Corpus_Vile Snuff films.The very term conjures up dark images of a shadowy cabal of depraved human beings, who torture, rape and murder on camera, purely for profit, to sell to a secret and presumably rich clientèle worldwide. A fascinating urban myth, any documentary on the topic is guaranteed my personal attention.The problem with Snuff: A Documentary About Killing On Camera, is that it isn't particularly informative, credible or ultimately very interesting. It covers a number of aspects of the Snuff mythology, from war (as in people getting killed for real, internet be headings, sniper attacks filmed etc), to horror films- yes, the director of Cannibal Holocaust was at one point arrested over fears he'd murdered his actors, and yes, people picketed the film Snuff back in the day, which was itself a cheap gimmick, and yes, every self respecting horror fan knows this anyway- to serial killers, such as Charles Ng and Leonard Lake; two survivalist degenerates who wished for sex slaves, and murdered whole families, tortured and raped the women, and filmed some of it (but not the actual killings) for their gratification.Only thing is... none of these things actually qualify as a bona fide snuff film. In fact, the people interviewed for this documentary- basically directors and "cinephiles" I've never heard of- seem to have an extremely broad generalized view on what precisely a snuff film is, and none of them are really correct in their views.Lake and Ng for example never attempted to sell their films, and didn't murder on camera anyway. An internet beheading is done for political reasons, repugnant as they may be, as are acts of war. Some producer cobbling all these images together for a DVD may be unscrupulous, or even morally dubious, but hardly a snuff film maker. One of the interviewed cinephiles, even tries to make out that Bowling For Columbine is a quasi snuff film, due to its decision to include CCTV footage of the Colombine shootings, which is a severe stretch to say the very least.As for so called "real" bona fide cases, we're treated to a rather dodgy story regarding a Russian Snuff paedophile ring, who supposedly killed kids on camera, only... nothing more is made of this, and from googling the incident, it seems pretty dubious to me.We're then treated to a producer in the adult film industry, who emotively tells of the time he really did see an honest to god snuff film in the bad old '70s, via some shadowy Fillipino distributors. Of course, nobody else was there with him when he saw it, the Fillipinos disappeared, and we only have his word that such an incident ever took place. Hearsay, in short- the backbone of the entire myth of the Snuff film.Then, after one of its interviewees trying to make out Bowling For Columbine is at least quasi snuff, the documentary goes the completely exploitative and absolutely tasteless route in showing some real internet be headings, which I personally found pretty contemptible.So overall, what do we make of this documentary about killing on camera?Eh, it's watchable, but doesn't give any particular useful or new insights into the Snuff legend, particularly to those interested or half-way knowledgeable on the topic.A generous 5/10, mainly for showing clips from Snuff, Cannibal Holocaust and Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer, but overall, there's nothing new or particularly insightful to see or learn here at all.

KineticSeoul This really isn't a good documentary about the topic of "Snuff" but is mostly about movies in the open market that has some realistic looking killings on camera. It's interesting though, for the most part but a lot of it seems to be over done. And I did enjoy it talking about real snuff films around the world, particularly about the Russian crime ring tale even if some claim it to be fake and if it is, it's a interesting lie. But as a whole this really isn't a good documentary and you will not gain that much info about snuff but more about realistic killing in certain films that is in the open market like I said, and I do agree with a lot of what the other reviewers are saying, some of the stories in this does sound a bit fishy. Cause they mention a interesting topic they can really get into, but after mentioning it, they never really get into it. The main flaw with this documentary is how it goes way past it's point and not in a good way either, it should of just stuck with the main topic at hand instead of stretching it. So not a good documentary, but interesting to say the least.4.6/10

Illyngophobia After seeing the trailer on Youtube, I wanted to track this down and see it for myself; since the subjects and topics like this interest me. And this was pretty good. It doesn't only talk about snuff; but touches on topics of serial killers, war and the media; and includes two parts with Mark Rosen's stories; about a disturbing thing he seen and a case about porn/snuff industry.We have a lot of interesting people taking part in this. Former FBI agents, cinephiles and others that know their sh!t when it comes to the history of snuff films. A few things I noticed that a few things were left out. One of which was Tsutomu Miyazaki,who was a Japanese child murderer who reenacted the dismemberment scenes on his victims. That was never mentioned. Websites like rotten and ogrish were also not mentioned either. And the last thing that could have been included,but wasn't because of the time schedule were the Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs. If you don't know them by name,you'll know of their infamous video thats been mentioned a lot across the internet; which was the "shock" video, 3Guys1Hammer that depicts the violent murder of Sergei Yatzenko.[ From what someone told me,the video found its way to the internet about six months after this was filmed ] If this waited a few months,and got mentioned then it would be the cherry on the top of this bloody sundae. Great documentary on its own.

Jeff Chitty This film is absolutely fantastic! For a fan of shocking and subversive cinema, this is as good as a documentary can get!From the opening explanations of what exactly a "snuff film" is by definition, to the de-bunking of urban myths associated with films many of us grew up watching (such as FACES OF DEATH, CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST and SNUFF), to real life footage of Leonard Lake and Charles Ng as well as the "Juba Sniper" and other Iraq footage, this doc is a no holds barred look at the grim realities of death recorded on film.Filmmaker Paul Von Stoetzel does a wonderful job indulging us in just enough of the underbelly of the independent film world to perhaps satisfy our curiosity about the existence of snuff films. I believe most people have a healthy (or maybe unhealthy depending on how one looks at it) curiosity when it comes to the morbid. How many people slow down and look when there is a massive car crash on the side of the highway? This entire film feeds into that curious side of the human mind without taking it too far over the top and verging into pure gratuitous shock value.There are moments of humor while films such as FACES OF DEATH and SNUFF, once believed to contain real footage of death are proved to be mostly if not completely fabricated.There are also sobering moments when cases are presented (along with real video footage) in which the deaths of human beings were indeed filmed.I dare you to sit through the last 10 minutes of this film and come away feeling fine. If you can, then you are most certainly a sociopath! That said, I feel that a film (particularly a documentary) should leave the viewer feeling something, and this film should not disappoint. It is an emotional roller coaster that may leave you feeling dirty and send you to church afterward, but it will not leave you unaffected!This film hits DVD August 26th. If you have a taste for films that are all at once thought provoking, shocking, disturbing and REAL, do yourself a favor and buy this film! -Jeff Chitty