Snuff Kill — Snuff Kill (DVD)

Snuff Kill (aka Screen Kill) is a late 90’s SOV film focusing on two old school buddies who start making a horror film- then kill someone for real, and get a  taste for filming murder. It’s fair to say SOV is very much an acquired taste- but I’d say this is one of the more pro-shot and pro looking films in the genre, with good pacing, plenty of sleaze and some impressive kills. Here from the guys over SRS cinema is a recent(ish) DVD release of the film, taking in a directors’ commentary track and a few other extras.

Appearing in the year 1997 Snuff Kill was co-directed by Doug Ulrich( Scary Tales,7 Sins Of The Vampire, Darkest Soul) and Al Darago( Scary Tales).  And it’s certainly a grimly heady blend of sleaze and gore- with the pair filming/ capture the action with good creative flair and a great eye for shot set up/ scoping, plus the acting( by SOV standards) is rather good

The film kicks off in very sleazed, nasty ( if not really connecting with the rest of the film) manner- with a woman blindfolded and tied to a chair, as an unseen figure with a knife undoes her top- rubbing the blade on her chest and black panties, before brutally stabbing her in the chest- so this very much sets the tone of what to expect. As we get into the film/ story properly we meet clean-cut horror fan Doug(Mark Williams) and his long-time girlfriend  Julie(Ann Jagerman) - they can’t decide what to do for a night out on the town- is it going to the pictures to see a gory horror pic, hitting a bar, or go to a club to see a band?. They decide on the last and along the way meet Julie's more edgy goth friend Carol (Debbie Jackson) , the three watch the band playing that night- a theatrical rock band, who all wear monk shrouds, and fake kill one of the members at the end of the show. Doug is most impressed with what he sees and goes to meet the darkly brooding looking, moustache, and black mulleted singer Ralis(Al Darago). They both soon realize they went to high school together- fairly soon meeting up for a coffee- Doug is keen to make a horror film, as he has his own camera due to filming weddings in his spare time- at first, Ralis says he’s too busy with the band, but when the band goes on hiatus, he agrees to work with Doug making a horror film.

We see the pair meeting up with a young actress in a graveyard during the day- and all seems fairly professional. Towards the end of the days filming the guys set up her kill scene- she nervously asks if Ralis is using a real knife, and he shows her it’s rubber, though at the last minute swaps it out for a real knife. Doug is unaware of what’s going on- so is deeply shocked when Ralis cuts the actress throat for real- then pours out blood and twitches on the floor. To start with Doug panics, but in time starts reminiscing about the kill- re-watching it again and again on VHS. So, from this, the pair decide they are going to kill for real and film it.  

As the film unfolds the kills appear fairly rapidly and for- with a few of them adding in sleazed and fleshy touches. We get a man strung up stabbed in the chest, then his manhood is cut off and shoved in his mouth. A woman gets her face battered in with an iron, a tramp gets his eye drilled. We have impressing body chopped in half and a brutal beheading with the head just attached. A head been blown off, the top of a head been lopped off, and few other kills.

All of the cast is pretty good and component in their acting- but the star here is Darago, who plays out his role as the devilish and later demented singer-turn-killer with great glee/ flare. The pacing/ flow of the film is good throughout, with the film sliding in a fairly slim/ but just long enough one hour and sixteen-minute mark

Moving onto this new region free DVD- and firstly the print is fairly typical SOV, been somewhat murky/ flat in its look, as mentioned early the shot set-up/ film in general looks good/ pro, sadly this doesn’t go into the print itself.  Moving onto the extras, and we get a nice selection of stuff- first off we get a commentary track from director Doug Ulrich, and this is a good/ interesting directors track. He talks about how the film came about and its title change. He moves on to discuss shot set-up’s, locations, and issues with film shooting certain parts of the film. He talks about acting performances, on-screen action, his cameo appearance in the film and more. He comes across as very grounded/ down to earth- making this a well worth a play track. Next, we get four minutes of cut scenes, a three feature about the film/filmmakers on a local TV program of the time. We get effects set-ups for a few kills, extended scenes, and a trailer for this film and a few others.

In finishing I’d say if you enjoy blends of gory kills and sleaze in general, I’d say you need to pick up this release of Snuff Kill and don’t let the SOV tag put you off- if you normally have aversions to the genre. And of course, if you are a fan of gory ‘n’ sleazed SOV, it’s a must buy. Another great SRS Cinema release!