Line #21 Main/SnuffFilm


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12	->''"They're just this side of snuff films, and friends, that's what's next because that's all that's left."''
13	-->-- '''Wes Mandel''', ''Series/Studio60OnTheSunsetStrip''
14
15	In our culture, violence is popular. So is sex. When people want to put forth a message about the values of our current society, they imagine what it would be like if both these valued qualities were blended and taken to the point where it's clear that anyone who appreciates the work has something very wrong with them, indeed.
16
17	Behold: the snuff film, a film where a person's death, the gorier the better, is captured on celluloid (or digital data in these internet-connected times) for someone else's...prurient interest. The snuff film has captured American imagination since the days of the [[UsefulNotes/CharlesManson Manson Family]]; in the aftermath of the cult's killings, the author of a true crime book on the Family put forth the rumor that they had videotaped their killings, inadvertently creating the term "snuff film." It wasn't true, but when American producers brought the Argentinian horror stinker ''Slaughter'' (based loosely on the Mansons) over to America they retitled the movie ''Snuff'', tacked on a new and gorier ending, and launched a viral campaign that someone had actually been murdered on film as part of the movie.
18
19	What makes a snuff film is often up for debate. Whether it just captures a death on film (like the tapes put forth by terrorists that show people getting their heads cut off), is released for a commercial motive (like the ''Traces of Death'' franchise), or has to include sex and death is up in the air. This is mainly because there's no such thing as a "true" snuff film -- according to the FBI, no such thing has ever been made. To clarify this point, the FBI defines a snuff film as depicting a murder that was committed for the primary purpose of being filmed and commercially distributed. While films of actual murders do exist, the FBI doesn't consider them snuff films because they either have a different motive (e.g. films of executions by terrorists which were distributed to sow fear rather than make money) or were not intended for distribution (e.g. a murderer makes a tape of his crimes for personal use and it leaks out after his capture). Then again, as long as creators have a message to make about sex and violence, the snuff film will exist as a model for what happens when things go too, too far.
20
21	To reiterate, snuff films exist in the realm of myth and legend. While many petty criminals have been known to film their own crimes, none have been so foolish as to film a crime for which they could be executed only for the purpose to film and distribute it (save for a possible exception), and [[http://www.snopes.com/horrors/madmen/snuff.asp no such film has ever been commercially distributed.]][[note]]Note that this article hasn't been updated since April 2021.[[/note]]
22
23	Snuff Films that depict this stuff happening to animals rather than humans are called Crush Films, because the animal is typically shown being crushed to death.
24
25	When a filmed death is an accident as opposed to a murder, see FatalMethodActing.
26
27	See also {{Gorn}}, MurderDotCom, and VideoNasties.
28
29	[[noreallife]]
30	----
31	!!Administrivia/InUniverseExamplesOnly:
32	[[foldercontrol]]
33
34	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
35	* Hansel and Gretel from the Vampire Twins arc in ''Manga/BlackLagoon'' were involved in snuff films after [[spoiler:being sold to the mob following the closure of the orphanages of Romania when Ceausescu fell. They were forced to murder other kids on camera in order to survive in addition to all the other horrible things that happened to them]]. Given all of this, it's little wonder that the twins went murderously insane.
36	* ''Manga/DeadTube'': A variant on the concept, but at its core it's still people making money from homemade videos of sex and murder.
37	* Triela's backstory from ''Manga/GunslingerGirl'' is one of the most horrific among the cyborgs of the series due to involving this. [[spoiler:It involves her being kidnapped by human traffickers and used in one of these films. She was saved when she was inches from death, only for the police to refuse to send her to a hospital that could treat the resulting PTSD because of her value as evidence. She was only saved by Hilshire/Hartman smuggling her to Italy for treatment and was used by the SWA as an assassin without either of them knowing it in advance.]]
38	* ''Anime/{{Hellsing}}'': The plot of "Innocent As a Human" revolves around snuff films being distributed on the internet -- the fact that they involving filming humans being eaten by vampires is what gets Hellsing involved.
