Snuff

Starring:Snuff
Studio: Blue Underground
Product Type: DVD

Masters of Horror - John Carpenter - Cigarette Burns

Average customer rating:

For Horror Fans, not the General Public
Cigarette Burn or Hole in the Plot?
Carpenter Does Carpenter
Creepy, surreal, gory, original, outstanding.
Cigarette burns is just ok

Masters of Horror - John Carpenter - Cigarette Burns
Starring: Gary Hetherington , Udo Kier , and Norman Reedus
Director: John Carpenter
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B000E5KUME
Release Date: 2006-03-28

Product Description

In this episode Jimmy Sweetman ventures out to locate a rare film print called Le Fin Du Monde . The film once shown has been known to drive its audience into a crazed frenzy before the theatre goes up in flames. He finally discovers that the film does live up to it s reputation on the results are quite shocking.

Format: DVD MOVIE

Amazon.com

John Carpenter's installment in the Masters of Horror cable-TV anthology series looks at the ominous, underground mystique surrounding a notorious 1970s horror classic (now there's something Carpenter should know about). Cigarette Burns tracks the search for said opus, Le Fin Absolue du Monde, by the owner of a repertory theater (Norman Reedus) on behalf of a highly decadent millionaire collector (a role made for Udo Kier). The film, supposedly destroyed after it caused a riot at its only screening, causes viewers to turn into homicidal, cannibalistic maniacs. Even as Reedus gets on the trail of the lone existing print--listening to an interview with the director, looking at production stills--he begins to fall under its supernatural sway. Alas, the same can't be said for Cigarette Burns itself; the stuff about horror aficionados is good, but the production is slapdash, the dialogue stiff, and Reedus's performance incompetent. The basic idea, while a little film-schoolish, has some intrigue, and the notion of a film critic (supposedly a follower of Pauline Kael, no less) driven to write millions of words about this one barely-seen movie is amusingly sinister. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews:

For Horror Fans, not the General Public.......2007-05-31

Carpenter dons his old school hat and delivers here. The story here is interesting and fits perfectly into the 1 hour format. Excellent gore scenes! Some genuinely creepy moments, and if I weren't so jaded, I may have actually been scared.

The plot is mentioned in other reviews-- sorta reminds me of Polanski's THE NINTH GATE (wouldn't it be nice to get Polanski aboard for an episode?). An rich eccentric, freaky film collector hires some bozo to track down the reel to a legendary film that was screened once and caused the audiance to go berzerka and slaughter each other. The rest is for you to find out and enjoy.

The dialouge is appropriate and the directing,cinematgraphy is great-- I don't care what the mainstream reviewers say. If you are a horror fan and enjoy the old Carpenter films-- you will dig this bad boy.

Cigarette Burn or Hole in the Plot?.......2007-05-24

The long lost, nearly impossible to find film ends up being at the late director's house in the care of his wife. Who woulda thunk it! Maybe they should have started at the top of the list in their search.

Still, it's a good flick.

Carpenter Does Carpenter.......2007-05-16

As far as Masters of Horror goes, no one is contesting that John Carpenter belongs in the list. Considering that the man behind The Thing is responsible for this installment of the flawed Showtime series, one would expect the episode to ripple with Carpenter's trademark creeping terror, a lush lust for the shadows that make bedrooms, basements, and movie theatres so creepy to begin with.

If that's what you're expecting, you won't be disappointed. Not that much, anyway.

I'll forgive the guy for essentially rehashing a plot that he already did so well (and so bizarrely) with In the Mouth of Madness. There's a movie somewhere out there entitled "Le Fin Absolue du Monde," a grisly flick that's so disturbing that, at its premiere, most of the audience went insane and started killing each other. Mr. Bellinger (Udo Kier as an unapologetically evil arcane film buff) wants to see this urban legend of a film before he dies, and he enlists in his search Kirby Sweetman, a tortured movie-house director who happens to be good at tracking down these sorts of things.

During his quest for the vile movie, Kirby encounters snuff film auteurs, chained and de-winged angels, and flashbacks to his own unsettling past, all accompanied by "cigarette burns," strange glowing circles that, in the movie world, indicate a reel change. There's disturbing (very disturbing) violence, dead-ends, and even a deranged movie critic, one of the film's original viewers, a survivor of the premiere who has spent the rest of his life writing a review that fills dozens and dozens of towering cardboard boxes (Carpenter's smug mockery of his detractors, perhaps?).

It's not surprising that Carpenter has done quite well what he's already done well before, but it is surprising that he would cast Norman Reedus as the lead, Kirby Sweetman. I have listened to those who would defend his performance in this film, but the plain facts are that the man does an absolutely horrendous job. In half of his scenes he wanders about with the dazed expressionlessness of a man who has woken up thirty seconds ago to find a film crew in his house. The rest of the time he appears mildly drunk and seems annoyed by the fact that he has to do some more "acting." I don't get why this guy wasn't fired after the first day.

Nevertheless, in spite of Reedus's incompetence, this short horror segment still works, which says a lot for Mr. Carpenter, et. al. Shudder at the gore, scratch your head at the conclusion, and laugh at Norman's attempts to emote; "Cigarette Burns" may not drive you mad, but it will keep you entertained.

