Editing Snuff film (section)

==History of the concept==

===Origins of the urban legend===
The noun ''snuff'' originally meant the part of a candle wick that has already burned; the verb ''snuff'' meant to cut this off, and by extension to extinguish or kill.<ref>''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', 1st ed, 1913</ref> The word has been used in this sense in English slang for hundreds of years. It was defined in 1874 as a "term very common among the lower orders of London, meaning to die from disease or accident".<ref>[[John Camden Hotten]], ''[[A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words]]'', 5th edition</ref>

Film studies professor Boaz Hagin argues that the concept of films showing actual murders originated decades earlier than is commonly believed, at least as early as 1907. That year, Polish-French writer [[Guillaume Apollinaire]] published the short story ''A Good Film'' about [[newsreel]] photojournalists who stage and film a murder due to public fascination with crime news; in the story, the public believes the murder is real but police determine that the crime was faked.<ref>Boaz Hagin. Killed Because of Lousy Ratings: The Hollywood History of the Snuff Film. Journal of Popular Film and Television, 2010 DOI: 10.1080/01956050903578414</ref> Hagin also proposes that the film ''[[Network (1976 film)|Network]]'' (1976) contains an explicit (fictional) snuff film depiction when television news executives orchestrate the on-air murder of a news anchor to boost ratings.

According to film critic [[Geoffrey O'Brien]], "whether or not commercially distributed 'snuff' movies actually exist, the possibility of such movies is implicit in the stock [[B-movie]] motif of the mad artist killing his models, as in ''[[A Bucket of Blood]]'' (1959), ''[[Color Me Blood Red]]'' (1965), or ''Decoy for Terror'' (1967) also known as ''Playgirl Killer''."<ref>{{cite news|author=O’Brien, Geoffrey|author-link=Geoffrey O’Brien|date=1993|title=Horror for Pleasure|work=[[The New York Review of Books]]}} (April 22 issue), n.1.</ref> Likewise, the protagonist of ''[[Peeping Tom (1960 film)|Peeping Tom]]'' (1960) films the murders he commits, though he does so as part of his mania and not for financial gain: a 1979 article in ''[[The New York Times]]'' described the character's activity as making "private 'snuff' films".<ref>{{Cite news|author=[[Vincent Canby]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/10/14/archives/film-michael-powells-peeping-tomthe-cast.html|title=Film: Michael Powell's 'Peeping Tom':The Cast |date=1979-10-14|access-date=2022-10-12 |work=The New York Times}}</ref>

The first known use of the term ''snuff movie'' is in a 1971 book by [[Ed Sanders]], ''The Family: The Story of Charles Manson's Dune Buggy Attack Battalion''. This book included the interview of an anonymous one-time member of [[Charles Manson]]'s "[[Manson Family|Family]]", who claimed that the group once made such a film in [[California]], by recording the murder of a woman. However, the interviewee later added that he had not watched the film himself and had just heard rumors of its existence. In later editions of the book, Sanders clarified that no films depicting real murders or murder victims had been found.<ref name=snopesApril2021/><ref>{{cite book| url = https://archive.org/details/familystoryofcha00sande| title = extract from book| year = 1971| publisher = New York, Dutton| isbn = 9780525103004}}</ref>

During the first half of the 1970s, [[urban legend]]s started to allege that snuff films were being produced in [[South America]] for commercial gain, and circulated clandestinely in the United States.<ref name="csicop.org"/><ref name="Cashing">"Cashing in on rumors that a 'snuff' film had been smuggled into the United States from South America, Schackleton retitled his movie Snuff and released it in late 1975, advertising its faked evisceration as the real thing", David A. Cook, ''Lost Illusions: American Cinema in The Shadow of Watergate and Vietnam'', page 233 (University of California Press, Ltd., 2000). {{ISBN|0-520-23265-8}}</ref>