39	* In ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind'', [[MadDoctor Cioccolata]] is obsessed with the suffering of others, asking Secco to film their victims' expressions as they lose hope in their final moments and die in agony.
40	[[/folder]]
41
42	[[folder:Comic Books]]
43	* ''ComicBook/BackToBrooklyn'': Paul makes these with young boys which are recorded by [[spoiler: Penny]].
44	* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'': Some gangs in Mega City One kidnap people off the streets so they can record how they torture them to death and then sell the stuff as holographic "VI-Zines".
45	* ''ComicBook/LargoWinch'': "Golden Gate" and "Shadow" see Largo be arrested after being framed for tax evasion by a cartel (dealing in not only financial crimes but also HumanTrafficking and illegal pornography, including snuff films). Largo and an FBI team burst onto the filming of one such film (the plot being "Inquisitors torture a black woman to death"), the intended victim managing to [[FacialHorror shove the ringleader's face into a brazier]] before she faints.
46	* ''ComicStrip/ModestyBlaise'': Modesty and Willie bust up a snuff film ring in "Milord".
47	[[/folder]]
48
49	[[folder:Fan Works]]
50	* ''Fanfic/WithPearlAndRubyGlowing'': The HumanTraffickers running The Ark kill their sex slaves when they become [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness undesirable]], and covertly sell the footage of their murders to those who desire it.
51	[[/folder]]
52
53	[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
54	* ''Film/EightMM'': A private investigator is hired by a rich widow and her attorney to find out whether an apparent snuff film discovered in her late husband's safe is the real thing. Welles can find no proof that snuff films are anything other than an UrbanLegend. [[spoiler:It turned out that Longsdale discovered this, too, so he hired Velvet to create one.]]
55	* ''Film/{{Carver}}'': Bobby Shaw's passion, though he is also fine with killing people sans camera.
56	* ''Film/ColdInJuly'': [[spoiler: Freddy, who's under a Witness Protection program, films himself killing illegal immigrant prostitutes and sell the tapes with such labels as [[UnusualEuphemism ''Batting Practice'']].]]
57	* ''Film/TheDen'': [[spoiler: The ultimate goal of the killers is to create snuff films, which they sell online.]]
58	* ''Film/{{Detention}}'': Principal Verge refers to the tape from the party as this, given how it caught [[spoiler:Billy's]] death at the hands of Cinderhella.
59	-->"Who taught you how to make a snuff porno? Music/LadyGaga?"
60	* ''Film/{{Effects\|1979}}'': Film director Lacey Bickel intends to record people's deaths on camera in the name of cinema. All of the events of the movie, including the recorded deaths, were staged as part of filming ''Duped: The Snuff Movie''.
61	* In ''Film/{{Faster}}'', Old Guy tapes the murder of Driver's brother and his gang on behalf of a dirty cop. Cicero says that the tape of that murder was found when they busted an illegal hardcore video ring. The tapes Cicero and Cop find in Old Guy's apartment indicate that he has been making and distributing snuff tapes in the intervening years.
62	* ''Film/{{Hardcore}}'': Jake has to look through one to see whether or not the victim in the video is his daughter. [[spoiler: It isn't, thankfully]].
63	* ''Film/TheHillsRunRed'': The killings shown in Concannon's movie are discovered to be real.
64	* ''Film/HomeMovie'': [[spoiler:The kids probably recorded themselves murdering their parents, even if we don't see them do so.]]
65	* ''Film/LaidToRest'': [=ChromeSkull=] records the murders he commits with a shoulder-mounted video camera.
66	* ''Film/{{Marebito}}'': Masuoka kills two women while recording with his camera.
67	* ''Film/ThePoughkeepsieTapes'': It's about a prolific serial killer who recorded every single one of his murders, acquiring a collection of '''over 800 tapes'''.
68	* ''Film/{{Sabotage 2014}}'': Breacher gets one - of his family being tortured and killed by a cartel thug.
69	* ''Film/ShowdownInLittleTokyo'': The Yakuza bad guy captured his decapitation by katana of a woman on camera, then later shows it to one of her friends as a threat of what he might do to her.