Creepy, surreal, gory, original, outstanding........2007-03-15

This is actually the very first work from John Carpenter since "The Thing" to scare me at all. I was eleven when "The Thing" blew me away with its gore, violence, and creepy horror, but ever since then it seemed as though his films were getting more and more cheesy. Even "In the Mouth of Madness" which I enjoyed for its Lovecraft-style themes and mood was more surreal than scary. "Cigarette Burns" is both surreal and scary, with dark underlying religious tones. There is the running undercurrent during the story of the fear of the unknown, or the unearthed secret and/or creation that should remain hidden for the sake of all mankind. Themes that are undeniably Lovecraft. I actually did not have a problem with the acting at all, I was simply too enthralled with the mystery and eventual horrifying climax to even notice. The heart of the mystery is incredibly original and thought-provoking, the journey absolutely worth taking. With so many bad horror films coming out these days it is incredibly refreshing to see a true Master of Horror show these young twerps just how it should be done. Even if it is just a short film. Excellent.

Cigarette burns is just ok.......2007-03-04

I was disappointed by this masters of horror episode. I guess i expected more from a director like John Carpenter.

There were some scary moments and a bunch of gore, even some music reminiscent of carpenter's older Halloween score, but I found myself thinking the acting was highly subpar and the story was getting more and more far fetched as we went along. It's better than other stuff out there but I'm not sure that is saying much.

Average customer rating:

Most Courageous film ever.
Dark film
Extraordinary Film
You will not be disappointed.
This is NOT your Everyday Creep Fest!

8MM
Starring: Nicolas Cage , Joaquin Phoenix , James Gandolfini , Peter Stormare , and Anthony Heald
Director: Joel Schumacher
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B000BBOUW2
Release Date: 2005-11-22

Description

Academy Award® winner Nicolas Cage stars with Joaquin Phoenix and Catherine Keener in an electrifying thriller from the writer of Seven. Directed by Joel Schumacher (The Client, Batman Forever, A Time to Kill), this dramatic story follows one man's obsessive search for the truth about a six-year-old crime and his ultimate discovery of the truth about himself.

Customer Reviews:

Most Courageous film ever........2007-06-11

American people should be proud of this film, the courage of showing such a disgusting subject and not only the courage of producers, but the actors and the director are equally courageous. Why I said that American people should be proud of this film, unfortunately United States are the greatest producer of pornography and all kind of pornography of the whole world, in Miami for example white americans get men from Africa and countries like Cuba and put them to make sex with "barely legal white american girls" creating tons and tons of sexual sites that are a direct offense to American families and to American history, someone should do something immediately, maybe CIA or FBI, someone, so this film is an alert to American people of what's been happening nowadays, thank you Nicolas Cage, sometimes is necessary to show things even when it is not what we want to see. It is necessary to recover the moral values of the founding fathers.

Dark film.......2007-05-05

An interesting choice for Nicolas Cage, but he and Joaquin Phoenix are great in this film. A little disturbing, a great but twisted plot.

Extraordinary Film.......2007-03-14

Once you get past the nagging and uninspired performance of Catherine Keener, You will find this to be an outstanding and often times very uncomfortable (in a good way) film. With the exception of Keener, great performances abound....Including Cage, who in my opinion has never returned to the form he displayed in "Leaving Las Vegas"...This movie being the exception. Joaquin Phoenix, however, is the real standout. Great performance. James Gandolfinni is completely unlikeable, but being the villan, that is a good thing. Great story, beautifully shot and completely engrossing. You cannot lose with this film. This is great filmaking !!! 5 Stars.

You will not be disappointed........2007-03-10

A dark, gritty view of the darkside of our humanity and sexual interests.
Nicolas Cage portrays an average family man who, by his job as a private eye, is thrust into a sinister world of sexual depravity. Deeply moving, emotional, frightening, and almost too real.

This is NOT your Everyday Creep Fest!.......2006-11-05

This movie actually takes you like it or not to a completely different world and I don't mean by use of a Star Ship or matter energy transporter. No the strange new worlds one experiences watching this movie are found right here on Earth in the seedy sides of town. OFTEN SOME rich powerful men by day have GIGANTIC strange even perverse sexual appitites by night for treats both subtle and gross. As we know in the United States wherever there is money waiting their is no need so twisted, saddistic and sick that some willing hard up enterprising soul won't make it his personal business of satisfy fully completely and often.

Men of wealth with perverse sexual needs and those who satisfy them is the core of the story. 8MM is a peek into a world of, rich powerful men with saddistic sexual needs that appear to know no boundries at all. 8MM also highlights in great detail the things done by those thuggish brutish men who make it their life's work to satisfy their clients most craven evil ruthlessly profligate dispicable passions. How the movie unfolds I won't share here but trust me this is an action adventure movie with a truly sick and twisted plot. 8MM brings to the surface some of the gruesome horror lurking in deep shadows of some alternative sexual lifestyles. 8MM will imprint itself on your mind because, a visit to the world it reveals is not one easily forgotten at least by me and I loved watching it.

A note this movie is diffinately not family viewing. 8MM is not even for the faint of heart from polite society. I am warning you that while still VERY MUCH Hollywood this film does a pretty good job of being real in ways that could way too easily gag a maggot!

Average customer rating:

Awesome!!
Two stars for the movie and another for Joaquin Pheonix
Disturbing Subject Matter
Dark Disturbing and Utterly Enthralling
Who did the music?

