SNUFF (1974)

Directed by Michael Findlay

This laughable Brazilian horror film, about a Manson-like cult of females who follow a goofy guru named "Setan," would have been quickly forgotten were it not for the 5-minute ending American distributors tacked on to the film. (If you don't want to know the ending, don't read the rest of this review).

The original Brazilian movie, which was entitled "Slaughter", basically imitates the whole Manson story, but with a pace that's unbelievably slow, incredibly bad dubbing and mindless dialogue. This part of the film does provide plenty of unintentional laughs. Every time someone is shown on a motorcycle, a pathetic plagiarism of "Born to Be Wild" by Steppenwolf plays in the background.

Where the film scored points in the history books is in the last 10 minutes when, during a murder scene, the film ends suddenly and we find ourselves on a set filming the story we've been watching for the past 70 or so minutes.

A male crew member tells a female crew member that the gory murder they just filmed really "turned me on." "It turned me on," she says.

The next five-or-so minutes made exploitation film history. Rumors spread that an actual murder was filmed on the set and the film found itself banned in a number of countries. Of course, it wasn't a real murder. In fact, it was clearly filmed by the U.S. distributors who wanted to add more shock value to a Brazilian turkey they'd just bought the rights to. None of the actors from the original movie appear in this scene and suddenly none of the voices are dubbed.

It was a clever way to turn an unreleaseable movie into a controversial hit and it's also a genuinely horrifying ending, making "Snuff" a must see for horror movie completists. The buzz that surrounded this movie upon its release may have helped inspire other "mockumentary" horror films like "The Blair Witch Project", which also found itself the subject of rumors that it was a true story.

 The film was almost impossible to find until it made its way to DVD in 2003 courtesy of William Lustig's Blue Underground.