Proving that you can fool some viewers some of the time and censors all of the time, Snuff purports to be an actual snuff film and despite some hysterically bad acting and effects, the film was banned in the UK in July 1983 and successfully prosecuted. In fact, the picture is nothing more than an unreleased clunker given a new ending and a savvy marketing campaign. Filmed on the cheap in the Philippines, Slaughter depicted the depredations of a Manson-like cult but when it failed to find national distribution it was acquired by distributor Allan Shackleton and retitled. After shooting an epilogue where Slaughters lead actress is disembowelled by the film crew, Shackleton promoted Snuff as the bloodiest thing that ever happened in front of a camera and hired bogus protestors to picket screenings of the movie. The ruse worked too well: he was later forced to produce his lead actress in court to prove she was still alive, and a legend was born.
Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'