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ASIN: 0767821823
Release Date: 1999-09-14

Amazon.com

This thoroughly unpleasant thriller from the hands of Joel Schumacher (Batman and Robin) offers very little in its lurid tour of snuff films and the seedy pornographic underworld. A wooden Nicolas Cage stars as a private detective hired by a tycoon's widow, who discovers in her dead husband's safe some 8mm footage of a young girl being sexually abused and slaughtered. Cage's job is to determine the veracity of the film and to find out the girl's identity, whether she be alive or dead. What could have been a taut, nerve-jangling thriller is instead a lumbering, overwrought but underwritten tale of vigilante justice. Screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker also penned the imaginative and compelling Seven, but you wouldn't know it from this tired and monotonous script. Schumacher tries for echoes of both The Silence of the Lambs and Paul Schrader's Hardcore (which stars George C. Scott as a father trying to find his daughter in the seedy porn industry), but despite some slick camerawork, the film fails to draw the audience into either the mystery of the missing girl or Cage's supposed internal conflicts. It's not so much the unsavory subject matter as it is the sloppy and unimaginative filmmaking that makes the movie unbearable. Of the entire cast only Joaquin Phoenix, as a charismatic goth boy who works at an adult book store, comes away with a memorable performance. --Mark Englehart

Customer Reviews:

Awesome!!.......2006-11-05

This is a very well-made movie that made me feel a lot of different emotions. Disturbing to think about "snuff" films and its great that someone made a good movie revolving around that. Nicholas Cage once again displays his talent as an amazing actor. I am really impressed by this movie and how it made me feel throughout. Unique, creative, thrilling and chilling!!!! I love it!!

Two stars for the movie and another for Joaquin Pheonix.......2006-04-03

The main plot of the movie: a rich man dies; his wife hires Cage as a PI to see if a woman was really killed on a film she found in his safe. While the material that is dealt with in the film is disgusting, it's not why I didn't like it. I usually like Cage and think he is a great actor, but he was stiff and un-Cage like throughout the movie. He just couldn't get into the part and become his character, rather than just saying the lines. The movie moved sooo slowly, that I just wanted to skip to the end and find out what happened.

The only true treasure of the film was Joaquin Pheonix, whose role was unfortunately too short. He was the only one who seemed to hold the film together and made it worth watching. It reminded me just how good of an actor he is, even in a small part like that. Other than that, I did respect the end of the movie, which showed that anyone could be a monster, your neighbor, your friend, even someone in your family...and monsters aren't dressed like the boogeyman, but rather look like everyone else on the street.

If you have nothing to do and like Pheonix, then I recommend it. If you like Cage then don't watch it, you will be highly disappointed. The unfortunate thing is that the plot is a good idea; it just wasn't pulled off well.

Disturbing Subject Matter.......2006-02-06

The first time I saw this movie I found it so disturbing in subject matter that I thought I would never watch it again. It is still disturbing but I don't find it as bad as the first time I saw it. The topic and what the film is based around is the underbelly society and the horrible side of human behavior in the outlaw culture of underground pornography, specifically snuff films. Snuff films are supposedly an urban legend where some one is raped and or assaulted and then killed on film. The premise revolves around a rich widow who finds a reel of film in her recently deceased husbands safe that contains what appears to be a 'Snuff Film'. She hires family man and P.I. Nicholas Cage to investigate and says she only wants to know if the film is real, who the girl was and if she is alive or if she was murdered on film. This plunges family man Cage into the scummy dark world of outlaw underground porn and the sick disgusting people that bottom feed there. And as the old saying goes and as Joaquin Phoenix warns Cage, "when you dance with the devil you don't change him, he changes you."

Good movie but definitely not for everyone and the material can be very disturbing to those who can't handle it. Katherine Keener is good as is Peter Stormare and an unforgettable villian simply known as The Machine.

Dark Disturbing and Utterly Enthralling.......2006-01-14

It seems that whenever this movie is brought up in a discussion the general negative reaction seems to be: It was so *bad*! The entire thing was about violent porn! Who on Earth would *like* that?!?!

Well, no one. And that's the point. This movie is *not* made as a way of glamorizing violence and death so that the viewer will like it. The entire point of the movie is to show that there happens to be a very real and very ugly world out there that we happily do not or can not see on a day to day basis.

The film pulls no punches with reality even going so far as to be the only film of it;s kind in history to have a paid dominatrix as a consultant. It shows a gritty part of the porn industry that 20/20 in all of it's Oh So Shocked pompous news reports would vomit at the site of.

But don't let that turn you off. The worst of it is mostly psychological. As for violence the hardest part for me to watch was in the beginning when Cage is watching the snuff film he's asked to investigate. We see the girl's killer sock her in the face before slashing her to bits which I found hard to watch because: 1) I HATE seeing women get punched. So from a moral stand point I was offended which is a good thing. Seeing things like this serve to remind us of why it's important to hold onto our own morals and ethics which seems to be the theam of the movie. And...2) The actual "slashing to bits" is never shown at any point throughout the movie, but what we *do* see is Cage's expression when watching the film which sometimes can be more jarring than seeing the actual deed its self.

Watching this movie I'm reminded of another book I read where the author had written something along the lines of: I make a point to never turn away from torture. It seems disrespectful to turn your head away because you have the option when the person who is in pain has nothing at all. To shut of your TV because you found some of this offensive to your person seems like a cheep way out. More than anything this film serves to remind us that there are parts of you that you may not like, but exists anyway.

How you deal with them after that will determine who you are.

Who did the music?.......2006-01-09

At best this is a bad B-movie remake of Hardcore.

But who did the music? the credits only list two peices, neither one of which apppears to be the arabic music all thru the film.

Average customer rating:

They claim it's real, but....