===''Snuff'' controversy (1976)===
{{main article|Snuff (film)}}
The idea of movies showing actual murders for profit became more widely known in 1976 with the release of the [[exploitation film]] ''Snuff''.<ref name="csicop.org">{{cite news |url=http://www.csicop.org/si/show/snuff_film_the_making_of_an_urban_legend/ |author=Scott Aaron Stine |title=The Snuff Film: The Making of an Urban Legend |work=Skeptical Inquirer |volume=23 |date=1999 |issue=3 |access-date=December 13, 2010 |archive-date=September 25, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180925180514/https://www.csicop.org/si/show/snuff_film_the_making_of_an_urban_legend |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2p7i4oL6Dk | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100814214951/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2p7i4oL6Dk| archive-date=2010-08-14 | url-status=dead|title=Do snuff movies exist? |series=Documentary, part 1 |publisher=YouTube}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Cook, David A. |title=Lost Illusions: American Cinema in The Shadow of Watergate and Vietnam |page=233 |publisher=University of California Press |date=2000 |isbn= 0-520-23265-8}}</ref> This low-budget [[horror film]], loosely based on the [[Tate–LaBianca murders|Manson murders]] and originally titled ''Slaughter'', was shot in [[Argentina]] by [[Michael Findlay (filmmaker)|Michael]] and [[Roberta Findlay]]. The film's distribution rights were bought by Allan Shackleton, who eventually found the picture unfit for release and shelved it. Several years later, Shackleton read about snuff films being imported from South America and decided to cash in on the rumor as an attempt to recoup his investment in ''Slaughter''.<ref name="csicop.org"/><ref name="Cashing"/><ref name="Press">{{cite news |url=http://www.nypress.com/article-11831-the-curse-of-her-filmography.html |title=The Curse of Her Filmography: Roberta Findlay's grindhouse legacy |work=New York Press |date=July 27, 2005 |access-date=February 11, 2010 |archive-date=17 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100517115336/http://www.nypress.com/article-11831-the-curse-of-her-filmography.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Shackleton retitled ''Slaughter'' to ''Snuff'' and released it with a new ending that purported to depict an actual murder committed on a film set.<ref name="Cashing"/> ''Snuff'''s promotional material suggested, without stating outright, that the film featured the real murder of a woman, which amounted to [[false advertising]].<ref name="poison">{{cite news|last1=Eder|first1=Richard|authorlink1=Richard Eder|title='Snuff' Is Pure Poison|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/03/07/archives/snuff-is-pure-poison-poison-snuff.html|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=March 7, 1976|page=13}}</ref><ref name=Leonard>{{cite news|last1=Leonard|first1=John|authorlink1=John Leonard (critic)|title=Commentary: Cretin's Delight on Film|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/02/27/archives/commentary-cretins-delight-on-film.html|work=The New York Times|date=February 27, 1976|page=21}}</ref> The film's slogan read: "The film that could only be made in South America... where life is CHEAP".<ref>{{cite book |author=Hawkins, Joan |title=Cutting Edge: Art-Horror and The Horrific Avant-Garde |page=136 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |date=2000 |isbn=0-8166-3413-0}}
</ref> Shackleton put out false newspaper clippings that reported a citizens group's crusading against the film,<ref name="csicop.org" /> and hired people to act as protesters to picket screenings.<ref name="csicop.org"/>

Shackleton's efforts succeeded in generating a [[media frenzy]] about the film: real [[Feminism|feminist]] and citizens groups eventually started protesting the movie and picketing theaters.<ref name=Leonard/><ref>David A. Cook, ''Lost Illusions: American Cinema in The Shadow of Watergate and Vietnam'', page 233 (University of California Press, Ltd., 2000). {{ISBN|0-520-23265-8}}</ref><ref name=varrev>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=February 25, 1976|title=Film Reviews: Snuff|last=Jac.}}</ref> As a result, New York District Attorney [[Robert M. Morgenthau]] investigated the picture, establishing that it was a [[hoax]].<ref name="The New York Times">{{cite news|title=Morgenthau Finds Film Dismembering Was Indeed a Hoax|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/03/10/archives/morgenthau-finds-film-dismembering-was-indeed-a-hoax.html|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=10 March 1976|page=41}}</ref><ref>Charles Lyons, ''The New Censors: Movies and the Culture Wars'', Temple University Press, 1997, pages 64-70</ref> The controversy nevertheless made the film financially profitable.<ref name="csicop.org"/><ref>{{cite episode|title=Does Snuff Exist?|series=The Dark Side of Porn|series-link=The Dark Side of Porn|network=[[Channel 4]]|date=April 18, 2006|season=2|time=6:27}}</ref>

