Snuff film
Encyclopedia
A snuff film is a motion picture genre that depicts the actual death or murder
of a person or people, without the aid of special effects, for the express purpose of distribution and entertainment or financial exploitation. For-profit snuff films are generally regarded as an urban legend
, whose persistence demonstrates more about our anxieties than the reality of such films being made. Some filmed records of executions and murders exist but have not been made or released for commercial purposes.
, The Family: The Story of Charles Manson's Dune Buggy Attack Battalion. He alleges that The Manson Family
was involved in making such a film in California to record their murders.
The metaphorical use of the term "snuff" to denote killing appears to be derived from a verb for the extinguishing of a candle flame. The word has been used as such in English slang for hundreds of years. J.C. Hotten lists the term in the fifth edition of his Slang Dictionary in 1874 as a "term very common among the lower orders of London, meaning to die from disease or accident." The word is descended (via the Middle English "snuffen" or "snuppen") from the Old English "snithan", meaning to slaughter and dismember, from "snide", meaning to kill by cutting or stabbing, from "snid", to cut.
The Michael Powell
film Peeping Tom
(1960) featured a filmmaker who committed murders and used the acts as the content of his documentary films. The concept of "snuff films" being made for profit became more widely known in 1976 with the commercial film Snuff
. A low budget exploitation
horror film entitled Slaughter, the film was directed by Michael and Roberta Findlay. In an interview decades later, Roberta Findlay said that the film's distributor Allan Shackleton had read about snuff films being imported from South America
and retitled the film to Snuff to exploit the idea; he also added a new ending that depicted an actress being murdered on a film set. The promotion of Snuff on its second release suggested it featured the murder of an actress: "The film that could only be made in South America... where life is CHEAP." , but that was false advertising. Shackleton put out false newspaper clippings that reported a citizens group's crusading against the film and hired people to act as protesters to picket screenings.
In the wake of Snuff, numerous films explored the idea of snuff films, or used them as a plot device. They include Last House on Dead End Street
(1977), the Paul Schrader
film Hardcore (1979), Sidney Sheltons's Bloodline (1979), the Ruggero Deodato
film Cannibal Holocaust
(1980), David Cronenberg's
Videodrome
(1983), the Nine Inch Nails
film The Broken Movie (1993), the film Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
(1986), the Alejandro Amenábar
film Tesis
(1996), the film Strange Days
(1995), the Anthony Waller
film Mute Witness
(1994), the Johnny Depp
film The Brave
(1997), the Joel Schumacher
film 8mm
(1999), the John Ottman
film, Urban Legends: Final Cut
(2000), and Fred Vogel's film August Underground (2001) and its sequels.
Internet snuff films are alluded to in the Marc Evans
film My Little Eye
(2002), and the film Halloween: Resurrection
. The Showtime TV series Dexter
features an internet snuff scene. Most recently the subject has been addressed in British film director Bernard Rose
's film Snuff-Movie
(2005), the Nimród Antal
film Vacancy
(2007) and also in the WWE film The Condemned
(2007) and the Gregory Hoblit
film Untraceable
. Rockstar Games
, the controversial game publisher, released the snuff-themed Manhunt
in 2003.
in 1934 was one of the first to be captured on film. The sinking of the HMS Barham in 1941 and the 1955 Le Mans disaster
were both captured on film and have been widely shown since then. The American public was gripped by the Zapruder film
of the assassination of John F. Kennedy
. Professione: reporter
, a film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, includes film footage of a firing squad execution. The stabbing death of Meredith Hunter
by a Hell's Angel
at the Rolling Stones concert at Altamont Speedway was captured and shown in Albert and David Maysles
' documentary film Gimme Shelter. The 1995 documentary film Executions showed several executions of people condemned to death.
The 2001 Daytona 500
witnessed the death of Dale Earnhardt
on the final lap of the event after he was in an accident. The footage of the wreck was shown on live television
to viewers at home. Although Earnhardt wasn't the first NASCAR driver to die in a wreck, due to his high-profile compared to the other drivers that have died, it forced NASCAR to implement new safety regulations, such as the Car of Tomorrow
. NASCAR has not replayed Earnhardt's wreck, but many videos of the incident exist on the internet.
On September 11, 2001, millions of people saw television news coverage after the attacks that included footage of people jumping to their deaths from the burning World Trade Center
in New York City
.