The Great American Snuff Film
Starring: Mike Marsh , Ryan Hutman , Melinda Lorenz , Holi Tavernier , and Jason Dinger
Director: Sean Tretta
Manufacturer: Brain Damage
ProductGroup: DVD
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Release Date: 2007-03-06

Customer Reviews:

They claim it's real, but...........2007-05-16

In 1971, there was a little film called "The Slaughter." From all accounts, the film was horrendous. So it was re-edited, and a special scene was added at the end. Then, with the tagline "A film that could only be made in South America, where life is cheap," the film was re-released in 1976 as Snuff. The special scene supposedly depicted an actual murder, committed especially for the film. An intensive publicity campaign, including fake protesters who were hired to add to the film's notoriety, led to success.

Nearly thirty years later, along comes "The Great American Snuff Film." As the box and the film tell us again and again, this is the true story of William Allen Grone, a nasty serial killer who was executed in 2003. But wait, it gets worse. Grone was driven by his desire to make, in his own words, "the great American snuff film," and he actually produced 2 1/2 minutes of it--along with a number of diary entries that detailed his horrific crimes. But wait again! It gets even worse. This DVD contains "actual" footage from the murder. Just jump to the end of the film, and there it is. (It's right after the statement in the film that it's illegal in the United States to own a snuff film.)

Okay, reality check. Search for "William Allen Grone" online, and you'll find nothing but references to this film. The film claims that some names were changed to protect certain people, so maybe, just maybe, the filmmakers decided that the real killer's name shouldn't be used lest the film somehow sully his reputation. But then you look at the people who were executed in 2003 in the United States, and you find nobody who remotely fits the bill. Then there's the question of just how likely it is that a film with the actual footage of a murder would make it into reputable stores and Amazon.com.

So the whole thing's a stunt to entice viewers. There's nothing new there. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre claimed to be real. So did The Blair Witch Project. And, as noted, "Snuff" did, too. None of them, however, claimed to have the actual footage.

Beyond the marketing campaign, there is the issue of the film itself. This is a gritty, low-budget film that is done fairly well. The killers (Grone and his accomplice) abduct two girls whom Grone plans to murder as part of his snuff film. For a period of days, they torture the girls in a variety of ways, and most of this part of the film is quite convincing. All four actors do a very good job: Mike Marsh as the cold, calculating Grone; Ryan Hutman as the impulsive and dim-witted Roy; and Melinda Lorenz and Holi Tavernier as the victims. We also see periodic flashbacks to Grone's recent past, including his first murder.

Unlike, say, The Silence of the Lambs, which was based, in part, on a real case but which featured the completely unrealistic Hannibal Lector, "The Great American Snuff Film" rings true. Though there was no real Grone, the character we see could indeed be any number of predators out there. The gritty filmmaking, no doubt in large part because of budget constraints, works well at conveying a sense of dread and hopelessness that pervades the film. Like Henry - Portrait of a Serial Killer, "The Great American Snuff Film" succeeds to whatever extent it does in large part because of the techniques.

Average customer rating:

Not very entertaining
THE ONLY MOVIE PULLED BECAUSE OF A REAL MURDER ON SET
"Forgive me for my ignorance, but I am fascinated by it...."
Oh the humanity!
Snuff

Snuff
Director: Michael Findlay , and Roberta Findlay
Manufacturer: Blue Underground
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000096IBY
Release Date: 2003-07-29

Customer Reviews:

Not very entertaining.......2006-07-11

I love cheesy movies. I love terrible acting, terrible direction, terrible scripts, everything. However, I have little patience if the movie as a whole is boring. There's just not a lot here. Ignore the hype - there was no real murder on the set, no one died to make this "film", the murder was (poorly, in fact) staged.

I had always seen this DVD on the shelf at Borders and the packaging and tag line ("a film that could only be made in South America where life is cheap") looked intriguing. Then I read about the film in David Kerekes's great book, Killing for Culture. The book, by the way, is incredibly good. I foolishly disregarded his warning that Snuff is a mess of a movie. If you're reading this review, you're probably a fan of the exploitation picture. I recommend getting Kerekes's book and reading about Snuff rather than buying the expensive DVD.

Snuff presents itself as a genuine video nasty - something sinister, sick, and twisted. It's really just amateur hour. It does have a few unintentionally funny moments (as these films often do), but it drags in so many places that it's almost not worth the effort. The time would be better spent watching any of the following

Last House on the Left
Last House on Dead End Street
I Spit on Your Grave
Toolbox Murders
etc.

These movies are great. Snuff isn't. Don't waste your time and money.

THE ONLY MOVIE PULLED BECAUSE OF A REAL MURDER ON SET.......2005-09-17

THIS MOVIE WAS NOT THAT GREAT BUT CAUGHT MY ATTENTION BY MY FATHER WHEN HE TOLD ME ABOUT THE REAL LIFE MURDER AND POSSIBLY ANOTHER THAT HAPPENED DURING THE FILMING OF THE MOVIE. THE SCENE THAT TOOK PLACE WITH THE GUY TIED TO THE TREE HE WAS REALLY MURDER THE DIRECTOR WANT REALISM AND THAT SCENE WAS THE REAL MURDER THAT HAPPENED.

"Forgive me for my ignorance, but I am fascinated by it....".......2005-05-06

When sitting down to review this film I was torn between whether it deserved one or five stars. I had known about "Snuff" for quite some time and was very excited when I found that it was availble on DVD. I originally read a great deal about the subject matter for a paper I did on horror movies reflecting cultural fears for a film class, but never got around seeing the film (it was not readily available at the time). This movie is so bad that it truly is a work of art.

