Michael and Roberta Findlay. Ain't love grand!

Do real snuff movies exist? Yes, but this isn’t the one. So the next time some bearded film geek spouts about Snuff being the real deal, you can smack those Fritos crumbs off his pudgy smug face.

Rent it as a sociological study, or buy it from Blue Underground video. They sell lots of great stuff as well, but as far as Snuff goes, caveat emptor.