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Urban Myth or Harsh Reality? The debate about Snuff
movies has always been so. When Charlie Sheen made a fool of himself over
the Japanese Guinea Pig series of hyperreal gore flicks, he was one of a
long line of people taken in by explicit acts of staged violence in
underground horror movies.
From the mixture of found footage and staged scenes that made up the
notorious Faces of Death franchise, the staked lady and animal killings in
Cannibal Holocaust to the crudely shot so called real kill that was tacked
onto notorious video nasty Snuff, selling the harsh reality of
murder as popular entertainment has always been a quick route to whipping
up controversy and raking in the Dollars.
The ugly spectre of genuine death, filmed for twisted pleasure and dirty
profit, has always lurked, denied by the authorities and film experts,
because the reality that such footage exists, that there is even a market
for such a repellent product, is too horrible an idea to stomach.
Now, Killing Joke Films present a documentary that examines the truths,
rumours and urban myths of the Snuff phenomena, interviewing F.B.I.
operatives, police officers specializing in serial killers, academics and
film historians about the extreme end of horror films, the pornographic
nature of war footage and whether our desire to be presented with taboo
images of violence could lead some to film the rape, torture and killing
of another human being as entertainment, to be traded for money.
Director Paul Von Stoetzel presents an intelligent and thought provoking
film, which pull no punches in its use of clips from such maligned and
vilified movies as Flowers of Flesh and Blood, Henry Portrait of a Serial
Killer and
Cannibal Holocaust, as well as propaganda from Iraq, news reel
from the Vietnam conflict and scenes of animal killings from Faces of
Death. The net result is a movie that raises questions about our desire to
see death on tape.
Of particular interest is the interviews with Mark L Rosen, the producer
of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and a man who has worked in the adult
entertainment industry for many years. A fiercely intelligent and rather
intense interviewee, he claims to have seen a genuine Snuff movie in the
70s, years before the likes of Hostel portrayed realistic torture and
murder. Back then, special effects hadn't advanced past the stage of
poster paint blood (as is evidenced in the clip from the film Snuff, with
it's laughable effort to stage a murderous geek show), so his claim rings
frighteningly true.
He is at great pains to stress that his business wants nothing to do with
the exploitation of children and the selling of killing. He is extremely
knowledgeable about some of the low life characters who deal in this kind
of filth and in talking openly about the subject, offers a dark glimpse
into the shady underworld of $4000 murder tapes and Russian Mafia porn
rings.
The film also offers good insights into how war footage can almost be seen
as pornography. With websites around the world offering beheadings,
crowing marines trash talking as they kill civilians and the heart
breaking sight of American G.I.s praying as they desperately try to stay
alive while under fire, it asks us whether we seek this material out
because our media denies us access to the sheer horror our governments are
perpetrating on foreign soil or because it's a way of getting a few sick
minded jollies. It's certainly true that the participants in this film who
have watched internet clips of such acts aren't happy to have such images
lodged in their memories for the rest of their lives.
Snuff: A Documentary about Killing on Camera is a harsh film and the
simple presentation of talking heads and clips works because it doesn't
sensationalize subject matter that could all too easily slip into the
realms of exploitation. It's a credit to the filmmakers that even when
they use police footage recovered from a pair of backwoods murderers who
kidnapped, raped and murdered numerous people on camera, it never feels
like a cheap attempt at shock tactics. It's a delicate balancing act that
the producers have successfully pulled off.
I really rate this movie. It made me question my love of shocking gore and
provoked an armchair discussion as the credits rolled. I hope that, should
some brave company in the UK decide to pick this fine movie up for
distribution, the censors can get round the fact that it contains footage
that has been excised from British cuts of certain films, alongside scenes
of war that simply wouldn't make it onto the 9 O'clock news. Hopefully,
they'll allow it to go out untrimmed. The clips that are used my be from
exploitation movies but this film is no cheap shot, being a finely
balanced, well researched look a dangerous and horrifying aspect of both
entertainment and human nature.
Snuff... is released in the US by Westlake
Entertainment Inc. Official date: July 22nd 2008.
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