"Snuff" was filmed in Argentina (apparently originally to be titled either "El Angel de la muerte" or "American Cannibale") in 1971 or 1972 with out sound and dubbed in America. The premise of this film is loosely based on the Manson murders, although the Manson character named Sataan looked more like a 70's teen hearthrob (like Bobby Sherman) with 5 o'clock shadow. There are plenty of attractive 70's women including a "Sharon Tate" type character who looks like a cross between Jane Birkin and Astrud Gilberto. Everything about this movie is truly wretched, with the exception the music which is in much the style of the Velvet Underground, Brainticket, Amon Duul II and Can playing sort of a "Born to be Wild" themed jam. The dialogue is quite humorous including the leading lady's excellent line, "Please forgive me of my ignorance, but I am facinated by it..." when speaking to her supposidely German (he looked latin, although you would think they could find some Germans somewhere in Argentina) lover's father about his weapon manufacturing business.

The original director (A.Bochin?!?) realized this film was too lousy to release, scraping it before it was complete, sitting on the shelf until 1976 when Michael Findlay added the "snuff" ending to it. Apparently this ending garnered the movie serious attention, although most of it started with a publicity stunt including fake police investigations, fake banning and "plants" in the audience to feign horror, fainting and sickness over the subject matter. In fact more was put into the overall publicity of this film, than in to film itself. It was truly a Warholian event.

The amusing thing about the movie is some people thought it was real. I have yet to see Tempura paint that actually looks like blood, although the reason for using orange-red Tempura in this film is beyond me. In some of the murder scenes, you can actually see the blood on the clothes before the stabbing takes place!! The attached "snuff" ending looks nothing like the original film. The original movie, as I mentioned was filmed in 1972 and the added bit at the end was filmed in 1975 or 1976 with no attempt to get an actress who looked anything like any of the actresses in the original movie or keep in mind that styles had changed in three years time. Also the apparent "snuffing" of the actress is absurdly fake, including cutting fingers off with a pair of wire cutters and cutting a whole hand off with a jigsaw (and these are clean cuts too!!!!). Those are pretty impressive wire cutters and a mean jigsaw if they can cut cleanly through skin, muscle and bone.

This movie has to be seen to be believed.

Oh the humanity!.......2004-12-12

Have you ever seen a film so bad, so cosmically awful in every single one of its gutter level, rotten attributes that you gaze in open mouthed awe at the idiocy of it all? I have, and I'm going to tell you all about it right now. It's called "House of the Dead"...oh, sorry; I'll be writing that review later tonight. I meant to say that the film in question is Roberta and Michael Findlay's 1970's dud "Snuff." Actually, the finished product we see here on this DVD isn't solely the fault of the aforementioned couple. Apparently, some yutz picked up the rights to the film five years after Roberta and Michael made it in Argentina. That's right--most of this film takes place in South America. After watching this atrocity the stupidity of the invasion of the Falkland Islands a few years later makes more sense. Anyway, this huckster shot a couple of cheesy H.G. Lewis quality gore scenes, inserted them at pertinent (yeah right) places in the film, and unleashed it on an unassuming public by advertising it as a real life snuff movie. How many people went to see this crud based on the advertising campaign is unclear to this day, probably because no one wants to admit their crime. The statute of limitations on willingly seeing bad films hasn't run out yet, either.

"Snuff," which we should call "Jigsaw" since that's what the film resembles, begins with a completely nonsensical scene before breaking down into complete anarchy. We see a couple of young ladies zipping down the road on a motorcycle as some generic rock music--although it resembles Steppenwolf's "Born to be Wild" in some respects--plays in the background. These girls, the names of whom I couldn't remember at gunpoint, eventually chase down another woman named Ana. It turns out that Ana is the procurer of narcotics for a cult run by the wily Satan (that's Satan pronounced so that it rhymes with Rattan), and she tried to pull a fast one on the group. After an amazingly lame chase sequence, Ana ends up lying on the ground with her feet in stocks. One of her "sisters" takes a knife and twists it around between Ana's toes. Ouch! It's always better to pay for a professional pedicure rather than let an amateur do it for free. Anyway, these scenes take up only a small part of the film. Once they let Ana go, the film downshifts into an insipid plot involving a film actress named Terry, a film director called Max, and her lover Horst. Believe it or not, there is a connection between Satan and Terry. It's unfortunate in the extreme that we couldn't just wrap the whole thing up in the first five minutes before the pain of watching "Snuff" increased to intolerable levels.

Horst seems to live at home with his arms dealer father, a man so grating to the senses that I couldn't feel my appendages two seconds after seeing him. He shouts, he bullies, he argues with anyone within earshot. Why? Don't ask me. What we do know is that Horst has a thing going on with Angelica, a woman who just happens to be a spy in the employ of Satan. Of course, Terry doesn't know about this covert relationship at first. She's too busy listening to Max talk up the latest movie deal, a deal that will eventually fall through. At some point in the "narrative" Terry goes to a Carnival type street festival and sits there for what feels like hours with Max. The movie, in an effort to transcend its five peso budget, loads up the screen with tons of stock footage of South American Carnival type street festival footage. It's strange: we see a close up of Terry and Max that is obviously shot against the side of a building somewhere, then see the film cut away to incredibly grainy stock footage. It's so obvious the two events have no connection that one wonders why the filmmakers even bothered. Let's skip to the end, eh? Satan's female cult members rob a store, Angelica tells a story about her abusive childhood and the demise of her father, and the cult embarks on a Manson Family style spree at Horst's father's house. The end.