News footage or intentional political records that captured murders, executions or suicides, including those of Nick Berg
, Saddam Hussein
, Paul Johnson
, Kim Sun-il
, Eugene Armstrong, John F. Kennedy
, Daniel Pearl
, Inejiro Asanuma
, Lee Harvey Oswald
and Yitzhak Rabin
, and the suicides of Ricardo Cerna
, and Budd Dwyer
have been posted on the Internet. Such footage was either of a real event and shot for documentary purposes, or the assassins filmed a murder to use the record for political purposes. The resulting footage cannot be called a snuff film according to its definition.
's murders of preschool girls. The Guinea Pig film he owned was "Mermaid in a Manhole".
After viewing a portion of Flower of Flesh and Blood, the actor Charlie Sheen
thought that the murder depicted was genuine and contacted the MPAA, which contacted the FBI. FBI agent Dan Codling informed Sheen and the MPAA that the FBI and the Japanese authorities were already investigating the film makers, who were forced to prove that the murders were fake. While the Guinea Pig films are not snuff films, two were purported to be based on snuff films. The Devil's Experiment was supposedly based on a film sent to the Tokyo police showing a group dismember a young woman. Although Flower of Flesh and Blood was supposedly made after manga artist, Hideshi Hino
, received snuff materials, it was based on his own manga.
was charged after rumors that the murders of people in his 1980 film Cannibal Holocaust
were real. He was able to clear himself of the charges.
Other than graphic gore, the film contains several scenes of sexual violence and the genuine deaths
of 6 animals onscreen and one off screen, issues which find Cannibal Holocaust in the midst of controversy to this day. It has also been claimed that Cannibal Holocaust is banned in over 50 countries, although this has never been verified. In 2006, Entertainment Weekly
magazine named Cannibal Holocaust as the 20th most controversial film of all-time.
investigation led to an international effort to seize materials and break up a gang of child pornographers
based in Russia
. They were reportedly offering pornographic films of child abuse, in which some died from torture, for sale to clients in Italy, Germany, the U.S. and Valdivia. Italian police investigators were also involved. The British paper The Observer reported, "The Italian investigators say the material includes footage of children dying during abuse. Prosecutors in Naples are considering charging those who bought the videos with complicity in murder."
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
of a person or people, without the aid of special effects, for the express purpose of distribution and entertainment or financial exploitation. For-profit snuff films are generally regarded as an urban legend
Urban legend
An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...
, whose persistence demonstrates more about our anxieties than the reality of such films being made. Some filmed records of executions and murders exist but have not been made or released for commercial purposes.
History
The very first recorded use of the term "snuff film" is in a 1971 book by Ed SandersEd Sanders
Ed Sanders is an American poet, singer, social activist, environmentalist, author and publisher and has been a longtime member of the band The Fugs. He has been called a bridge between the Beat and Hippie generations.-Biography:...
, The Family: The Story of Charles Manson's Dune Buggy Attack Battalion. He alleges that The Manson Family
Charles Manson
Charles Milles Manson is an American criminal who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders carried out by members of the group at his instruction...
was involved in making such a film in California to record their murders.
The metaphorical use of the term "snuff" to denote killing appears to be derived from a verb for the extinguishing of a candle flame. The word has been used as such in English slang for hundreds of years. J.C. Hotten lists the term in the fifth edition of his Slang Dictionary in 1874 as a "term very common among the lower orders of London, meaning to die from disease or accident." The word is descended (via the Middle English "snuffen" or "snuppen") from the Old English "snithan", meaning to slaughter and dismember, from "snide", meaning to kill by cutting or stabbing, from "snid", to cut.
The Michael Powell
Michael Powell (director)
Michael Latham Powell was a renowned English film director, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger...
film Peeping Tom
Peeping Tom (film)
Peeping Tom is a 1960 British psychological thriller directed by Michael Powell and written by the World War II cryptographer and polymath Leo Marks. The title derives from the slang expression 'peeping Tom' describing a voyeur...
(1960) featured a filmmaker who committed murders and used the acts as the content of his documentary films. The concept of "snuff films" being made for profit became more widely known in 1976 with the commercial film Snuff
Snuff (1975 film)
Snuff is a 1976 splatter film, and is most notorious for being marketed as if it were an actual snuff film. This picture contributed to the urban legend of snuff films, although the concept did not originate with it.-Production:...
