Snuff
August FilmsSnuff (1975) was inspired by the Charles Manson murders of 1969.
Married director couple Michael and Roberta Findlay worked at a time when independent films were much harder to make than they are today. The Findlays thus used comparatively cheap effects of sex and gore to direct “roughies” like Slaughter (1971), which would be re-edited into Snuff (1975) — and mistaken as such.
It was at the behest of their producer, Allan Shackleton, that the couple removed the film’s credits and added a disturbing new ending. The low-budget movie distributor was aware that Slaughter’s Charles Manson-inspired premise would entice viewers — but wanted to push the realism of its onscreen violence to the edge.
Slaughter revolved around a cult leader named Satán who curated a harem of female followers to sleep with him and murder on command. Inspired by the 1969 Sharon Tate murders, one of the victims in the film was portrayed by a pregnant woman. Curiously, the Manson case had birthed the term “snuff” itself, and would now come full circle.
August FilmsNew York District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau launched an investigation into whether the movie was a snuff film or not.
Coined by Ed Sanders in his 1972 book The Family: The Story of Charles Manson’s Dune Buggy Attack Battalion, “snuff” described alleged recordings of real murders committed by the cult leader’s followers which they had buried in the desert. None were ever found — which sounded like opportunity to Shackleton.
After cutting the end credits to make the Findlay film appear like found footage, Shackleton had them shoot a new ending. It would appear to audiences that the film had ended, but behind-the-scenes footage accidentally continued to play — depicting the disturbing murder of a female crew member on set.
Held down by multiple crew members, the actress appears to be gutted, with crew members playing around with her intestines. As the coup de grace, the scene ends with two crew members frantically inquiring if they got the bloody scene on film as they are running out of celluloid. Without warning, the film ends.
Snuff was marketed as the real deal and even used the tagline: “The film that could only be made in South America … where Life is CHEAP!” While modern viewers might immediately identify the footage as fake, New York District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau launched an investigation to confirm as much after its release.
Only after tracking down the actress who appeared to have her guts removed was Snuff identified as a hoax.
Ghostwatch
YouTubeGhostwatch premiered on BBC1 on Halloween night, 1992. Millions believed the film was a real event happening live on television and angry parents reported symptoms of PTSD in their children afterward.
When the television film Ghostwatch premiered on BBC1 on Halloween Night, 1992, millions across Britain believed they were watching a live news special report — one in which a real-life ghost murdered the hosts.
Written by prolific British horror scribe Stephen Volk, the faux-documentary opened without any credits and even featured an actual live phone number viewers could call to share their stories of hauntings with the hosts. Adding to Ghostwatch‘s believability was the fact that it was presented by well-known British journalists and television hosts Sarah Greene and Michael Parkinson.
While Parkinson fields viewer calls and discusses the phenomena of hauntings with a paranormal expert in the studio, Greene investigates an allegedly haunted house in West London with a camera crew, providing periodic updates.
Eventually, it becomes clear that the house may actually be haunted — by the ghost of a child killer nicknamed “Mr. Pipes.” And what’s worse, the skeptical television hosts eventually appear to become legitimately terrified, realizing that their broadcast of the haunting and call-ins from viewers are acting as a mass-seance that is empowering the vicious ghost.
Viewers appear to call in reporting sightings of Pipes and the actual Ghostwatch filmmakers even include semi-subliminal images of the ghost throughout the report, adding to the fright factor. By the end, Davis is killed by the ghost after being dragged off-screen in an image that will be familiar to any fan of modern-day “found-footage” horror films.
Viewers at the time were horrified to see Parkinson apparently become possessed by the ghost of Pipes, before the program cut to black.
YouTubeThe film was so convincingly presented as a real newscast that people reported symptoms of PTSD in their children — and one young man was so distraught he took his own life.
But Ghostwatch was not just fun and games to many viewers. Not only did BBC1 field thousands of complaint calls from viewers and parents of children who watched the film and believed it was real — it also apparently inspired real-life tragedy.
Not only did dozens of reports come in of children experiencing symptoms of PTSD after witnessing Ghostwatch, but, tragically, one young man apparently took his life because of it.
Eighteen-year-old Martin Denham, an intellectually disabled man from Nottingham, became convinced that not only was Ghostwatch real, but that Pipes was inhabiting his home.
Denham hung himself with a length of plastic tubing on November 5, 1992 — just five days after the film aired.
Denham left behind a haunting suicide note that read: “Please don’t worry — if there are ghosts I will be a ghost, and I will be with you always as a ghost.” His parents told reporters at the time that Denham had been “virtually hypnotized” by the early found-footage horror film.
After learning about movies so disturbing that they were mistaken for real snuff films, take a look at 50 of the scariest pictures in history. Then, learn about the world’s seven most haunted hotels.