70	* ''Film/Snuff102'': The film critic states that it is highly improbably that there is a secret market dedicated to snuff, but it is entirely possible that an isolated individual could produce his own films, and share them.
71	* ''Film/SoulMates2023'': One of the rooms is a theater where Jason and Allison are forced to watch a snuff film wherein [[spoiler:Jason's fiancé Liana]] is forced to admit her adultery before having her throat slit in front of the camera. To add insult to injury, [[spoiler:she is then sliced open and it's revealed that [[IAteWhat her corpse was used to provide the dinner]] in the preceding restaurant challenge.]]
72	* ''Film/StrangeDays'': "Blackjack" vids, in which the user jacked in actually experiences the SQUID wearer's death. Lenny has a marked distaste for them and refuses to deal in them. The movie opens with him being annoyed at Tick for bringing him a tape of a robbery that ended with the robber's death, because he's going to have to edit the last bit out.
73	* ''Film/SharkNight'': The main villains are making these by feeding people to sharks with Frickin' Video Cameras strapped to them.
74	* ''Film/{{Videodrome}}'': Videodrome is snuff ''television''. When Max starts watching it, having hacked into the Videodrome signal, he initially thinks that it's faked, but none of the "participants" who are tortured onscreen ever return. Or that's how it appears at first... [[spoiler:the twist is that the MoralGuardians are actually responsible for it.]]
75	* ''Film/ShadowOfTheVampire'' recontextualizes ''Film/{{Nosferatu}}'' as a snuff film; director F. W. Murnau coaxes Max Schreck, a real vampire, into performing in the film by promising him the opportunity to drain the leading lady on film.
76	[[/folder]]
77
78	[[folder:Literature]]
79	* ''Literature/AmericanPsycho'': Patrick sometimes films himself torturing women to death. He once shows one of these videos to a woman before killing her.
80	* ''Literature/AnitaBlake'': Anita investigates weres making these.
81	* The ''Literature/DalzielAndPascoe'' novel ''A Pinch of Snuff'' has the characters investigating a violent porn film that a doctor who watched it thought looked too realistic to be faked.
82	* ''Literature/DistantStar'': A weird non-film example. Wieder kills people and uses them as "inspiration" for his art. At one time he even organizes an photography exposition; all the photographs are of some of his victims.
83	* A snuff-movie racket is one of the plot elements of Joseph Wambaugh's crime novel ''The Glitter Dome''.
84	* Robert Campbell's novel ''In La-La-Land We Trust'' has a private eye investigating a snuff movie operation.
85	* The Literature/MatthewScudder novel ''A Dance at the Slaughterhouse'' begins with somebody discovering a video cassette showing two serial murderers torturing and killing a victim in the case of a copy of ''Film/TheDirtyDozen'' at a video rental store. By the end of the novel, it's still unclear whether the leaking of the tape was a mistake on the part of the killers or a deliberate act of trolling by them.
86	* In the ''Literature/NightHuntressWorld'' story "[[Literature/DevilToPayNightHuntressWorld Devil to Pay]]", the demon Xaphan compels Blake Turner to commit murder on a regular basis, frequently recording the murders to taunt Blake.
87	* ''Literature/{{Otherland}}'': Dread likes to record his "kills" on camera for his own private amusement. This ends up being a ChekhovsGun.
88	* ''Literature/RedDragon'': Part of Dolarhyde's M.O. in the book. He films the deaths of his victims and films himself having sex with the woman's corpse. Later he masturbates to it and fuels his obsession with being looked at.
89	* ''Literature/YoungBond'': Anton Kostler, the BigBad of ''Literature/ShootToKill'', is a movie director who fell into despair after his wife's death and decided that all life was meaningless. To fuel his nihilism, Kostler tortures and murders people on tape before having the deaths staged as part of his "films" in order to enjoy the suffering of others, with his ultimate plan being to take over Hollywood and convert the entirety of it to his evil business.
90	* In ''Literature/TroubledBlood'' from the Literature/CormoranStrikeNovels, the 16mm film retrieved from Bill Talbot's storage is revealed to be a film of the entirely real murder of a young woman. It turns out that the woman in question was a stripper for the Ricci crime gang who had turned police informant, and her death was unrelated to the disappearance of Margot Bamborough, the cold case that Strike and Robin are investigating.
