A snuff film, snuff movie or snuff video is a type of film, produced for profit or financial gain, that shows, or purports to show, scenes of actual homicide. The victims are supposedly typically lured to their murders by false pretenses and their murder is then filmed and the video depicting it is sold to buyers.
Albert Henry DeSalvo was an American murderer and rapist who was active in Boston, Massachusetts, in the early 1960s. He is known to have confessed to being the "Boston Strangler", a serial killer who murdered thirteen women in the Boston area between 1962 and 1964. Lack of physical evidence supported his confession, and he was only prosecuted in 1967 for a series of unrelated rapes, for which he was convicted and imprisoned until his death in 1973. His confessing to having murdered multiple women was disputed, and debates continued regarding which crimes he truly had committed.
Herbert John Streicher, better known by his professional pseudonym Harry Reems, was an American pornographic actor, later working as a real estate agent. His most famous roles were as Doctor Young in the 1972 pornographic cult classic Deep Throat and The Teacher in the 1973 classic The Devil in Miss Jones. Throughout the 1970s and into the mid-1980s, he was one of the most prolific performers in the adult film industry. He became the first American actor to be prosecuted solely for appearing in a film. He retired from the industry in 1985.
Joachim Georg Kroll was a German serial killer, child molester, necrophile and cannibal who murdered a minimum of eight women and young girls in the Ruhr metropolitan region from 1955 until his arrest on 3 July 1976. He was convicted of eight murders and one attempted murder, but confessed to a total of 14. He was sentenced to life imprisonment on 8 April 1982.
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is a 1986 American independent psychological horror crime film directed and co-written by John McNaughton about the random crime spree of a serial killer who seemingly operates with impunity. It stars Michael Rooker in his film debut as the nomadic killer Henry, Tom Towles as Otis, a prison buddy with whom Henry is living, and Tracy Arnold as Becky, Otis's sister. The characters of Henry and Otis are loosely based on convicted real life serial killers Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole.
Kika is a 1993 black comedy film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar and starring Verónica Forqué as the title character. Forqué won the Goya Award for Best Actress, the second female lead on an Almodóvar film to do so.
Russ Owen is a fictional character in the Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Stuart Manning. He first appeared in the episode first broadcast on 6 August 2004 with the Owen family and has been involved in storylines including being diagnosed with testicular cancer and kidnapping his son Max McQueen. It was announced in April 2009 that Manning had quit the role and Russ departed in the episode first broadcast on 3 June 2009. Nine years later, it was confirmed that Manning would reprise the role. Russ returned on 13 August 2018 and was killed-off on 16 November 2018 after being murdered by Breda McQueen.
David John Birnie and Catherine Margaret Birnie were an Australian couple from Perth who murdered four women at their home in 1986, also attempting to murder a fifth. These crimes were referred to in the press as the Moorhouse murders, after the Birnies' address at 3 Moorhouse Street in Willagee, a suburb of Perth.
The Poughkeepsie Tapes is a 2007 American pseudo-documentary horror film written, directed, edited, and co-developed by John Erick Dowdle. It is about the murders of a serial killer in Poughkeepsie, New York, told through interviews and footage from a cache of the killer's snuff films.
Yoshio Kodaira was a Japanese serial killer, serial rapist, and war criminal who murdered at least 8 people in the Tokyo and Tochigi Prefecture areas between 1932 and 1946.
Forced Entry is a 2002 adult horror film written and directed by Lizzy Borden, produced by Rob Zicari, and released by Extreme Associates. The film is loosely based on the crimes of California serial killer Richard Ramirez.
Case of the Full Moon Murders is a 1973 sexploitation comedy film directed by Sean S. Cunningham and Brud Talbot and starring Fred J. Lincoln and Harry Reems.
Rodney James Alcala was an American serial killer and sex offender who was sentenced to death in California for five murders committed between 1977 and 1979. He also pleaded guilty and received a sentence of 25 years to life for two further murders committed in New York and was also indicted with a murder in Wyoming, although charges were dropped due to a technicality. While he has been conclusively linked to eight murders, Alcala's true number of victims remains unknown and could be much higher – the actual number could be as high as 130.
Schizophreniac: The Whore Mangler is 1997 exploitation film written, directed and produced by Ron Atkins. It was followed by two sequels, Necromaniac: Schizophreniac 2 in 2003 and The Cuckoo Clocks of Hell in 2011, the latter being a crossover with Last House on Dead End Street.
Obsessed is a 1977 pornographic film directed by Martin & Martin, and written by Piastro Cruiso.
Marcelo Costa de Andrade is a Brazilian serial killer who murdered 14 boys in the vicinity of Itaboraí, about 30 kilometers from Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, in 1991.
Necrophilia is a pathological fascination with dead bodies, which often takes the form of a desire to engage with them in sexual activities, such as intercourse. Though prohibited by the laws of many countries, there have been many reported cases of necrophilia throughout history.
David Alan Gore was an American serial killer who confessed to, and was convicted of, six murders in Vero Beach and Indian River County, Florida in the 1980s. Gore was executed by lethal injection in 2012, having been on Florida's death row for 28 years.
Patrice Alègre (born 20 June 1968) is a French serial killer who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2002 with a minimum term of 22 years for five murders, an attempted murder, and six rapes. He, subsequently, was acquitted of four additional murder charges on 3 July 2008.
Vadim Sergeevich Krotov, known as The Nakhodka Chikatilo, is a Russian serial killer, child molester and producer of child pornography.