. A low budget exploitation
Exploitation film
Exploitation film is a type of film that is promoted by "exploiting" often lurid subject matter. The term "exploitation" is common in film marketing, used for all types of films to mean promotion or advertising. These films then need something to exploit, such as a big star, special effects, sex,...
horror film entitled Slaughter, the film was directed by Michael and Roberta Findlay. In an interview decades later, Roberta Findlay said that the film's distributor Allan Shackleton had read about snuff films being imported from South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
and retitled the film to Snuff to exploit the idea; he also added a new ending that depicted an actress being murdered on a film set. The promotion of Snuff on its second release suggested it featured the murder of an actress: "The film that could only be made in South America... where life is CHEAP." , but that was false advertising. Shackleton put out false newspaper clippings that reported a citizens group's crusading against the film and hired people to act as protesters to picket screenings.
In the wake of Snuff, numerous films explored the idea of snuff films, or used them as a plot device. They include Last House on Dead End Street
Last House on Dead End Street
Last House on Dead End Street is a horror film released in 1977 about a disgruntled man, recently released from prison, who takes out his anguish by making snuff films....
(1977), the Paul Schrader
Paul Schrader
Paul Joseph Schrader is an American screenwriter, film director, and former film critic. Apart from his credentials as a director, Schrader is most notably known for his screenplays for Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and Raging Bull....
film Hardcore (1979), Sidney Sheltons's Bloodline (1979), the Ruggero Deodato
Ruggero Deodato
Ruggero Deodato is an Italian film director and screen writer, best known for directing violent and gory horror films. Deodato is infamous for his 1980 film Cannibal Holocaust.- Biography :...
film Cannibal Holocaust
Cannibal Holocaust
Cannibal Holocaust is a 1980 Italian horror film directed by Ruggero Deodato from a screenplay by Gianfranco Clerici. Filmed in the Amazon Rainforest and dealing with indigenous tribes, it was cast mostly with United States actors and filmed in English to achieve wider distribution...
(1980), David Cronenberg's
David Cronenberg
David Paul Cronenberg, OC, FRSC is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror or venereal horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people's fears of bodily transformation and infection. In his films, the...
Videodrome
Videodrome
Videodrome is a 1983 Canadian science fiction body horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg, starring James Woods, Sonja Smits, and singer Deborah Harry. Set in Toronto during the early 1980s, it follows the CEO of a small cable station who stumbles upon a broadcast signal featuring...
(1983), the Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails is an American industrial rock project, founded in 1988 by Trent Reznor in Cleveland, Ohio. As its main producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Reznor is the only official member of Nine Inch Nails and remains solely responsible for its direction...
film The Broken Movie (1993), the film Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is a 1986 crime horror film directed and co-written by John McNaughton about the random crime spree of a serial killer who seemingly operates with impunity. It stars Michael Rooker as the nomadic killer Henry, Tom Towles as Otis, a prison buddy with whom Henry is...
(1986), the Alejandro Amenábar
Alejandro Amenábar
Alejandro Fernando Amenábar Cantos is a Spanish- Chilean film director. Amenábar was born in Santiago, Chile to a Spanish mother and Chilean father, but the family moved to Spain just one year after his birth...
film Tesis
Tesis
Tesis is a 1996 Spanish film. It is the feature debut of director Alejandro Amenábar, and was written by him and Mateo Gil. The movie won seven 1996 Goya Awards , including the award for Best Film. It stars Ana Torrent, Fele Martínez and Eduardo Noriega...
(1996), the film Strange Days
Strange Days (film)
Strange Days is a 1995 cyberpunk science fiction film directed by Kathryn Bigelow and produced and co-written by James Cameron and Jay Cocks, starring Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis, Tom Sizemore, Michael Wincott and Vincent D'Onofrio. Despite positive reviews, the film was a...
(1995), the Anthony Waller
Anthony Waller
-Filmography:*Mute Witness *An American Werewolf in Paris *Nine Miles Down *The Singularity Is Near -External links:*...
film Mute Witness
Mute Witness
Mute Witness, is a 1994 thriller/horror shot in Moscow, Russia written, directed and produced by Anthony Waller. Although made in 1994, it was not released in the USA until the fall of 1995...
(1994), the Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp
John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II is an American actor, producer and musician. He has won the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. Depp rose to prominence on the 1980s television series 21 Jump Street, becoming a teen idol...
film The Brave
The Brave
The Brave is a film adapted from the Gregory McDonald novel of the same title directed by and starring Johnny Depp.This film was Depp's directorial debut. He co-wrote the screenplay with his brother, directed and acted in it. The film was first shown at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival where it...
