Snuff
From xyclopedia - the history of pornography and sexual expression
The nastiest of all nasty porn films is the snuff film, where the actress is murdered during orgasm. Not one has ever been shown to exist.
Snuff film mythology began in 1973 with Raymond Gauer, the president of the Citizens for Decency through Law, an anti-pornography organization. "I've never seen one," Gauer told Adam magazine, but "my undercover guy, though he's never seen one, has talked to enough people to be convinced they exist. Another source is convinced that they exist in quantity, and that they've been screened in the very 'In' circles in Hollywood." (www.xmag.com)
Over the past 25 years, dozens of people like Gauer have claimed to have known people who've known people who've seen a snuff film. In 1975, New York cops and the FBI investigated rumors of snuff films. Tabloid newspapers, the Post and the Daily News, ran stories of the ongoing investigation with banner headlines like "Snuff Porn-The Actress Is Actually Killed."
According to the tabloids, numerous snuff films could be purchased for private viewing at prices ranging from $100 to $500. One story in the Post quoted a police detective who said, "I am convinced that these films actually exist and that a person is actually murdered. I suppose you could say they are the ultimate obscenity."
Amidst these wild rumors, producer Allen Shackleton acquired the rights to a low budget film by Michael and Roberta Findlay, The Slaughter, which was filmed in 1970 in Argentina but was so bad that it was never released. The stories in the tabloids frequently claimed that snuff films came from South America.
Shackleton retitled the film Snuff, and added ten minutes of "reality" footage. A young woman on the crew tells the director the stabbing scene turned her on. The director asks her if she would like to act out her fantasies. She complies and gets into bed with him. When she realizes the crew is still filming, she protests. He picks up a bloody dagger and cuts her to pieces. The film appears to run out as the screen goes black and a voice over says, "Did you get it all?" "Yeah, we got it. Let's get out of here."
End of Snuff! No credits roll. (From the 2/97 www.xmag.com. Article by Bob Armstrong)
Shackleton released Snuff! in 1976 with such tag lines: "The picture they said could NEVER be shown," "The bloodiest thing that ever happened in front of a camera," and "The film that could only be made in South America where Life is CHEAP!" A poster showed a woman's neck between the sharp blades of a clapper board.
Shackleton never claimed authentic snuff, but allowed the viewer to speculate the on-camera murder was real. His ad campaign worked. The New York City District Attorney investigated the film and interviewed the actress who was supposedly murdered in the final segment.
It's an "interesting bind," Shackleton told Variety. If it was a real murder "I'd be in jail in two minutes... I'd be a damn fool to admit it. If it isn't real, I'd be a damn fool to admit it." Though Snuff! had a short run, and though no snuff film has ever been proved to exist, the notion of snuff films still haunt the public imagination.
During the 80's movies like Videodrome, 52 Pick-up and Last House on a Dead End Street used the snuff mania theme. Several TV shows featured snuff themes, including a Miami Vice episode featuring Don Johnson beating a pathological artist who views his murder on film as an aesthetic statement.
In 1994 a reporter for The San Francisco Chronicle, Rider McDowell, spent six months trying to find a snuff film. During his investigation he interviewed FBI agents, cops, underground film makers, porno directors, proprietors of adult stores and owners of mail order houses. Results: nothing. "I've endured watching a myriad of horrible fake snuff films -- some ridiculously fake, the others deemed unauthentic by experts -- with titles such as Cannibal Holocaust and Man Behind the Sun 731. I've poured over dozens of unsolved murders around the country, searching, always searching. To no avail," writes McDowell.
Many people have speculated that the "Son of Sam" serial killer, David Berkowitz, made snuff films to distribute within the Church of Satan. But no films of his killings have ever surfaced.
In his 1977 book The Film Maker's Guide to Pornography, Steven Ziplow writes:
"Snuff films are those in which the final sexual act is murder. No hard evidence has ever been presented that such films do exist, but rumor has it that there are a very few 8mm films to be had at a very high price. The major trouble with producing this sort of film is that you are constantly forced to be on the lookout for new talent." April 1999: German Duo Convicted of Making Snuff Film
Two men in Germany were recently sentenced to life imprisonment for committing murder while producing a snuff film. It's the first such conviction ever. The men filmed themselves sexually assaulting and torturing a 21-year-old woman for a snuff film they had hoped to sell in America for $16,000. Frankfurt-based prosecutor Job Tillman says there's a ready market for films depicting violence against women and children -- especially in America. Although one of the men is appealing the ruling, the other says he views jail as an opportunity to work on himself and his problems.
