When you’re On a Good Thing, Stick to It
an extract from Robert Cettl's book Film Tales: Movie Trivia in the Age of DVD (on sale now in print and soon in e-book)
Husband and wife exploitation filmmakers Mike and Roberta Findlay, who had worked in pornography, shot a cheap horror movie inspired by the infamous Charles Manson case. They called it Slaughter. However, it remained unreleased until distributor Allan Shakleton found it and added a fake cinema-verite type ending that played off contemporary headlines about a particularly nasty type of movie phenomenon. He also re-titled it, the new title soon becoming a buzzword for an illicit movie thrill, Snuff. The film quickly became a controversy, denounced and picketed in its early urban releases by angry women’s groups who considered the film the absolute moral worst that modern cinema could become. The film became an excuse to virtually demonize all American film pornography (though it wasn’t a porn movie) as inherently violent. However, the scenes that they were objecting to and taking as real were in fact a make-up special effects joke. With Shackleton gleefully playing up the supposed authenticity of the footage and cannily avoiding admitting his hoax, the film made headlines and continued to be protested and denounced.
Wider Screenings DVD Attractions Trailer
(courtesy of YouTube embedded video)