(1997), the Joel Schumacher
Joel Schumacher
Joel T. Schumacher is an American film director, screenwriter and producer.-Early life:Schumacher was born in New York City, the son of Marian and Francis Schumacher. His mother was a Swedish Jew, and his father was a Baptist from Knoxville, Tennessee, who died when Joel was four years old...
film 8mm
8mm (film)
8mm is a 1999 mystery/thriller film, directed by Joel Schumacher and written by Andrew Kevin Walker. It stars Nicolas Cage as a private investigator who delves into the world of snuff films.-Plot:...
(1999), the John Ottman
John Ottman
John Ottman is an American film editor, composer and director.He is best known for his collaborations with film director Bryan Singer, acting as film editor and composing the scores for The Usual Suspects, Apt Pupil, X2: X-Men United, Superman Returns and most recently...
film, Urban Legends: Final Cut
Urban Legends: Final Cut
Urban Legends: Final Cut is a 2000 slasher film and sequel to the 1998 film Urban Legend. It stars Jennifer Morrison, Matthew Davis, Loretta Devine, Anthony Anderson, Hart Bochner, Rebecca Gayheart, Regina Hall, Yani Gellman, and Eva Mendes...
(2000), and Fred Vogel's film August Underground (2001) and its sequels.
Internet snuff films are alluded to in the Marc Evans
Marc Evans
Marc Evans is a Welsh-born film director, whose credits include the films House of America, Resurrection Man and My Little Eye.-Biography:Evans was born in 1963 in Carmarthen, Wales...
film My Little Eye
My Little Eye
My Little Eye is a 2002 British horror film directed by Marc Evans about five adults who agree to spend six months together in an isolated mansion while being filmed at all times. The idea for the film came from reality television shows such as Big Brother...
(2002), and the film Halloween: Resurrection
Halloween: Resurrection
Halloween: Resurrection is a 2002 American horror film and eighth installment in the Halloween film series. Directed by Rick Rosenthal, who had also directed Halloween II, the film builds upon the continuity of Halloween H20: 20 Years Later...
. The Showtime TV series Dexter
Dexter (TV series)
Dexter is an American television drama series, which debuted on Showtime on October 1, 2006. The sixth season premiered on October 2, 2011. The series centers on Dexter Morgan , a bloodstain pattern analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department who moonlights as a serial killer...
features an internet snuff scene. Most recently the subject has been addressed in British film director Bernard Rose
Bernard Rose (director)
Bernard Rose is an English actor and film director most famous for his direction of the 1992 urban horror film Candyman and the 1994 historical romance film Immortal Beloved....
's film Snuff-Movie
Snuff-Movie (film)
Snuff-Movie is a 2005 gothic horror film by British director Bernard Rose. It stars Jeroen Krabbé as a horror film maker named Boris Arkadin, whose pregnant wife was brutally murdered by a Manson-like gang of hippy psychopaths during the 1960s...
(2005), the Nimród Antal
Nimród Antal
Nimród E. Antal is a Hungarian American film director, screenwriter and actor.-Life and career:...
film Vacancy
Vacancy (film)
Vacancy is a 2007 American horror film, starring Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale. It was distributed by Screen Gems and was released on April 20, 2007. Production was scheduled to commence in August 2006 with Nimród Antal signing on to direct it....
(2007) and also in the WWE film The Condemned
The Condemned
The Condemned is a 2007 action film, co-written and directed by Scott Wiper, and starring "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Vinnie Jones, Robert Mammone, Madeleine West and Rick Hoffman....
(2007) and the Gregory Hoblit
Gregory Hoblit
Gregory King Hoblit is an American Hollywood film director and TV producer.Hoblit was born in Abilene, Texas, the son of Elizabeth Hubbard King and Harold Foster Hoblit, an FBI agent. Much of Hoblit's work is oriented towards police, attorneys, and legal cases...
film Untraceable
Untraceable
Untraceable is a 2008 American thriller film starring Diane Lane, Colin Hanks, Billy Burke, and Joseph Cross. It was directed by Gregory Hoblit and distributed by Screen Gems...
. Rockstar Games
Rockstar Games
Rockstar Games is a major video game developer and publisher based in New York City, owned by Take-Two Interactive following its purchase of UK video game publisher BMG Interactive. The brand is mostly known for Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, L.A...
