Review – Snuff

This documentary about snuff movies is as unsettling as watching the real thing. Indeed, several scenes do in fact show graphic human and animal death. Overall it doesn’t have anything particularly profound to say. Most of the pictures that are controversial for allegedly being snuff movies are in fact amateurish fakes. A couple of serial killers videotaped their victims. Wars have spawned atrocity videos. And yes, occasionally a “traditional” snuff movie – a murder deliberately filmed with the intent to sell the picture to perverts willing to pay big money for such things – surfaces. What it lacks in substance it partially makes up for in visceral nastiness, provided one has the stomach for such things. On the other hand, the absence of serious content makes it come across as a cheap excuse for stringing together death moments from other movies, making it a cheap exploitation movie about cheap exploitation movies. And though one expects a certain amount of animal violence in such a picture, here it’s really, truly excessive. Avoid at all costs