Snuff (1976)
Theatrical Release: January 16, 1976
Blu Ray Release: October 22, 2013
Directors: Michael Findlay & Horacio Fredriksson & Simon Nuchtern
Not Rated
Review by James Klein
Controversial in its day, Snuff has just now hit blu ray thanks to our friends at Blue Underground. Do I hear crickets? No applause? Aren’t we excited in having this film come to us in HD by one of the very best blu ray distribution companies out there? Yeah well I don’t blame you. While the blu ray looks better than previous VHS and DVD releases, the old philosophy “You can’t polish a turd” comes to mind.
If you are reading this review one should already know what a snuff film is but in case you do not, here it is: a snuff film is a movie made to profit off the death of an actor or actress. An unsuspecting actor or actress is killed on screen for the purpose of the distributors to make a profit off the film. Documentary films such as Faces of Death or Death Scenes or Banned From Television are not snuff films. Those are compilations of documentary footage that have people getting killed or accidentally killed when the camera just happened to be there. It is my belief that there never was a snuff film and while in the 1970’s it was claimed that certain 8 mm one reels did in fact surface with some saying they had seen a snuff film, none have been found. Snuff films or the myth of snuff films have been touched upon in movies like 8 mm, Snuff-Movie and alas, Snuff.
The history about Snuff is actually more interesting than the movie itself. A distributor bought the South American slasher film The Slaughter for only $5,000 to distribute in the States. However, The Slaughter is a piece of crap and the distributors knew they had this awful film in their possession with very little potential in making a profit. So what did they do? They tacked on a five minute epilogue that is supposedly a real murder and retitled the film Snuff. This marketing ploy was pure genius and the film became a huge hit, sparking plenty of protests and controversy. But it still doesn’t make up for the fact that the movie is still a gigantic stinker.
This poorly dubbed “horror” film was inspired by the Manson murders as the film starts off with a female biker gang chasing down a fleeing lady. Once captured the woman is tortured by the gang and some odd Manson like leader emerges. The women then start to cut off the victim's toes. If you have ever seen a Herschel Gordon Lewis horror film, you know what kind of cheap effects those films have. The effects in Snuff make the ones in Gordon’s look like KNB.
The film then jumps around between these vicious biker girls to this adult film actress whose shooting a movie in South America with her sugar daddy producer. Unbeknownst to him, she is running off whenever she can into the arms of a much younger man who she is having an affair with (the actor looks like a 70’s version of Gael Garcia Bernal). The young man has a pretty female house guest who is staying with him so when he asks her to leave, she is not too happy and enlists the biker gang and it’s screwy cult leader in exacting revenge.
This part of the film is just a cheaply made, dubbed into English dreck with no redeeming qualities from it aside for some exposed breasts and a few decent squibs. Shot in 1971, the movie looks thrown together by a bunch of amateurs. The editing is sloppy, the dubbed dialog is ridiculous (but can be funny at times) the special effects are a joke, the pacing is at a crawl and there are several moments where the camera will just shoot a stationary object like a wall or a body of water and we hear the actors talk away, as if footage had been destroyed or just plain forgotten about with the film makers trying to come up with a way to make certain scenes work.
The final minutes of the film suddenly stop and we the audience quickly find out the whole thing is just a movie being made. As the crew start to dispense, one of the actresses is stopped by a crew member who tries to make out with her. When she sees she is being filmed she tries to break free but the sweaty lunatic forces her down and begins to murder her as the crew members watch and even help hold her down. Now if anyone ever thought that this was real should have their head examined. The gore effects are really lousy and when the woman’s hand is cut off, the hand continues to keep moving, making a fist! When the killer crewman holds up the woman’s intestines triumphantly, the “film” has run out and the movie ends.
Now I have seen Snuff three times. Why you ask? Well the first time was years ago when I rented it at a video store just after high school. The second time was when Blue Underground released the DVD in a neat, “brown package” DVD cover. And now I am reviewing this blu ray for you dear readers. Needless to say, that’s esnuff! (lame joke but couldn’t resist)
Like always, Blue Underground does deliver a pretty decent transfer although the print has seen better days. The colors have never looked this bright nor has the picture looked this clear. But what I really wanted to sink my teeth in were the special features. There is an introduction and a small interview with director Nicolas Winding Refn, the director of this years best film in my opinion, Only God Forgives. No stranger to controversy or graphic violence, Refn discusses Snuff and the controversy behind it. While he declares a certain nostalgic admiration for the film, even he admits he would never watch it again. There is an interesting interview with a retired FBI agent who was hired to search for snuff films back in the heyday of the 70’s and 80’s. But the best featurette is one with Carter Stevens, former director and producer of adult films whose own home was used during the last few minutes of Snuff.
Now much like their “brown bag” DVD case, Snuff is being released in a red blu ray case. It almost looks like the old HD cases but without the “blu ray” stamp at the top. It’s a neat little ploy and I can’t blame Blue Underground in trying to make this release special. This red case is in limited pressings and so once the first pressings are sold out, they will go back to the blue case. So if you are a fan of the film or a fan of “limited releases”, grab your Snuff right away.
Movie: [Rating: 1]
Blue Underground's blu ray transfer / special features: [Rating: 4]
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