91	* Encountered by outlaw private eye Burke in the novels by Creator/AndrewVachss.
92	** In ''Flood'', Burke is told about a snuff film producer called Goldor and is shown a black-and-white silent video of a man in a mask murdering a female undercover agent sent to investigate him. Burke points out that it's a Murder One rap, but is told Goldor himself was wearing the mask so there are no witnesses, as he films and edits his own product.
93	** In ''Blue Belle'', Burke is offered a bounty to catch a serial killer who's kidnapping and sniping prostitutes from a van. When he tracks down the garage that holds the van, he finds a tripod camera setup near a bloody drain in the floor, and another set up inside the van, which has automatic doors so the killers can film their victims being shot and sell it commercially.
94	[[/folder]]
95
96	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
97	* ''Series/BeingHumanUK'': Some vampires create homemade pornography ending with the murder of their victims, then pass it round.
98	* ''Series/BeingHumanUS'': Aidan receives a DVD from Rebecca which features her having sex with a man and then killing him.
99	* ''Series/CriminalMinds'': A number of [=UnSubs=] ("Hopeless", notably) have a habit of recording their murders, sometimes for masturbatory use. In the book ''Jump Cut'', the [=UnSubs=] planned on making "the best horror film ever" by using real murders, and were insane enough to believe it will make them rich and famous once they show it at film festivals and the like.
100	* ''Series/{{CSI}}'': "Snuff". The [=CSI=]s investigate a snuff film featuring the murder of a young woman that was anonymously sent to a pornographic film developer.
101	* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'': The Barrel Girl Gang recorded their own rapes/murders of young women for their own viewing pleasure. Of course, this leads to a mountain of incriminating evidence for the police to sort through once their crimes are exposed.
102	* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E2VengeanceOnVaros Vengeance on Varos]]" is about a [[CrapsackWorld deeply messed-up]] space colony whose regime, among other charming habits, sells recordings of the public torture and execution of dissidents to underground perverts on other planets as snuff movies.
103	* ''Series/InsideNo9'': In the episode "[[Recap/InsideNo9S3E1TheDevilOfChristmas The Devil of Christmas]]", a short horror film is featured, with narration by the unjustifiably proud director who is being interviewed. In the final scene of the film, the main actress is murdered, and the interview is revealed to [[spoiler: take place in a police station following the director's arrest.]]
104	* ''Series/JackTaylor'': In "The Guards", Respected businessman Trevor Lanpert drowns teenage girls and films them in his spare time. The fact that his victims are framed as suicides arouse the suspicions of the titular Jack Taylor, who is appalled to eventually discover the snuff films.
105	* ''Series/LawAndOrder'': "[[Recap/LawAndOrderS5E14Performance Performance]]". Briscoe and Logan investigate a possible snuff film, but it turns out to be faked when they find the girl on the tape is still alive. This does, however, expose an underground sex club at a prestigious high school.
106	* ''Series/TheLastDetective'': The plot of "Dangerous Liasons" revolves around a 20-year-old snuff film and the murdered man who apparently recorded it.
107	* ''Series/MastersOfHorror'': In the episode "[[Recap/MastersOfHorrorS1E8CigaretteBurns Cigarette Burns]]", Kirby visits a Snuff director called Dalibor while searching for the film, while ''La Fin Absolue du Monde'' features the torture and mutilation of [[spoiler:an angel]]. Dalibor explains that this was the secret to Bakovic's success -- [[BloodMagic blood spilled on film grants it supernatural power]] and Bakovic took this to the ultimate extreme by doing so to a [[spoiler:sacred being.]]
108	* ''Series/Preacher2016'': Characters appear to be watching one in "[[Recap/PreacherS1E3ThePossibilities The Possibilities]]", and there's a glimpse of a poster for Houston's Fourth Annual Snuff Film Festival. In what can be called Snuff Audio, Odin listens to animals being slaughtered.
