»Snuff Films«

Early in February of 1976, following rumours on the possible existence of 'Snuff' films, and reports circulating that one such film had been smuggled into the United States from South America, a one-sheet poster was displayed at the Time Square area of New York, outside the National Theatre. The picture was for a motion picture titled 'Snuff'1. The artwork was that of a bloodied, cut-up photograph of a naked woman and it bore the legend, "The film that could only be made in South America…where life is CHEAP!" It also promised "The Bloodiest thing that ever happened in front of a camera!"

Claim: Films are routinely made for distribution in which participants are murdered on camera.

Status: False.

Origins: All
the fretting about it aside, not so much as one snuff film has been found. Time and again, what is originally decried in the press as a film of a murder turns out, upon further investigation, to be a fake. Police on three continents routinely investigate films brought to them, and so far this has always been their verdict. No snuff films. Some clever fakes, yes. But no real product.

(Al Goldstein, publisher of Screw magazine, has a standing offer of $1 million for anyone who can come up with a commercially sold snuff film. That offer has been in place for years. No one has yet laid claim to it.)

It's not enough to fear there might be one snuff film out there; the belief runs strong that a large creation and distribution network is in operation, with children and young people routinely kidnapped then killed while the cameras roll to meet demand and the films of same circulated through this underground to connoisseurs of the genre.

...

The First "Snuff" Film: In 1976 the movie Snuff caused a tremendous stir when the word on the street got out that an actual film depicting the on-screen murder of an actress had been smuggled into the States from South America, and this was it. Widely-believed hype aside, the film's origin was much more mundane. Snuff was a product of Monarch Releasing Corporation and had been filmed in Argentina in 1971 as Slaughter, a film about bad girls, motorcycles and bad guys. Slaughter was so ineptly made as to be unreleasable. Five years later, the head of Monarch breathed new life into this terrible piece by splicing on five minutes of additional footage, releasing it as Snuff, and spreading the word this was an actual snuff film.

People were horrified, sickened, titillated, outraged . . . and they went to see it, shelling out the ticket price without argument.

Faces of Death: Possibly the most famous of all films pointed to as "snuff" is the Faces Of Death series, a sequence of six videos made up of footage of accidents, suicides, autopsies, and executions, liberally peppered with outright fakes scenes. Most of the actual death scenes shown in these films are of the post-death variety. The multiple camera angles give away the acted-out nature of many of the most compelling scenes.

Guinea Pig: Early in 1991, a film of Asian origin rumored to contain actual snuff footage came into the possession of actor Charlie Sheen. Sheen turned it over to the FBI, quite convinced he'd stumbled onto the real thing, and heartily sickened by what he'd seen.

The film in question was Flower of Flesh and Blood, part of a series of films collectively known as "Guinea Pig." Some of the "Guinea Pig" films have at least temporarily fooled the authorities, fueling news stories about the unearthing of snuff films. It's no wonder either; the special effects are very cleverly executed. Flower of Flesh and Blood is the episode which stirs much of the controversy. It features a samurai torturing, then dismembering a captive girl until she eventually expires in front of the cameras.

It wasn't real. According to The San Francisco Chronicle:

The FBI confiscated Sheen's tape and proceeded to investigate all involved, including Charles Balun, an early distributor of the film. Balun fiercely asserted that the film was a hoax and was merely a series of startling special effects. Propitiously, the Japanese took this time to release ''Guinea Pig Two: The Making of Guinea Pig One,'' revealing the technical sleight of hand in all its bone-cracking glory. After viewing this film, the FBI backed off and dropped the investigation.

In a stunning display of bad taste, this film was shown on San Francisco's public access channel in October 1996.