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
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
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