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Snuff (1976)

Dir: Michael Findlay/Roberta Findlay/Horacio Fredriksson/ Simon Nuchtern.

 

One of the most infamous Exploitation films is actually a very different beast from the kind the hype would lead you to believe….

Around 1971 Mike and Roberta Findlay ("The Curse of her Flesh", "The Ultimate Degenerate") went to South America…where wages are cheap…to make a film based on the still fresh in the American mind 'Manson Murders'. The infamous crime where a number of well to do and or famous people (including Roman Polanski's pregnant Wife, Sharon Tate) were butchered by the rabid followers of Cult leader Charles Manson.

Titled "Slaughter", the film was a badly dubbed (mostly Argentinian actors were used), cheap and not so cheerful flick that secured a handful of South American play dates before drifting off down the river of slime that is the fate of scuzzy exploitation flicks that fail to click with the discerning fans of such things.

But it would live again.
Roughly 5 years later Producer Allan Shackleton picked the film up.
Shackleton was an infamous man to work with. A hard line, take the money and run, exploitation distributer. And he smelt money in the flop that was "Slaughter".
He removed the final minutes of "Slaughter" (The Findlay's denied any involvement in this, and Roberta especially never acknowledged the film that "Slaughter" became as their film any longer) and pasted on his own ending. Reportedly shot by a Horacio Fredriksson and Simon Nuchtern.
This new finale shows the 'real' film crew finishing the previous scene in "Slaughter", getting turned on by the violence, and deciding to really kill the actress for the camera!
That the actress replacing the one in the Findlay's actual movie, looks nothing at all like their actual actress seemed unimportant.
So we see the 'actress' tortured and eventually murdered…Just before the camera supposedly runs out of film……..

 

Thus was born one of the greatest marketing scams in the history of film.

'Snuff' films were an obscure urban legend. Shadowed rumours of unfortunates put in front of a camera and killed…For real! It was a fledgling term at the time, but Shackleton would catapult it into everyday life.
Releasing false reports to the Press that Police had 'discovered' a film from South America ("Where life is cheap", as Shakelton would famously say on his ad campaign for his film) that supposedly showed a woman being really murdered.
It was a move that also tapped in to the public 'fear' of those evil South American Dictatorships where masked men working for the Government would torture, rape and kill undesirables in dark cellars. Something that would become a mainstay during the 70's/80's ultimately giving birth to the highly underrated "8MM".
Anyway, The Press ate it up, and soon headlines about this 'snuff' film were screaming their free advertising around the good old U.S of A.

Now was the time for Shackleton to unleash his monster!!
"Slaughter" was now the aforementioned "Snuff".
With wonderfully exploitative ads and protesters (hired by Shackelton) standing outside some Cinemas showing the film, waving signs like 'Ban this filth' (you know, the old favourites), Shakleton soon found he had a winner on his hands.
As the Press caught on to the hype, and real misguided protesters started picketing the Grindhouse cinemas that were daring to show the movie 'where an actress is REALLY KILLED', "Snuff" was garnered with even more free publicity of the kind this type of film thrives on. And the rest is history…..

But what of the film "Slaughter"/"Snuff" itself?

Well, here we go…

Opening with some pseudo 'Born to be Wild' guitars over the sight of two 'hippie' chicks racing down the road on a motorbike, a cheap and tacky red title suddenly appears saying 'Snuff". It 'melts' into a strange looking red splodge. It's tacky folks, and it warns of the quality to come.

We learn that the girls are part of a gang. And we also notice just how truly, truly horrendous the dubbing is.
It's nearly always out of synch, wildly over the top in its delivery, and sounds like it was recorded in a small room.
One of the girls has been holding out on some of the gang's drugs. She is chased by the other women (scored with some crazy free-form Jazz), shot in the shoulder and has her feet stuck in some stocks!

As the other girls taunt her, a man appears. He's all open shirts and big hair and has a voice that echoes in a sinister way. He is 'Satahn' (or "Satan" pronounced badly?) and he is the head cheese (in more ways than one) who controls the girls.
He echoes down to the girl "You will feel the pain! And you will not flinch from it"!
One of the other girls then sticks a knife between her toes and wiggles that sucker around a whole hell of a lot as the victim groans and writhes.
That done. All is forgiven!

Next some unknown man in an airport restroom is stabbed in the back, then has his throat cut (shown via blood dribbling down his sweater to the strains of much gurgling) by one of the girls dressed in a very dodgy looking hat and cape. Unless I missed something, this has nothing to do with anything and is just a random scene!

Arriving at the airport is actress Terry London (obvious Sharon Tate stand-in), and her film Director of choice Max Marsh. Marsh announces to the Press Pack that they are in South America to make a film (must be a great one then!).
They are there to meet a man who will put up the money.
From the start Marsh comes across as a completely obnoxious individual who has been trying to 'visit the sights of London' for a long time with no luck.

Arriving at a posh pad (all bad 60's décor) icky Max is given the brush off. But after he has left, Terry is straight onto the phone to her boyfriend Horst Frank.
Horst is a playboy type with a rich arms dealer Father who has no scruples. Horst is as pleased as he is horny and proceeds to tell his other girlfriend, Angelica, he's going to meet his other girlfriend Terry (what a guy!!)

