  a snuff film is a motion picture genre that depicts the actual murder of a person or people, without the aid of special effects, for the express purpose of distribution and entertainment or financial exploitation. some filmed records of executions and murders exist but have not been made or released for commercial purposes.barbara mikkelson, "a pinch of snuff", snopes.com, 31 oct 2006, accessed 8 april 2007 ==history== the very first recorded use of the term "snuff film" is in a 1971 book by ed sanders, the family: the story of charles manson's dune buggy attack battalion. he alleges that the manson family was involved in making such a film in california to record their murders. the metaphorical use of the term "snuff" to denote killing appears to be derived from a verb for extinguishing a candle. the word has been used as such in english slang for hundreds of years. john camden hotten lists the term in the fifth edition of his slang dictionary in 1874 as a "term very common among the lower orders of london, meaning to die from disease or accident." the word is descended (via the middle english "snuffen" or "snuppen"bible in wyclif tr. (i.e. 1384) exodus xxv.38 "where the snoffes ben quenchid"; cf. xxxvii.23) from the old english "snithan", meaning to slaughter and dismember, from "snide", meaning to kill by cutting or stabbing, from "snid", to cut. the michael powell film peeping tom (1960) featured a filmmaker who committed murders and used the acts as the content of his documentary films, although no real murders are seen in the film. the concept of "snuff films" being made for profit became more widely known in 1976 with the commercial film snuff.scott aaron stine, "the snuff film: the making of an urban legend", skeptical inquirer, volume 23.3, may / june 1999, accessed december 13, 2010"do snuff movies exist ?", documentary, part 1, youtubedavid a. cook, lost illusions: american cinema in the shadow of watergate and vietnam, page 233 (university of california press, ltd., 2000). isbn 0-520-23265-8 a low budget exploitation horror film entitled slaughter was directed by michael and roberta findlay. in an interview decades later, roberta findlay said that the film's distributor allan shackleton had read abo
Death_hoaxes Film_genres Filmed_deaths Murder Urban_legends Violence