, the controversial game publisher, released the snuff-themed Manhunt
Manhunt (video game)
Manhunt is a stealth game developed by Rockstar Games. It was released to the public on November 18, 2003 for the PlayStation 2 console, and on April 20, 2004 for Xbox and PC. Although it was generally well-received by critics, Manhunt created a controversy due to the graphic violence the player...
in 2003.
Recorded deaths
Some murderers have recorded their acts on video. Documentary film makers and television news crews have also captured footage of executions or accidental deaths. The resultant footage is not usually considered to constitute a snuff film because the deaths were not enacted in a for-profit film.Documentary footage
The assassination of Alexander I of YugoslaviaAlexander I of Yugoslavia
Alexander I , also known as Alexander the Unifier was the first king of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia as well as the last king of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes .-Childhood:...
in 1934 was one of the first to be captured on film. The sinking of the HMS Barham in 1941 and the 1955 Le Mans disaster
1955 Le Mans disaster
The 1955 Le Mans disaster occurred during the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans motor race, when a crash caused large parts of racing car debris to fly into the crowd. The driver was killed, as were 83 spectators. A further 120 people were injured...
were both captured on film and have been widely shown since then. The American public was gripped by the Zapruder film
Zapruder film
The Zapruder film is a silent, color motion picture sequence shot by private citizen Abraham Zapruder with a home-movie camera, asU.S. President John F...
of the assassination of John F. Kennedy
Assassination of John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas...
. Professione: reporter
The Passenger (film)
The Passenger is a film directed and co-written by Michelangelo Antonioni, released in 1975, in which Jack Nicholson stars as a television reporter in Africa who assumes the identity of a dead stranger. The film competed for the "Palme d'Or" award at the 1975 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:*Jack...
, a film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, includes film footage of a firing squad execution. The stabbing death of Meredith Hunter
Meredith Hunter
Meredith Curly Hunter was a male spectator at the Altamont Free Concert. During the performance by The Rolling Stones, Hunter pulled out a gun after being punched by a Hells Angel and was then stabbed to death by a Hells Angel serving as a security guard...
by a Hell's Angel
Hells Angels
The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club is a worldwide one-percenter motorcycle gang and organized crime syndicate whose members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In the United States and Canada, the Hells Angels are incorporated as the Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation. Their primary motto...
at the Rolling Stones concert at Altamont Speedway was captured and shown in Albert and David Maysles
Albert and David Maysles
Albert and David Maysles were a documentary filmmaking team whose cinéma vérité works include Salesman , Gimme Shelter and Grey Gardens . Their 1964 film on The Beatles forms the backbone of the DVD, The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit...
' documentary film Gimme Shelter. The 1995 documentary film Executions showed several executions of people condemned to death.
The 2001 Daytona 500
2001 Daytona 500
The 2001 Daytona 500, the 43rd running of the event, was held on February 18, 2001 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida over 200 laps on the 2.5 mile asphalt tri-oval. Bill Elliott won the pole. The race will be forever remembered for the final lap...
witnessed the death of Dale Earnhardt
Death of Dale Earnhardt
Dale Earnhardt was an American race car driver who gained fame driving stock cars for NASCAR and winning seven championships. He was involved in a car accident during the last lap of the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 18, 2001. He was taken to Halifax Medical Center,...
on the final lap of the event after he was in an accident. The footage of the wreck was shown on live television
Live television
Live television refers to a television production broadcast in real-time, as events happen, in the present. From the early days of television until about 1958, live television was used heavily, except for filmed shows such as I Love Lucy and Gunsmoke. Video tape did not exist until 1957...
to viewers at home. Although Earnhardt wasn't the first NASCAR driver to die in a wreck, due to his high-profile compared to the other drivers that have died, it forced NASCAR to implement new safety regulations, such as the Car of Tomorrow
Car of Tomorrow
The Car of Tomorrow, sometimes called CoT or "Car of Today", is the car style for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Larger and boxier than the design it replaced, the Car of Tomorrow is safer, costs less to maintain, and was intended to make for closer competition.The car was introduced in the 2007 Cup...
. NASCAR has not replayed Earnhardt's wreck, but many videos of the incident exist on the internet.
On September 11, 2001, millions of people saw television news coverage after the attacks that included footage of people jumping to their deaths from the burning World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
News footage or intentional political records that captured murders, executions or suicides, including those of Nick Berg
Nick Berg
Nicholas Evan "Nick" Berg was an American businessman who went to Iraq after the US invasion of Iraq. He was abducted and later beheaded according to a video released in May 2004 by Islamist militants...
, Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
, Paul Johnson
Paul Marshall Johnson, Jr.
Paul Marshall Johnson, Jr. was an American helicopter engineer who lived in Saudi Arabia. He was a native of both Stafford and Eagleswood, New Jersey...
, Kim Sun-il
Kim Sun-il
Kim Sun-il was a South Korean translator and Christian missionary who was kidnapped and beheaded in Iraq.- Kidnapping :...
, Eugene Armstrong, John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
, Daniel Pearl
Daniel Pearl
Daniel Pearl was an American journalist who was kidnapped and killed by Al-Qaeda.At the time of his kidnapping, Pearl served as the South Asia Bureau Chief of the Wall Street Journal, and was based in Mumbai, India. He went to Pakistan as part of an investigation into the alleged links between...
, Inejiro Asanuma
Inejiro Asanuma
Inejiro Asanuma was a Japanese politician, and head of the Japanese Socialist Party. Asanuma was noted for speaking publicly about Socialism and economic and cultural opportunities...
, Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald was, according to four government investigations,These were investigations by: the Federal Bureau of Investigation , the Warren Commission , the House Select Committee on Assassinations , and the Dallas Police Department. the sniper who assassinated John F...
and Yitzhak Rabin
Yitzhak Rabin
' was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77 and 1992 until his assassination in 1995....
, and the suicides of Ricardo Cerna
Ricardo Alfonso Cerna
Ricardo Alfonso Cerna was a Guatemalan immigrant to the United States known for committing suicide in 2003 with a gun in an interrogation room in the San Bernardino County Sheriff's office in Muscoy, California. A videotape was running and recorded the event...
, and Budd Dwyer
Budd Dwyer
Robert Budd Dwyer was an American politician in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He served from 1971 to 1981 as a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate representing the state's 50th district...
have been posted on the Internet. Such footage was either of a real event and shot for documentary purposes, or the assassins filmed a murder to use the record for political purposes. The resulting footage cannot be called a snuff film according to its definition.
Video recordings of assault
In several cases murderers and serial killers have recorded aspects of their crimes, although they filmed their victims while still alive. These include:- Between 1983-85, Charles NgCharles NgCharles Chi-Tat Ng is a serial killer. With Leonard Lake, he is suspected of murdering between 11 and 25 victims at Lake's ranch in Calaveras County, California, United States....
and Leonard LakeLeonard LakeLeonard Lake was an American serial killer. He often used the alias Leonard Hill. The crimes he committed with Charles Ng became known when Lake committed suicide by taking a cyanide pill shortly after being arrested for a firearms offense.-Life:Lake was born in San Francisco, California...
videotaped their torturing some of the women whom they would later kill. - In the early 1990s, serial killerSerial killerA serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
s Paul BernardoPaul BernardoPaul Kenneth Bernardo, also known as Paul Jason Teale , is a Canadian serial killer and rapist, known for the sexual assaults and murders he committed with his wife Karla Homolka and the serial rapes he committed in Scarborough.-Early life:Bernardo's mother, Marilyn, was the adopted daughter of a...
and Karla HomolkaKarla HomolkaKarla Leanne Homolka, also known as Karla Leanne Teale , is a Canadian serial killer. She attracted worldwide media attention when she was convicted of manslaughter following a plea bargain in the 1991 and 1992 rape-murders of two Ontario teenage girls, Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French, as well as...
separately videotaped some of their sexual assaults of victims. They did not film their murders. - In 1997 the German murderers Ernst Dieter Korzen and Stefan Michael Mahn recorded their torture of two prostitutes whom they had kidnapped. They killed one and the other woman escaped, leading to the men's arrests. They were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. Prosecutors claimed there was an international market for such videos, and that Korzen and Mahn intended to sell their film. Korzen and Mahn were the first persons convicted for making a snuff film, although their video was never distributed.
Video recordings of murder
- In 2001, Armin MeiwesArmin MeiwesArmin Meiwes is a German man who achieved international notoriety for killing and eating a voluntary victim whom he had found via the Internet. After Meiwes and the victim jointly attempted to eat the victim's severed penis, Meiwes killed his victim and proceeded to eat a large amount of his flesh...
videotaped the killing of Bernd Jürgen Armando Brandes. Brandes had met with Meiwes to be willingly killed and eatenCannibalismCannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...
by him. - In 2007, a video surfaced on the internet showing Viktor Sayenko and Igor Suprunyuck, known as the Dnepropetrovsk maniacsDnepropetrovsk maniacsThe Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs is the media epithet for the killers responsible for a string of brutal murders in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine in June and July 2007. The case gained additional notoriety because the killers made video recordings of some of the murders, with one of the videos leaking to the...
