Overview

The phenomenon of so-called 'snuff movies' (films that allegedly document real acts of murder, specifically designed to 'entertain' and sexually arouse the spectator) represents a fascinating socio-cultural paradox. At once unproven, yet accepted by many, as emblematic of the very worst extremes of pornography and horror, moral detractors have argued that the mere idea of snuff constitutes the logical (and terminal) extension of generic forms that are dependent primarily upon the excitement, stimulation and, ultimately, corruption of the senses. Snuff: Real Death and Screen Media brings together scholars from film and media studies to assess the longevity of one of screen media's most enduring cultural myths. Thorough, provocative, and well argued, the contributions to this volume address areas ranging from exploitation movies, the video industry, trends in contemporary horror cinema, pornography and Web 2.0.

Full Product Details

Author:   Dr Neil Jackson (University of Lincoln, UK) ,  Shaun Kimber (Bournemouth University, Bournemouth) ,  Johnny Walker (Northumbria University, UK) ,  Thomas Joseph Watson (Teesside University, UK)
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Imprint:   Bloomsbury Academic
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.80cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.463kg
ISBN:  

9781628921120

ISBN 10:   1628921129
Pages:   344
Publication Date:   10 March 2016
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

List of Figures Foreword: A Culture of CHange David Kerekes (Owner of Headpress and author of Killing For Culture) Acknowledgements Introduction: Shot, Cut and Slaughtered Neil Jackson (University of Lincoln, UK) Part I – The Changing Meaning of ""Snuff"" Chapter 1: The Way to Digital Death Julian Petley (Brunel University, UK) Chapter 2: The Affective Reality of Snuff Misha Kavka (University of Auckland, New Zealand) Chapter 3: Animal Snuff Simon Hobbs (University of Portsmouth, UK) Chapter 4: Breathing New Life into Old Fears: Extreme Pornogrpahy and the Wider Politics of Snuff Clarissa Smith (University of Sunderland, UK) Chapter 5: From Snuff to the South: The Global Reception of Cannibal Holocaust Nicolo Gallio (University of Bologna, Italy) and Xavier Mendik (University of Brighton, UK) Chapter 6: A Murder Mystery in Black and Blue: The Marketing, Distribution and Cult Mythology of Snuff in the UK Mark McKenna (University of Sunderland, UK) Chapter 7: Traces of Snuff: Black Markets, Fan Subcultures and Underground Horror in the 90s Johnny Walker (Northumbria University, UK) Chapter 8: SNuff 2.0: Real Death Goes HD Ready Mark Astley (Independent Scholar, UK) Part II – ""Snuff"" Across Film and Television Chapter 9: Unfound Footage and Unfounded Rumours: The Manson Family Murders and the Persistence of Snuff Mark Jones & Gerry Carlin (University of Wolverhampton, UK) Chapter 10: Wild Eyes, Dead Ladies: The Snuff Filmmaker in Realist Horror Neil Jackson (University of Lincoln, UK) Chapter 11: The Mediation of Death in Fictional Snuff: Reflexivity, Viewer Interpellation and Ethical Implication Xavier Aldana Reyes (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK) Chatper 12: ""Why Would you Film It?"" Snuff, Sinister and Contemporary US Horror Cinema Shaun Kimber (Bournemouth University, UK) Chapter 13: Cinema as Snuff: From Pre-Cinema to Shadow of the Vampire Linda Badley (Middle Tennessee State University, USA) Chapter 14: Affect Tina Kendall (Anglia Ruskin University, UK) Chapter 15: A View to Kill: Perspectives on Faux-Snuff and Self Steve Jones (Northumbria University, UK) Select Bibliography Contributors

Reviews

These essays meticulously examine the history and mythology of the visual media's 'unholy grail'-the spectral 'real' behind film's reality effects. Tracing snuff's evolution from pornography to propaganda, from cult phenomenon to mainstream culture, this is the most comprehensive effort to date to track down the elusive phenomenon hovering at (and often defining) the boundaries between life and death, voyeurism and violence, terror and titillation, art and exploitation, realism and reality. Anyone seeking an unflinching glimpse of media in the digital age cannot ignore this collection. What was unthinkable a decade ago is now routine. Never have violence and terror been at once so visible and, as a result, so banal. Joel Black, Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Georgia, USA In the 1970s a toxic brew of urban decay, rising crime rates and the 'porno plague' gave rise to a new myth: that of the snuff film. Although the combination of sex and murder in the feature Snuff (1976) was quickly revealed as a hoax and the FBI could find no evidence that the real thing existed, the concept of the snuff film has endured and, ironically, taken on a life of its own. This collection of fascinating essays advances a scholarly and rigorous consideration of how the fringes of popular culture have become mainstreamed, and how media myths can become disturbing realities. Eric Schaefer, Associate Professor of Visual and Media Arts, Emerson College, USA, and author of Bold! Daring! Shocking! True! : A History of Exploitation Films, 1919-1959 Snuff: Real Death and Screen Media is both thorough and wide-ranging in its approaches to the complex and malleable category of the snuff film. This book is destined to become the key text on the representations and public debates which underpin the charged and vital topic of real death on screen, and the cultural, commercial, legal, and affective consequences of its associated myths. Kate Egan, Lecturer in Film Studies, Aberystwyth University, UK, and author of Trash or Treasure? Censorship and the Changing Meanings of the Video Nasties

These essays meticulously examine the history and mythology of the visual media's 'unholy grail'-the spectral 'real' behind film's reality effects. Tracing snuff's evolution from pornography to propaganda, from cult phenomenon to mainstream culture, this is the most comprehensive effort to date to track down the elusive phenomenon hovering at (and often defining) the boundaries between life and death, voyeurism and violence, terror and titillation, art and exploitation, realism and reality. Anyone seeking an unflinching glimpse of media in the digital age cannot ignore this collection. What was unthinkable a decade ago is now routine. Never have violence and terror been at once so visible and, as a result, so banal. Joel Black, Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Georgia, USA

Author Information

Author Website:   www.snuffmovie.co.uk

Neil Jackson teaches film at the University of Lincoln, UK, and has published on popular cinema in various books and journals. He is currently preparing a critical study of Hollywood's representation of the adult film industry. Shaun Kimber is Senior Lecturer in Media Theory at Bournemouth University, UK. He is the author of Controversies: Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (2011) and is currently working on the co-authored book Writing & Selling Horror Screenplays. Johnny Walker is Lecturer in Media at Northumbria University, UK. He is the author of Contemporary British Horror Cinema: Industry, Genre and Society (2015) and founding co-editor of the Global Exploitation Cinemas book series (Bloomsbury). Thomas Joseph Watson is Lecturer in Media Studies at Teesside University, UK. His research investigates the role of film form in the depiction of violence in contemporary audio-visual media. He has published on pornography, documentary film, and experimental video-art.

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Author Website:   www.snuffmovie.co.uk

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