Things liven up when we go back to one of our crazy hippie girls wobbling her tan lined breasts at 'Satahn'. Shock! It's Angelica! She has been planted to spy on the rich and corrupt Horst. As 'Satahn' does not approve of such people.
Angelica and 'Satahn' take a dip in the river and they are soon joined by the others to give 'Satahn' a trio of topless, tan lined totty. And as 'Satahn's' booming echo of a voiceover lays down the law to the girls on how they will serve him, they all have a long fun filled splashing session. Thus we see that 'Satahn' can be a jolly and playful chap and not all grim and moody. Bless!

Terry is screwing Horst, but Horst is not happy. He wants her to leave sleazy Max and his cheap sex flicks. "All he's interested in is big busoms" declares Horst.
"For me even a Marsh picture is a step upwards" counters Terry. Yikes! She must be pretty low down then.

Angelica is given her marching orders by Horst who announces that Terry is pregnant (!) and will be moving in with him.
News that pisses off Max to say the least.

Bubeing a big hearted sleaze bucket, Max still takes her to the local carnival (cue much grainy carnival stock footage). Terry is oh so pleased, especially after Horst appears and they sneak off to make a bed squeak.
As the stock footage goes on, Max is hunted by Angelica as we cut back and forth from said stalking to Terry's moans and groans as Horsts administers some obviously much needed oral pleasure.

But hard times are a comin' as all this is a prelude for 'Satahn's' assault on Horst, Terry and their evil, decadent lifestyle....

Stand out scenes that unfold for our pleasure:

A bizarre Police interrogation which, for some reason, is held outside where a Cop (Michael Findlay himself) is sitting behind an old wooden desk on what looks like a car park, next to some garage doors!

What would audiences have thought by this time given the ads for the kind of film they thought they were going to see is anyone's guess!

Horst's Father shouts a lot for no real reason. But I think we can blame that on the dubbing.
His job as an arms dealer leads to a great sequence as well, as we are treated to some hysterical (and hysterical) rants about Germans, Jews, Arabs, butchers, and jackals between himself and echoing 'Satahn' (who's come to pick up Angelica) that ends in a truly bizarre exchange;
Father: "So! You don't like jackals! How dare you come into my home and talk to me like this! Who are you"?!
Satahn: "I am who am"!!
Father: "That's blasphemy!! Get out"!
Don't look at me, I didn't write it.

'Satahn' is not so moral though when it comes to initiating his Female gang members.
"There is only one more thing you must do to become one of us! You will submit to me. Here...now…like an animal to its mate! You will submit to me and…the pain"! Cue more (very small and floppy) tan lined breasts as the girl drops on all fours and waggles her arse in the air. Soon it's moans. Groans and much fondling of themselves by the other girls as 'Satahn' pushes home his…er…message.

Even crazy hippies need to support themselves, and the girls decide to pull an armed robbery on a dust blown store.
They proceed to terrorise the old shopkeeper with their bikini tops and low slung jeans
But fashion turns to murder as the robbery explodes (well…pops) into a welcome bit of gratuitous gun violence.

A sleazy treat is Angelica's 'I've always been in bondage of one kind or another' flashback tale told to 'Satahn' about her childhood of sexual abuse, talking to a tortoise, murder and Daddy's hands hung from a tree. And OH! The way that man milks those cows!

And of course the final massacre ('Slaughter' even) at Horst's house, complete with a swinging couple (the man so likes to watch baby!) who are dubbed over with much mad cackling, more tan lined breasts, tame 'n' cheesy knife violence, and a flogging.
Which all leads to the scene where Terry (who's in bed with Horst's Father!!!) is attacked in bed…But what is her fate? Well. It's not good, but any other details are never to be as all of a sudden the movie we have spent the last 70 minutes watching suddenly ends…without and end!!

"Cut" shouts the 'Director'. Yep, it's that time. The sequence we have all been waiting for.
So instead of an ending to "Slaughter" we have the ending to what has become "Snuff".
As mentioned above the crew get turned on, hold down 'their actress' who was meant to have been playing Terry but looks nothing like her at all, and proceed to murder her.
To say that this is in anyway realistic would be to say that 'MacDonald's' burgers are fillet steaks.
Nothing here, not even the laughable 'blood', looks real.
If all those silly people had actually watched the film they would spend so much of their short time on this Earth complaining about, they could have saved themselves a lot of trouble.

That is not to say the sequence is not nasty. It is.
It's totally gratuitous, drawn out, gory violence with obvious sexual overtones.
But it's also badly made (including multiple angles of certain scenes which blows the whole 'it's real' argument out of the water even without the cheap latex effects on show…much as it did in the 'Guinea Pig' case brought by a foolish Charlie Sheen who said that the infamous Japanese movie of the same name was a 'snuff' film).
The girl has her hand cut off (cue laughable, creased, latex appendage) a knife stuck in her (cue much obvious slow wiping of blood on her blouse from the blade) and her entrails pulled out with manic glee (cue a suddenly very skinny victim, whose real body obviously goes 'into' the mattress, while the anorexic false torso sits on top).
Sure, it's crass, sure it's unjustified on any level other than tacky exploitation.
But it sure ain't….Snuff!

All hail exploitation!