Michael Leidig writes 4/13/99 from Vienna for the Daily Telegraph, a London newspaper:
Ernst Dieter Korzen, 37, and Stefan Michael Mahn, 30, [videotaped] themselves sexually assaulting and torturing a 21-year-old woman in 1997. The victim died before the production was complete and the pair kidnapped a second woman to finish the video. But she escaped and alerted authorities, who arrested the men.
Wolfgang Rahmer, the chief prosecutor, told the court: "From my experience this represents a new depth in perversion. You see the victim begging for her life, pain being inflicted and massive sexual torture."
The court was told that the murdered woman, Jueleyha Akpinar, was working as a prostitute in Cologne when she met the two men in November. They offered her drugs and money to go with them to the remote bungalow in Kierspe-Roensal, near Hagen. A lack of direct evidence had previously led to widespread scepticism over the existence of a snuff movie industry, with many writing it off as an "urban myth". But Wolfgang Rahmer said he had no doubt that such an industry existed.
Both men were jailed for life in a secure psychiatric institution. Judge Hoerst Werner Herkenberg said Korzen should not expect his case to be re-examined for at least 18 years, and that Mahn would have to wait at least 15.
Cassandra Brown wrote 11/9/98 for the London newspaper Daily Telegraph: Films in which baby mice, hamsters and chickens are stamped to death by women wearing high-heel shoes are being smuggled into Britain to satisfy an audience whose bizarre tastes are now attracting video producers here.
Customs officers discovered the grisly trade a year ago after raiding a house in the South-East. They found tapes containing animal "snuff" - or "squish" - movies, child pornography and illegal firearms. In Britain it is illegal to import or distribute the tapes, but not to possess them.
In one confiscated video, seen by The Telegraph, a woman wearing stiletto shoes is shown stamping on a hamster. After she steps on the immobilised animal, the camera zooms in to show the terrified hamster which, despite its broken back, struggles to escape. The woman stamps on it five times before it dies and she grinds it into the floor.
In another, a 22-year-old blonde called "Michelle" is shown talking about her hatred of worms, snails and bugs before being shown "squishing" them into the floor.
...Jeff Vilencia, of Squish Productions in California, was one of the first to make this type of movie commercially available. He said the product appealed particularly to men, who found them "stimulating".
Mr Vilencia's videos feature baby rats, goldfish, bugs and mice and go under names such as Death In The Afternoon. Promotions for his series of Squish Playhouse films include descriptions of women such as "Ms Tiffany" and how viewers can see several of her "tiny pink friends [mice] crushed to death on her black and white tile floor".
Some British "fans" were now making their own movies, rather than pay up to $100 (£65) for each tape. "These activities, except for bugs, are highly illegal in Britain," he said. "But I know some people over there are now making their own films."
Mr Vilencia defended his business. "I tell the models they can squish anything in the pet shop as long as it is part of the food chain of another animal - that's my criteria," he said. Underground film-makers in Britain and Germany were often less discriminating, he argued. "In Germany there's a big black market for these films and there seems to be no limit to the size of the animal," he said. "They use cats and dogs and also, I'm told, have filmed different kinds of films with horses, which are ridden bareback until they are exhausted then shot dead on camera. I would not do that."
Mark (not his real name), from the north of England, said he and his wife made their own movies, usually confining the victims to bugs. "We film her squashing bugs and pinkies, which are baby mice. But we keep this aspect quiet, because we have children. I think my interest began as a small child when I watched my older sisters and their friends squashing ants." Mark confirmed there was a ring of people in Britain who produced their own videos. "People keep it very quiet," he said.
Caroline Lees writes for the Daily Telegraph 6/29/97: British police have banned a home video of a recent public execution by the Taliban in Afghanistan which shows a man having his head hacked off with a blunt knife.
The video, which was smuggled into Britain by opponents of the Taliban and given to the Afghan ambassador in London, has been classified as "obscene". Police are worried that the graphic film, which spares the viewer no detail of the killing, could achieve cult status as a "snuff movie".
Wali Massoud, the Afghan ambassador, had intended to show the film to Government officials, human rights organisations and the public to increase opposition to the Islamic fundamentalist army, which controls nearly two-thirds of Afghanistan. But last week he was warned that if he allows anyone to watch the video, or circulates any copies, he would be breaking the law. September 27th, 2000
NAPLES, Italy, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Police said on Wednesday they had arrested eight Italians suspected of belonging to a child pornography ring that traded videos over the internet, including film of Russian children who were abused to death.
The material, which was ordered over the internet, cost between $400 and $6,000 for each video or disc depending on the type of film the customer wanted -- and the more horrific the more costly.
The most gruesome, police said, was code-named "Necros Pedo," in which children were raped and tortured until they died.