===Rumors related to serial killers and other controversies===
In subsequent years, more urban legends emerged about snuff movies. Notably, multiple [[serial killer]]s were rumored to have produced snuff films: however, no such videos were proven to exist. [[Henry Lee Lucas]] and his accomplice [[Ottis Toole]] claimed to have filmed their crimes, but both men were "pathological liars" and the purported films were never found.<ref name="Fangoria"/> [[Charles Ng]] and [[Leonard Lake]] videotaped their interactions with some of their future victims, but not the murders. [[Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris]] made an audio recording of their encounter with one victim, though not of her death. Likewise, [[Paul Bernardo]] and [[Karla Homolka]] made videos of Bernardo sexually abusing two victims, but did not film the murders. In all those cases, the recordings were not intended for public consumption and were used as evidence during the murderers' trials.<ref name=snopesApril2021/>

Over the years, [[#False_snuff_films|several films were suspected of being "snuff movies"]], though none of these accusations turned out to be true. A similar controversy concerned the filming of the video for the 1989 song "[[Down in It]]" by [[Nine Inch Nails]], in which [[Trent Reznor]] acted in a scene which ended with the implication that Reznor's character had fallen off a building and died. To film the scene, a camera was tied to a balloon with ropes. Minutes after filming started, the ropes snapped and the balloons and camera flew away, eventually landing on a farmer's field in [[Michigan]]. The farmer later handed it to the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]], who began investigating whether the footage was a snuff film portraying a person committing suicide.<ref name="Convulsion Nine Inch Nails 1991">{{cite web
 |url=http://www.obsolete.com/convulsion/interviews/convulse/1.5.html 
 |title=Nine Inch Nails 
 |access-date=2008-04-12 
 |url-status=dead 
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927045622/http://www.obsolete.com/convulsion/interviews/convulse/1.5.html 
 |archive-date=2007-09-27 
}}</ref><ref>''Welcome to the Machine'' ([http://theninhotline.net/archives/articles/manager/display_article.php?id=536 transcript]). ''Industrial Introspection'' (June 1991). Retrieved 2011-06-18.</ref> The FBI identified Reznor and the investigation ended when it was confirmed that Reznor was alive and the footage was not related to crime.<ref name="Convulsion Nine Inch Nails 1991" /><ref>{{Cite web|website=Mental Floss|publisher=Minute Media| url=http://mentalfloss.com/article/548360/nine-inch-nails-trent-reznor-fbi-murder-investigation-down-in-it|author-first1=Sean|author-last1=Hutchinson|title=When the FBI Investigated the 'Murder' of Nine Inch Nails's Trent Reznor|date=2018-06-22|access-date=2018-07-19|language=en}}</ref><ref>Huxley (1997), p. 40</ref>

