̈ɪsnʌf noun (Lifestyle
and Leisure) (People and Society) Used attributively of an
illegal film or
video (in snuff video etc.): depicting scenes of
cruelty and
killing in
which the victim is
not an
actor, but is
actually tortured or killed.
Etymology: A
reference to the
horrific snuffing
out of
life which
these videos
portray.
History and
Usage: Privately circulated snuff videos
have allegedly been known to the
police since the seventies.
They figured briefly in the
news in 1990,
when police claimed to have
cracked a
paedophile ring which
had been involved in the
production of these films, and linked the crimes
with the disappearances of a
number of
young boys in the UK
during the eighties.
New York City police
detective Joseph Horman said...that the 8-millimetre, eight-reel films called 'snuff' or 'slasher' movies had been in tightly controlled
distribution. Whig-Standard (Kingston, Ontario) 2 Oct. 1975, p. 3 As police in
east London continued investigations
into the disappearance of young boys, Mr Waddington,
Home Secretary,
yesterday expressed
his 'absolute horror' at the
possibility that some of
them may have been murdered during the
making of pornographic 'snuff' videos.
Daily Telegraph 28
July 1990, p. 3 See
also nasty and
slasher 
