Gimme Head
 

I see London, I see France ...

Roland the Headless Surgical Resident
 

Has anyone ever actually seen a snuff film? Ever had a personal friend tell them that s/he'd seen a snuff film? I've seen articles debunking the entire notion of snuff films (i.e., even the one or two that actually claimed to be were very obviously not), but never spoken to any person who even claimed to have seen a snuff film.

Though I have spoken to more than one person who explained, in varying tones of shrillness, how the cultural phenom of snuff films showed the evil of men generally, yadda yadda yadda. None of them claimed ever to have seen one either.

This is a question that has plagued me for as long as I've been working on this brief that I really don't want to write and haven't had anything else to think about much.

Which midnight?

Roland the Headless Surgical Resident
 

What is a snuff film?

Roland the Headless Surgical Resident
 

Porn where someone is literally killed while someone else is fucking them.

Roland the Headless Surgical Resident
 

Does the video of me and that chick who was "bored to death" count?

Roland the Headless Surgical Resident
 

No. Though I have seen a film that was thought by some to be a snuff film in the '70s. Special effects are better now.

Roland the Headless Surgical Resident
 

First, no, I haven't seen one. But that's not conclusive. I haven't seen "Pink Flamingos" but I believe it exists.

Second, I believe the articles debunking their existence. The question is not whether anyone has ever taped or filmed a murder they committed for their own sexual gratification. Clearly, many have --- they've been introduced as evidence in subsequent trials, so their existence is a matter of clear public record. The question is whether anyone has done so for the purpose of distributing the film commercially for the entertainment and amusement of exceedingly jaded people. All of the purported killings were hoaxes or special effects. The legends of snuff films exist as a handy feminist argument about the natural evolution of porn.

Articles saying "no real ones found to date" are here (Snopes) and here (Cecil Adams). (It looks like the Mikkelsons actually wrote to Cecil in 1993 to get the answer on this one --- small world.)

I know you said there would be a time limit to view, and I've searched and cannot find that time limit. I fear that I will miss it as I will not be in town on Friday and the only computer I'll have access to is probably in the lobby of a hotel. Which, I guess, would give the guests a shock - hmmm, might be worth it. So, what's the time limit again? Start time, stop time, time zone?

Roland the Headless Surgical Resident
 

You are just link-boy today, aren't you?

BR(that's by and large a good thing, mind)C

Roland the Headless Surgical Resident
 

Watch out, he's pushing a personal K and we might end up being linked into oblivion before bresticle day.

I'll leave them up for people who won't be able to see them beforehand until Saturday afternoon. However, those of you who will be able to see them on Friday won't be able to see them again on Saturday.

If you aren't going to be around Friday send me a pm or an email and I'll leave you on the list.

Roland the Headless Surgical Resident
 

No. No idea if they are real (but I agree with the snopes people that it is likely people have made such films, just whether anyone would cop (NPI) to it before actually being arrested for murder is another matter). However I do know that there are websites that purport to have films showing people's accidental deaths. Caught on Tape! taken to the next level if you will. Equally bad for my squeemishness. Fox will probably have a series on it next year.

There are numerous cases of accidental death and/or murders on tape, but none that were recorded for sexual gratification or during the act of sex (at least none that have made it into the public.)

Faces of death has a lot of fake and real deaths on it (never seen them but read about them.)

I saw the Daniel Perl video, he wasn't killed on it though. And that was about the most horrific thing I have ever seen. It took me a long while to get over seeing it.

Roland the Headless Surgical Resident
 

It's a hypertext world, baby.

I'd read those articles a while back after a very frustrating argument with an anti-porn feminist friend. She, like MacKinnon, was adamant that snuff films were real and were the apotheosis of pornography. Ipso facto, porn is bad, because its highest iteration was the literal killing of the woman as opposed to the lower art of metaphorical rape. So I set about finding out the truth of snuff films. In other words, I Googled. Okay, it was 1999, so I probably Alta Vistaed.

BTW, I saw "Faces of Death" at debate camp,* and even my 15 year old self knew it was a crock of shit.

I look at my post count, and am ashamed.

*Fuck you. You all went, too.