Blu-Ray Review: Snuff

By Brad Henderson

In 1976, a film called Snuff was exposed to the world. Snuff is vile, gross, and just plain weird, but it’s excellent at the same time. But let’s back up a bit first.

In 1971, with $30K in hand, a husband and wife set out to make a grindhouse flick called Slaughter. After shooting wrapped, the producer shelved the film for four years. Once the term “snuff” made headlines in the early ’70s, the producer got the idea to release the movie under a new title and include an extra scene in order to make people believe that they had witnessed real murders. Although Snuff had a small theatrical release, it stirred the pot quickly. The producer even hired fake protestors in order to start rumors; this caused more controversy and the attention of the group Women Against Pornography. This resulted in huge coverage for the film. It was featured on the news which made people want to see it.

Snuff is about a gang of bikers lead by a Manson-esque figure who go on a murder spree. What you witness is supposedly real but in this day and age, we can see that it is not. However, considering the year it was released, Snuff was way ahead of its time and I imagine it shocked the hell out of people. In all honesty, the film doesn’t make a whole lotta sense but that doesn’t mean it isn’t interesting (because it is). Once Snuff starts you can’t take your eyes off of it and you are drawn into its inescapably bizarre world. It was filmed in Argentina; many of the actors were from there which resulted in many of them not understanding or being able to speak English. As a result, many of the scenes have no dialogue or heavy dubbing which is quite hilarious.

Even though it was said to be a hoax by many news outlets, people still believed it. That isn’t too hard to believe because the same thing happened in the 1990s with The Blair Witch Project. The creators of Snuff were actually investigated in order to make sure that a real murder did not take place during the filming of the movie. Of course, we all know it wasn’t real but this created a huge mythos for the film that continues to this day.

Now Blue Underground is providing us with a killer transfer and a Blu-Ray that is jam packed with special features. The features are pretty cool because they focus a lot on the myth of the film rather than your normal mumbo jumbo. There is a short and sweet interview with a retired FBI agent who investigated the “snuff” myth and it’s probably the most interesting of all the features on here. It also includes clippings of newspapers and photos covering the controversy of the film during its initial release.

For anyone who is a fan of sleaze or exploitation films Snuff is a must. It is a true gem. I wouldn’t go out of my way to say it was a revolution in cinema, but there is a lot more to Snuff than you would probably think.

Snuff was released by Blue Underground on Blu-Ray on October 22, 2013.