Around 2018, a [[conspiracy theory]] called "Frazzledrip", related to [[Pizzagate conspiracy theory|Pizzagate]] and [[QAnon]], purported the existence of a snuff video where [[Hillary Clinton]] and her aide [[Huma Abedin]] murdered a young girl as part of a [[Satanism|Satanic]] ritual.<ref name="snopes-frazzle-2018">{{cite web|last1=Emery|first1=David|date=April 16, 2018|title=Is a Hillary Clinton 'Snuff Film' Circulating on the Dark Web?|url=https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/hillary-clinton-snuff-film/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211110005050/https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/hillary-clinton-snuff-film/|archive-date=2021-11-10|access-date=27 January 2021|publisher=Snopes}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Gilbert |first1=David |title=Marjorie Taylor Greene Believes in Frazzledrip, QAnon's Wildest Conspiracy Theory |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/marjorie-taylor-greene-believes-in-frazzledrip-qanons-wildest-conspiracy-theory/ |publisher=Vice.com |access-date=7 October 2022 |date=January 27, 2021 |archive-date=February 23, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210223221234/https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3gedm/marjorie-taylor-greene-believes-in-frazzledrip-qanons-wildest-conspiracy-theory |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Internet age===
The advent of the [[Internet]], by allowing anyone to broadcast self-made videos to an international audience, also changed the means of production of films that may be categorized as "snuff". There have been several cases of murders being filmed by their perpetrators and later finding their way online. These include videos made by Mexican [[Drug cartel|cartels]] or [[Jihadism|jihadist]] groups, at least one of the videos shot by the [[Dnepropetrovsk maniacs]] in mid-2000s [[Ukraine]], the [[Murder of Jun Lin|video shot by Luka Magnotta]] from [[Montréal]] in 2012, the video shot by [[Murders of Alison Parker and Adam Ward|Vester Lee Flanagan II]] in 2015, as well as cases of [[Livestreamed crime|livestreamed murders]], including videos made by [[Mass shooting|mass shooters]].<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://time.com/5589478/facebook-livestream-rules-new-zealand-christchurch-attack/|title=Facebook Tightens Live-Stream Rules in Response to the Christchurch Massacre|last=Gunia|first=Anna|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|access-date=18 May 2019|date=15 May 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://bnonews.com/index.php/2022/05/mass-shooting-supermarket-buffalo-10-dead/|title=Gunman kills 10 at New York store while livestreaming on Twitch|work=[[BNO News]]|date=14 May 2022|access-date=14 May 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | last=Meyer | first=Robinson | date=August 26, 2015 | url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/08/snuff-film-unavoidable-twitter-facebook-autoplay-roanoke/402430/ | title=When a Snuff Film Becomes Unavoidable | work=The Atlantic | publisher=Emerson Collective | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150826215303/https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/08/snuff-film-unavoidable-twitter-facebook-autoplay-roanoke/402430/ | archivedate=August 26, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | last=Keller | first=Jared | date=August 27, 2015 | url=https://psmag.com/environment/is-it-ethical-to-watch-murder-caught-on-tape | title=Is It Ethical to Watch Murder Caught on Tape? | work=Pacific Standard | publisher=The Arena Group | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180313194052/https://psmag.com/environment/is-it-ethical-to-watch-murder-caught-on-tape | archivedate=March 13, 2018}}</ref>

Author [[Steve Lillebuen]], who wrote a book on the Magnotta case, commented that [[social media]] had created a new trend in crime where killers who crave an audience can become "online broadcasters" by showing their crimes to the world.<ref name=steve>{{cite news |last=Lillebuen |first=Steve |title=The sick fascination with a death video |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2012/06/06/opinion/lillebuen-killing-video/index.html |access-date=June 9, 2012 |newspaper=CNN.com |date=June 6, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120610064608/http://edition.cnn.com/2012/06/06/opinion/lillebuen-killing-video/index.html |archive-date=June 10, 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=steve2>{{cite news |last=Lillebuen |first=Steve |date=2 June 2012|title=Murderers have become online broadcasters. And their audience is us |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/murderers-have-become-online-broadcasters-and-their-audience-is-us/article4226048/ |access-date=June 9, 2012 |newspaper=The Globe and Mail |location=Toronto |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160403085409/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/murderers-have-become-online-broadcasters-and-their-audience-is-us/article4226048/ |archive-date=April 3, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>

''Fangoria'' commented that Magnotta's 2012 video, which showed him mutilating the corpse of his victim, was the closest thing in existence to an actual snuff movie, especially as Magnotta had done some crude editing and used a [[True Faith (song)|song]] as a soundtrack, which amounted to minimal production values. However, it did not show the murder itself and was originally published to attract attention and not for monetary gain.<ref name="Fangoria"/> The charges of which Magnotta was found guilty included "publishing [[Obscenity#Canada|obscene]] materials".<ref>{{cite news |title=Day 8 of deliberations in Luka Magnotta trial |url=http://globalnews.ca/news/1741034/day-8-of-deliberations-in-luka-magnotta-trial/ |access-date=December 23, 2014 |work=CTV News |date=December 23, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141223100827/http://globalnews.ca/news/1741034/day-8-of-deliberations-in-luka-magnotta-trial/ |archive-date=December 23, 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2016, the owner of [[Bestgore.com]], the website that originally hosted Magnotta's video, pleaded guilty to an obscenity charge and was sentenced to a six-month conditional sentence, half of which was served under house arrest.<ref>{{cite web |publisher=[[Global News]] |url=http://globalnews.ca/news/2474806/edmonton-gore-website-owner-on-trial-for-posting-magnotta-video/ |title=Edmonton gore website owner sentenced for posting Magnotta video |date=January 25, 2016 |access-date=June 7, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604231410/http://globalnews.ca/news/2474806/edmonton-gore-website-owner-on-trial-for-posting-magnotta-video/ |archive-date=June 4, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>