Sorry about the rather jumbled summary, but would you believe I did that with the help of notes? Yep, I took notes on this movie and STILL can't fashion a coherent synopsis. The film simply makes no sense. Random scenes, like a cult member stabbing some guy in a bathroom at an airport, stand as sequences entirely independent from the rest of the film. For that matter, the whole Carnival scene makes little sense. I think it is painfully obvious why it appears in the movie, though. Using stock footage achieves two important goals for the micro budget filmmaker: it's cheaper than shooting your own stuff, and it helps to pad the run time. As for the big "scene" at the end of the film, the scene hyped as real snuff footage, it isn't anything a self-respecting gorehound will write home about. Like I said earlier, you've seen what happens in the scene before if you've ever experienced any of Herschell Gordon Lewis's gore films. In other words, the effects do achieve a certain level of yuckiness even as they look extraordinarily cheap.

I feel sorry for anyone subjected to "Snuff." Heck, I feel sorry for the technicians who had to go through the footage for hundreds of hours during the DVD transfer process. I'm seriously (very seriously) considering elevating this film to the top of my worst films ever list. It's even worse than "Manos: The Hands of Fate," which at least was so bad that it entertained on a certain level. There is nothing remotely entertaining about "Snuff." It's eighty minutes of excruciating agony that even my worst enemy shouldn't have to watch.

Snuff.......2004-11-05

Snuff is a pretty good exploitation film. The original storyline mentioned below is not bad and then of course at the end they do the snuff gag. I give the director credit he took a risk making an experimental film and didnt do too bad of a job. You could probably make an argument that the blair witch project got some ideas from this flick. Overall not too bad, I had fun watching Snuff.

Average customer rating:

Fetus Monster, eh?
Get this...you will not be disappointed.
Argento influenced Japanese horror.
JAPANESE ITALIAN-LIKE HORROR FLICK
Entertaining but uneven Japanese slasher

Evil Dead Trap
Starring: Miyuki Ono , Aya Katsuragi , Hitomi Kobayashi , Eriko Nakagawa , and Masahiko Abe
Director: Toshiharu Ikeda
Manufacturer: Image
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Audition (Uncut Special Edition)
Stacy
Evil Dead Trap 2 (Shiryo No Wana 2: Hideki)
Oldboy
Whispering Corridors

ASIN: 6305789649
Release Date: 2000-11-07

Description

Arguably the most controversial and popular Japanese horror film ever made, Evil Dead Trap (aka Shiryo no Wana) is finally on DVD in the United States from Synapse Films! Nami, a talk show hostess, tells her audience to send in home videos to profile on her late night program. Soon, she receives anonymous videotape in the mail^Ea tape containing terrifying imagery. She watches in horror as an unseen filmmaker follows a route to an abandoned factory^Eand brutally tortures and kills a woman on camera. A camera crew is assembled and they set off to follow the videotape^R s trail to the foreboding location. What they find there is a horror beyond imagination! There is someone^Eor something^Ein the mysterious building. Something waiting in the shadows to torture and murder them one by one^E This film has a huge cult following and is sure to please any serious horror film fan!

Customer Reviews:

Fetus Monster, eh?.......2007-03-05

I am a little torn on how to rate this movie. On the one hand I was greatful that there was not any long hair pale ghost girls but on the other I wasn't expecting a fetus monster that resembles an alien. I enjoyed about 3/4 of the movie but the alien fetus living inside the murderer (the fetus was the one doing the killing) was a bit much for me. Needless to say when she was possessed by the murderous alien fetus...I was glad the movie ended.

Get this...you will not be disappointed........2006-10-10

Before Ringu made Japanese horror films mainstream in the west, there was Evil Dead Trap...probably the most well known Asian horror film of its time. A late night news program recieves an apparent snuff film from an obsessed viewer. Hoping this will be the big story she has been looking for, anchorette Nami and her crew decice to investigate. Once the bodies start to drop though, it becomes clear to Nami that there may be more to this story than meets the eye.

This is a great Japanese horror film from the 80's with an ending reminescent of early Cronenberg. Any fan of the genre should be more than pleased.

Argento influenced Japanese horror........2006-07-04

A reporter looking for her big break finds it when a maniac mails her a snuff film and directions to an abandoned factory. Without telling anybody she and four co-workers go to investigate (great idea!) and are shocked to find out there really is a killer on the loose and he's after them (imagine that!).

One by one the killer knocks off the victims in violent ways (cleaver to the head, decapitation, massive spearing) all leading up to his main prize: the girl he mailed the tape to. With such an exciting start you'd think that this film would just get creepier and creepier, but instead when it gets down to the Final Girl it actually slows way down then drags on to some confusing nightmarish ending that caused me to make a face like I was eating a lemon while reading an advanced physics math book.

JAPANESE ITALIAN-LIKE HORROR FLICK.......2005-11-12

This is a very bizzare and I won't hesitate to say - one of the best Japanise horror flicks I've seen. First if your opinion on Japanise horror tradition is based on such titles as "The Ring", "Grudge" and "Dark Water", you may forget about them - that is to say the latest Japanise wave. In 1980-s it was by far different. "Evil Dead Trap" has some supernatural elements as well, but it's made in a totally different style. I'd call it Japanise-Italian style no mater how funny that may sound. This movie reminds of giallo films in general and of some particular works by Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci. Everything is done here in Italian manner - cinematography, music, camera angles, ghastly murder scenes. I'm far from thinking it was the director's intention but sometimes I got the feeling I was watching some tribute to Italian masters of horror. I'm sure there were scenes imitating the ones from "Suspiria" and "Phenomena" for example, and eyeball-slitting scene was a flat-out homage to Fulci's "The New York Ripper". And music - if I heard it while my eyes were blindfolded and was asked what it is - I'd say it's Goblin's soundtrack to some new Argento movie.
"Evil Dead Trap" (apart from having a stupid title) is at times absurd, surreal and strange but without a doubt very stylish, original and fresh although as I said is reminiscent of many Italian horrors. That's a very pleasant fact considering it was made in 1988. I'm not sure you'll like it if you have just a shadowy idea about Japanise horror, but if you are an aficionado - I bet this movie would be interesting for you.