109	* ''Series/RipperStreet'': Sir Arthur Donaldson in "I Need Light" is attempting to create the world's first snuff film.
110	[[/folder]]
111
112	[[folder:Music]]
113	* Music/{{Bongripper}}: The title of their song, "Snuff Film," tied with the song, "Sex Tape," which gives off some [[FridgeHorror unsettling vibes]].
114	* Music/NineInchNails: The ''Broken'' movie was filmed (very convincingly) to look like one in its wraparound story.
115	[[/folder]]
116
117	[[folder:Video Games]]
118	* ''VideoGame/{{Blackout}}'': [[spoiler:TheReveal involves finding out that the PlayerCharacter works as the CleanupCrew for a local mob that makes these kind of films. That is the reason why there was a headless body in his apartment at the beginning of the game; he was working his macabre trade when the memory loss suddenly kicked in.]]
119	* In ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'' there are braindances, which are a MemoryJar that allows the viewer to relive the recorded memories of someone else with all the senses they experienced at the time, including emotions. In the underworld, there are illegal subgenres that allow the user to experience someone's murder in the first person.
120	* In ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', Clanden, the SerialKiller and MadBomber working for [[TheMafia The Omertas]], is revealed to be [[DisposableSexWorker using the gang's call girls]] to make tapes of him raping and murdering them. The PlayerCharacter can use these to blackmail him, or provoke him into attacking them.
121	* ''VideoGame/HitmanAbsolution'': Dom records himself and his cronies torturing staff members when they turn mutinous.
122	* ''VideoGame/{{Manhunt}}'': The entire plot of the first game. Seen in the second game with the hidden cameras in the torture rooms of the sex club. Additionally at a turning point in both games the protagonist [[spoiler:is shown a video of his family being murdered]] shifting their motivation from survival to revenge.
123	* ''VideoGame/PillarsOfEternity'': You can uncover a medieval version of this: a troupe of actors performs plays where unsuspecting extras are murdered for the amusement of noble patrons.
124	* In ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'', the Hollywood arc revolves around tracking down the makers of a snuff film showing a woman being torn apart by monsters in order to uphold TheMasquerade. You learn that the Sabbat created the film and the [[OurGhoulsAreCreepier szlachta]] in it in an attempt to demoralize the [[MasqueradeEnforcer Camarilla]], only for a group of human criminals to discover it and pass it off as their own for profit.
125	[[/folder]]
126
127	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
128	* In ''VisualNovel/BoyfriendToDeath'', Strade, one of the three "boyfriends" you have to deal with in the game, turns out in one of the endings of his route to be a producer of red room content for the Dark Web, essentially this generation's version of the snuff film. In the ending in question, [[spoiler:Strade turns you into his latest "star"]].
129	[[/folder]]
130
131	[[folder:Web Original]]
132	* ''Literature/HappyAppy'': Several of the Happy Appy episodes are nothing more than Forenzic slowly murdering children in horrible ways. The protagonist manages to watch each one to the end for the sake of the investigation.
133	* ''WebVideo/MyDadsTapes'': The VHS tapes all show women being tortured by a man in a mask. donotcontinue's videos feature the same, but much gorier.
134	* ''Literature/OneNationUnderJupiter'': While not a film, Diagoras watches a play called ''The Death of Hercules'', with the title role played by a captured member of the Sons of Horus. It ends with the prisoner being burned alive.
135	[[/folder]]
136
137	[[folder:Western Animation]]
138	* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': A CutawayGag in "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS2E13RoadToRhodeIsland Road to Rhode Island]]" has Peter and Lois watching the latter's uncle's snuff film.
139	-->'''Peter:''' Are--Are they really gonna kill that girl?\
140	'''Lois:''' Peter, please! People are trying to watch.
141	* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': In the episode "[[Recap/SouthParkS8E3ThePassionOfTheJew The Passion of the Jew]]", Stan and Kenny go to see ''Film/ThePassionOfTheChrist'' and hate the movie that much that they demand a refund. Stan complains that it wasn't a movie but a snuff film and is annoyed that they were watching a movie about a guy getting tortured for hours.
142	[[/folder]]

Context Main / SnuffFilm