Snuff was a bad movie as far as I remember, so I've put this review on hold forever, and at an imdb rating of 2.8, it must be shite, right? Let's re-watch, and find out.
Enter bad ass junkie biker chicks into drugs, sex, violence, torture, sadism, etc, and it's enough to keep a (male) re-view'er awake, and to the sound of a groovy soundtrack none the less as it starts not with a snuff but a sniff.
We all know that cocaine is one helluva drug so the action kicks in as they shoot, and shoot up, a girl who apparently stole drugs from them. Then some dude suddenly appears out of nowhere, and they start torturing the poor honey for disobedience to him for which she will "feel the pain!"
But oh wait now..the way she moans, and groans, It sounds like she WANTS to feel the pain!? Whoa, now we already know why this became a video nasty, and so far it's actually more fun than I remembered so time to lie back, grab the knife, and...enjoy?
"Each one of you must obey by my commands, or each one of you must die" the dude says who's name's no less than Satan, so I guess he must be some kinda self appointed head of a cunt, eh, cult. :)
Enter the movie biz where everything is peaches, and cream, and Snuff snails along portraying the lifestyles of the rich, and shameless, occasionally switching back to cult leader Satan, his bikerettes, and the sadistic fun they have, with some nudity, and softcore sex in the mix, plus some out of place Mardi Gras footage. Sound messy to you? It is, but that doesn't prevent Snuff from moving along at the speed of a turtle.
Vile enough to be a video nasty however when the girl pictured above tells why she ended up a violent biker cult member, as we flashback to her past with pedophilia suggestive dialogue like "Ever since I've been a little girl, I've always been in bondage", and the story of how she was raped at 12, ending up a slut because of it.
After all that, the cult finally mashes up with the rich & shameless movie biz people, and one can surely imagine what happens then?
What's good:
Better than I recalled. 70's throwback bad girls get naked, have sex, and violence. The still unreleased original soundtrack by Rick Howard is surprisingly good, and varied, as it ranges from 70's groovy Funk to easy listening. Director Michael Findlay did softcore porn mostly, but is decent in the exploitation genre here. He died in 1977 as he was snuffed in a helicopter accident on top of the Pan Am building in New York which was the big deja-vu moment for me as one of my friends in school, and his family were in that accident, but unlike Findlay, they lived to tell.
What's bad:
Sometimes boring, and quite messy. Switches from an orgy of atrocities to a light TV type drama, and back. Bad acting to the extreme at times, even worse special effects, and how they managed to convince anyone that this was a real snuff movie is way beyond me, but it was the 70's, so, I guess...the drugs?
The Verdict:
I doubt strongly that Stanley Kubrick was ever inspired by Snuff, however this little fella reminds of Eyes Wide Shut.
What I'm trying to say here is that Snuff of course is nowhere near the masterpiece EWS is but is better than the 2.8 imdb rating, and cool demented video nasty fun that's worth a re-watch.
Although it's got guts, it wasn't so much about the film, but the hype, as the film makers claimed it was a real snuff film, and so audiences, and police, lined up for the premiere. Well, at first the movie was slept on, and forgotten, so they added an extra scene at the end, and promoted that as a real killing where the actors were never seen again, hence the tag line, and it ends with "Shit we ran outta film..did you get it all?" pretending it was all real. Nowadays, that wouldn't fool a fool, but back then it was genius marketing.
Snuff is quirky fun. Hands down.
Rating: 3/6