Entertaining but uneven Japanese slasher.......2005-03-27

Until its final (disappointing) reels, "Evil Dead Trap" is basically a slasher film with an intriguing premise: The hostess of a late-night TV show for Insomniacs solicits home videos from her viewers. She receives a tape that follow a van as it makes its way outside the city to an abandoned military complex. Inside, the faceless videographer appears to torture and then murder a woman. The TV show host gets a crew together to investigate - WRONG move. Someone or some thing lies in the shadows, ready to torture and murder Nami's crew one by one. What could he want with Nami?

The first thing you should know about "Evil Dead Trap" is that its violence is far more intense than your average US slasher. Fans of Dario Argento or Lucio Fulci (whose work "EDT" mines extensively) probably won't be shocked by the level of violence, but your casual viewer might be turned off by the sheer brutality of the carnage. Unlike say Jason or Freddy, the faceless killer of "Evil Dead Trap" isn't content to just murder his victims. Nope, this baddy wants to actually torture them in a series of highly sadistic and elaborate set pieces. The body count isn't especially high, but it does include intense, graphic scenes of eye-gouging, a cleaver to the head, a garote/neck-snapping, etc. Gorehounds will love it; casual horror fans might be seriously put off.

Aside from the brutality, what sets "Evil Dead Trap" apart for me is the stylish camera work and chilly atmosphere of the film. Corridors of the labyrinthian military base are lit with bold Technicolors. There's a gorgeous scene set in the fog-drenched woods outside. The soundtrack is unintrusive but effectively creepy. I'd never realized how much Japanese horror was incluenced by Italian gaillo and gore films, but fans of Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci will recognize little stylistic flourishes throughout "Evil Dead Trap."

There are some plot gaps. For one thing, if I'd received a snuff film in the mail, my first response would be to contact the police - NOT to investigate the source on my own! Even assuming the film was fake, the kind of person who'd stage a mock snuff that features a woman getting her eye pierced by a large, sharp poker (in graphic, disgusting detail) is not the kind of person I want to meet. The first few minutes of the movie require some serious suspension of disbelief ...

And the ending is a letdown. "Evil Dead Trap" is so stylish that for the first hour or so I started to enjoy the fairly by-the-numbers predictability of it all. The last half an hour veers into some highly ridiculous Freudian psychobabble terrain that didn't seem to fit. I give the screenwriter/director credit for trying to do something different, but the ending is a serious departure from the rest of the film. The last half an hour or so seems to lag, and things get uninteresting once "Evil Dead Trap" tries to explain itself.

Anyway, all that said - ANY fan of Japanese or Eurohorror will enjoy the movie, and US horror fans who have a stomach for graphic violence should be entertained. "Evil Dead Trap" is uneven and flawed, but it kept me rivetted for most of the film.

Average customer rating:

Hard Time
Starring: Charles Durning , Gene Lebell , Robert Loggia , Roddy Piper , and Paco Prieto
Director: Burt Reynolds
Manufacturer: Platinum Disc
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Hard Time: The Premonition
Cybercity
Jungleground
Last to Surrender
No Contest

ASIN: B0002IQJ6E
Release Date: 2004-08-03

Average customer rating:

horribly gay
razor-test@chadtest.evolvs.com
Decent Little B-Thriller
Surfin' the Net

Watchusdie.com
Starring: Jennifer Cooper (II) , Erin Cottrell , Amy Miller (VII) , Kim Kelly , and Peter Vita
Director: Ryan Woo
Manufacturer: Pathfinder Home Ent.
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Scream Theater Double Feature, Vol. 2: The Last Slumber Party/Terror at Tenkiller

ASIN: B00009B8C2
Release Date: 2003-08-12

Description

If you saw what you thought was a murder on the Internet, what would you do? Who would you call? Set in a voyeur site called WatchUsDorm.com, the movie watches the lives of eight women living in the house. These girls are live 24 hours a day, seven days a week - until they begin to die. The first "live" Internet death occurs around midnight when Pia takes a gainer down the main stairs of the WatchUSDorm.com mansion. Was it an accident, or a deliberate murder? No one knows, but more people than ever are watching. A killer is on the loose at WatchUsDorm.com, and suddenly, the name of the site switches to WatchUsDie.com Who do you call? What do you do? You don't know where the house is, or even if what you are watching is real, or a new millennium version of "War of the Worlds." Filmmakers Commentary, Screenplay Excerpts, Still Gallery, Bios

Customer Reviews:

horribly gay.......2004-08-17

I do not know why I rented this movie. Maybe because it was my gut instinct or some shtick like that. One of the worse movies ever made. Oh, it's down there. No one can act in this stupifying movie. I got stupifyed. Look, people who love these kinds of damn music should check themselves at the front door. The woman in that house create someof the worst lines ever spewed and so do the beefcake men. I would wanna watch every copy of this movie get burned in a bonfire. Talking about the music was great, the music sucked, They needed some heavy hardcore rock music or something. The music in this was cheesier then hell. Did they have to put grandma in this? I thought her pacemaker was gonna fail or something, because grandma deserves better. Steer clear from this pile of toxic waste.

razor-test@chadtest.evolvs.com.......2004-06-17

razor-test@chadtest.evolvs.com

Decent Little B-Thriller.......2003-08-25

I was suprised by how good this movie was. Of course its far from high art, butit is even farther from the B movie soft core porn it looks like. Honestly, yes, there is a lot of cheesecake, mainly with the girls in their underwear, or a swim suit, or something of that nature, but actualy nudity? There is VERY little actual nudity. Acting wise, well, to say I was suprise is an understatement. Yes, there are those moments of bad dialogue and all that, but over all the cast did fairly well. Also the production values seem fairly high on this one. The picture is decent,and seems to be filmed, not taped. And the music is very good. Also the thriller part of the movie comes off very well due to the fact that the characters, although far from deep, are mostly likeable. I recomend it.