, torturing a 48-year-old disabled UkrainianUkrainiansUkrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
, who died from his injuries. Sayenko and Suprunyuck were charged with the murders of at least 19 individuals. - In December 2009, ex-Col. Russell WilliamsRussell WilliamsRussell Williams is an English former professional road and track cyclist from London. Williams is also a cycling coach and David Duffield's co-commentator on Eurosport.-Palmarès:19781983198419891994199619971998199920022003...
was charged with sexually assaulting two women and killing two others. He videotaped the rapes and murders.
The Guinea Pig films
The first two films in the Japanese Guinea Pig series are designed to look like snuff films; the video is grainy and unsteady, as if recorded by amateurs. In the late 1980s, the Guinea Pig films were allegedly one of the inspirations for Japanese serial killer Tsutomu MiyazakiTsutomu Miyazaki
, also known as The Otaku Murderer, The Little Girl Murderer, and Dracula, was a Japanese serial killer.-Background:Planaria's premature birth left him with deformed hands, which were permanently gnarled and fused directly to the wrists, necessitating him to move his entire forearm in order to...
's murders of preschool girls. The Guinea Pig film he owned was "Mermaid in a Manhole".
After viewing a portion of Flower of Flesh and Blood, the actor Charlie Sheen
Charlie Sheen
Carlos Irwin Estevez , better known by his stage name Charlie Sheen, is an American film and television actor. He is the youngest son of actor Martin Sheen....
thought that the murder depicted was genuine and contacted the MPAA, which contacted the FBI. FBI agent Dan Codling informed Sheen and the MPAA that the FBI and the Japanese authorities were already investigating the film makers, who were forced to prove that the murders were fake. While the Guinea Pig films are not snuff films, two were purported to be based on snuff films. The Devil's Experiment was supposedly based on a film sent to the Tokyo police showing a group dismember a young woman. Although Flower of Flesh and Blood was supposedly made after manga artist, Hideshi Hino
Hideshi Hino
Hideshi Hino is a Japanese manga artist who specializes in horror stories. His comics include Hell Baby, Hino Horrors, and Panorama of Hell...
, received snuff materials, it was based on his own manga.
Cannibal Holocaust
The Italian director Ruggero DeodatoRuggero Deodato
Ruggero Deodato is an Italian film director and screen writer, best known for directing violent and gory horror films. Deodato is infamous for his 1980 film Cannibal Holocaust.- Biography :...
was charged after rumors that the murders of people in his 1980 film Cannibal Holocaust
Cannibal Holocaust
Cannibal Holocaust is a 1980 Italian horror film directed by Ruggero Deodato from a screenplay by Gianfranco Clerici. Filmed in the Amazon Rainforest and dealing with indigenous tribes, it was cast mostly with United States actors and filmed in English to achieve wider distribution...
were real. He was able to clear himself of the charges.
Other than graphic gore, the film contains several scenes of sexual violence and the genuine deaths
Cruelty to animals
Cruelty to animals, also called animal abuse or animal neglect, is the infliction of suffering or harm upon non-human animals, for purposes other than self-defense. More narrowly, it can be harm for specific gain, such as killing animals for food or for their fur, although opinions differ with...
of 6 animals onscreen and one off screen, issues which find Cannibal Holocaust in the midst of controversy to this day. It has also been claimed that Cannibal Holocaust is banned in over 50 countries, although this has never been verified. In 2006, Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
magazine named Cannibal Holocaust as the 20th most controversial film of all-time.
Russian child snuff ring
In 2000 a BritishUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
investigation led to an international effort to seize materials and break up a gang of child pornographers
Child pornography
Child pornography refers to images or films and, in some cases, writings depicting sexually explicit activities involving a child...
based in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. They were reportedly offering pornographic films of child abuse, in which some died from torture, for sale to clients in Italy, Germany, the U.S. and Valdivia. Italian police investigators were also involved. The British paper The Observer reported, "The Italian investigators say the material includes footage of children dying during abuse. Prosecutors in Naples are considering charging those who bought the videos with complicity in murder."