Snuff (movie)
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Snuff is a 1975 gore film.
The film started out as a low-budget gore film titled Slaughter which was produced by the husband-and-wife grindhouse filmmaking team of Michael and Roberta Findlay. Filmed in Argentina in 1971 it depicted the actions of a Manson-esque murder cult. Apart from a very brief run in a handful of cinemas, Slaughter effectively remained unreleased for several years.
Some years later a film distributor added a new ending in which a woman is brutally murdered by a film crew, supposedly the Slaughter crew. Filmed in a vérité style, the new footage purported to show an actual murder. The new footage was spliced onto the end of Slaughter with an abrupt cut that suggested that the footage was unplanned and authentic, and the new version released under the title Snuff.
This was done as a marketing ploy so that the fake on-camera death could be promoted as being genuine. The promoters of the film even went so far as to hire fake protesters to picket the movie theaters showing the film.
The new ending was not organised nor shot by the Findlays. After realising that their film Slaughter was being reused they threatened to sue, later accepting an out-of-court settlement.
Snuff is believed to have started the legend of snuff films.
Snuff is the English language name of the Spanish film Tesis, by Alejandro Amenábar.