Surfin' the Net.......2003-08-22

"Watchusdie.com" is a low budget entry into the recently popular voyeur films like "Feardotcom". This is the story of a group of women living in a webcammed filled home. Everything is fine until the women start losing their lives in various accidents. As "hits" on the web site grow, so do the deaths of the inhabitants. The film is more of a thriller than horror as the main interest is figuring out who is doing all the killing. An interesting sub plot shows audience reaction to what is occurring on the web site and is a slight commentary on our current fascination with reality tv and the like. The acting is what can be expected from former playmates and others hired more for their looks than talent. The primary interest is a director's commentary track which illustrates quite well the trials and tribulations of low budget, renegade filmmaking. This makes the film worthwhile and on a whole, you could do a lot worse.

Average customer rating:

Shock X-Treme Vol 1: Snuff Video
Starring: Shock X-Treme
Manufacturer: Brain Damage Films
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Average customer rating:

Is this for real
Some good old fashioned exploitation fun
Last House on Dead end Street or: I Flunked out of Film College and Made This
In a Word, Bad
public access gore

Last House on Dead End Street
Starring: Nan L. Bernstein , Pat Canestro , Alan Cooper , Kathy Curtin , and Doreen Ellis
Manufacturer: Barrel
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Combat Shock
I Spit On Your Grave (Millennium Edition)
Schramm
Emanuelle In America
Henry - Portrait of a Serial Killer (20th Anniversary)

ASIN: B0000687C6
Release Date: 2005-06-14

Customer Reviews:

Is this for real.......2006-06-13

Highly underated. This is a very hard core movie of an persons life which may be very differnt in all respects from anything that I have ever known. This is original as it gets and beware it may gross you out or kick you off your white fence and put you down and when you are down you will be freaky and when your freaky you will be groovey.

Some good old fashioned exploitation fun.......2006-05-30

Since other reviewers have summarized Roger Watkin's life and the conditions for making the film, I will restrict my comments to certain aspects of the film itself. "Last House on Dead End Street" obviously has a reputation. I first learned of it in David Kerekes's phenomenal book, "Killing for Culture". After hearing some people speak of the film, one would expect nothing less than a snuff film. However, most people have not actually seen the film and are simply speculating. Anyone looking for extreme violence or gore is going to be disappointed. One can find much more gore in Herschell Gordon Lewis's hilarious "Wizard of Gore" or more violence in most big-budget Hollywood action pictures. The unique aspect of "Last House" is its gritty supposed "realism". How real it actually appears is up to the viewer. Perhaps it's easier for some to suspend their disbelief than others. Personally, I found it gritty, but just as unrealistic as any film.

The DVD is fairly expensive at around $30, so many are probably wondering if it's worth it. If you're fascinated by the obscure and bizarre or enjoy exploitation movies with absolutely no production values, then you'll appreciate this. Consider yourself warned - there is some absolutely abysmal acting within. The camera work is pretty terrible, the film stock is cheap, the lighting keeps certain scenes from showing much detail, and the script, at times, makes absolutely no sense. But, this is all beside the point. Any fan of this type of movie will love it for these faults. Forget Mystery Science Theater 3000. This movie is funny enough without Mike (or Joel) and the robots. I've noticed other reviewers complaining about the lack of production values. These people, while entitled to their own opinions, have completely missed the point. This movie is supposed to be bad. That's why it's so fun.

To summerize. "Last House on Dead End Street" is fairly violent and gory, but won't disturb the seasoned exploitation film fan. Mainstream views beware - this is probably not something you'll enjoy. For the curious, definitely check it out.

Last House on Dead end Street or: I Flunked out of Film College and Made This.......2006-04-03

really, this film REEKS of failed film student for the whole, what was it? 70 minutes? (cut down from around 180)

i understand it's the director's idea of some sort of social commentary, but it just comes off as nothing more than a pathetic attempt to freak out the establishment.

there are films that depict a society on the edge of depravity that can actually leave an impact on you (Cannibal Holocaust, Salo, Cronenberg's Crash.) but this one just flops over and over like a fish out of water, only to eventually die and leave behind a horrible smell.

In a Word, Bad.......2006-03-22

Four letters: L-A-M-E. I'm so sick and tired of "forgotten horror classics" that cost 20 dollars just to watch. Luckily, I got this one through a free two-week trial with NetFlix. It was, essentially, worth what I paid for it. Some horror flicks that didn't do very well at the box office (Tobe Hooper's The Funhouse, Don't Go in the House, etc.) are really overlooked gems. This one sucks. Don't listen to anyone else.

public access gore.......2006-03-07

the movie bored me. only amateur gore-hounds will be disturbed by this movie. the only cool part was the "surgery" scene. the rest was unrealistic,...if the director wanted to show-off why didnt he show the girls back after she was whipped countless times? if over-dubbed vocals and lack of extreme gore is your thing, spend the money. I'll stick with Nekromantik for now.

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