In this spot, I wish to correct some of the myths about some of these films. The most notorious film was the film known as "Snuff". Now for the truth. It was NOT a snuff film. In reality, it was a 1971 Argentinian Zombie film entitled "Slaughter", and it had come to the attention of a film distributor in 1975. There was talk of "Snuff" films being around, so he decided to get in on the action. He hired an independent horror/ porno film director named Michael Findlay to film "An ending to the ending". He used a lookalike actress to be the woman "Murdered for real". Rock star Alice Cooper knows the woman despite the "fact" she was "murdered". In fact, it has been said that you can tell the two women are different, if you are prepared to use your eyes.
The next step was promoting the film and retitling it. However, when it went on release in New York, outraged citizens picketed the film. The trouble was, they were NOT outraged citizens. They had been hired by the film distributor to picket his own film, generating plenty of publicity. Enough for the Federal authorities to question people who went in to see the film; why did they wish to see it? Did they know anything about it? Twist number two, they were NOT FBI agents. They were actors hired by, Guess who!!! When it came some years later to releasing it on video, he went about the same cheap publicity stunts to get media attention. He could not have imagined the publicity it received over here, with hysterical tabloid coverage, and judges banning reporting of the "horrific" details in this film. All this information can be found in a book entitled "Video Nasties" and through horror film expert Kim Newman.
"I Spit on Your Grave" has recently been remade, but the original was made way back in 1975, and was called "Day of The Woman". What was unique about it was, despite the graphic rape scenes, which I hated, the director was a woman. The star, Camille Keaton, was the Grand Niece of silent star, Buster.
"Driller Killer" was made by and starred Abel Ferrera. I thought it descended into very black comedy with him running up to his victims and drilling them. He went on to make "King of New York" with Christopher Walkden and the grim classic "Bad Lieutenant" with Harvey Keitel. This was recently remade with Nicholas Cage.
"Night of The Demon" was a creature feature with over the top horror effects, and as for the acting, let me reassure you, it was far better in "Thunderbirds". Many others suddenly appeared in video stores, and if you dig enough, you will find that many were very low budget films made way back in the seventies, by directors now regarded as schlock masters! The cannibal films that emerged were mainly made by Italians and very poorly. Again, extremely unpleasant scenes were trowelled up solely for shock effect. Many of the zombie films were Italian also, with British stars such as Richard Johnson, Ian McCullough and (I think British) Tisa Farrow being in "Zombie Flesh Eaters", made by Italian horror master Lucio Fulci. All these films have been shown on the Horror Channel , on satellite.
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