Written by Tyrone Bruinsma In the 80s, moral panics surrounding media had taken their aims at films. In the UK, ‘video nasties’ were used to describe media deemed “obscene” by censors as some pointless attempt to pretend like they were protecting the sensibilities of citizens. It was a similar situation comics and video games faced where people who knew nothing about the medium tried to label them as teaching the youth to murder. What I find particularly nonsensical and disingenuous about movements that demonized media is how much of the 20th century had those same groups promote hate towards non-white persons, members of the LGBTQ community or even the famous communist paranoia that promoted vicious political dissections of innocent people. When people today try to label Millennials and Gen Z as the easily offended groups, I think back to the 80’s where that generation acted in outright aggressive hostility to simple concepts. Today, most controversy is done via online discussions about actual problems like JK Rowling’s transphobia or misrepresenting autism in Sia’s film Music. But in the 80’s you had parents trying to ban Silent Night Deadly Night because they believed the corporate marketed image of Santa Claus was too sacred for a film to depict someone dressing up as him and killing people. Or even worse, Martin Scorsese’s Last Temptation of Christ that envisioned Jesus as more man than God was received by religious zealots with such anger that they committed acts of domestic terrorism with buses and Molotov cocktails being used to attack theatre goers. Maybe keep that in mind when older generations claim to be the ‘less offended’ in discussions around controversy. Getting back to the video nasties and fear of violent films: artistically and culturally important works like The Evil Dead, Straw Dogs, Inferno, Foxy Brown and Night of the Living Dead were all viewed as disgusting works with no artistic value. People saw these works as a disturbing trend that promoted violence, even though that kind of argument either shows the psychological projection these groups had or the puritanical values they were desperate to keep in a rather progressive era. But fear mongering still being popular in the 80’s-the theory that some filmmakers were so vile that they would intentionally murder people on film for…whatever reason these paranoid puritans came up with to promote their fears. This was also close to the era of the Satanic Panic where religious individuals claimed to have been targeted by Devil Worshipping cults, when in reality none of this was true and it was either fabricated for attention, religious axe grinding or paranoia about the rise of sub-cultures like grunge. But it was in this moral panic and paranoia that the idea of murder films came to be and thus was born the idea of Snuff Films. So, let’s get this out of the way-Snuff Films were never real as believed. The idea of publicly released films containing actors who were deliberately murdered is a paranoid delusion. The only two films to ever be accused of being snuff films were Cannibal Holocaust and Guinea Pig 2. Cannibal Holocaust’s director was arrested for obscenity and murder when audiences perceived the film’s realistic style as genuine recorded murders, proved false upon showing the actors being alive and how they achieved certain effects. In Guinea Pig 2’s case, actor Charlie Sheen contacted the FBI believing the murders in the film, but the producers demonstrated how all the effects were achieved. The only film that could arguably be considered close to snuff material is Faces of Death, where newsreel stock footage of actual deaths was edited into the film. But, this doesn’t qualify as Snuff because these weren’t actors murdered and is the equivalent of editing war footage of actual combatants dying into a film. However, Snuff Films technically exist thanks to the internet. Terrorist execution videos, captured footage of people’s deaths and whatever twisted footage lurks on sites for the scum of humanity has technically made the dark web of the internet a more real home for snuff films than the era their myth was founded in. I think more prevalent issues include the making and possession of child pornography by seemingly normal citizens, rather than some ellusive cult making murder films and sneaking them into your local theatre. While snuff films aren’t real, they’ve been decent subjects for fictional stories. Films like Videodrome explored the concept of what violence could psychologically do to the mind via a television channel showing murder and the Poughkeepsie Tapes shows a serial killer filming all his grizzly murders and sadistic acts in a library of snuff films. One of the best explorations was 1999’s 8mm starring Nicolas Cage. The film was directed by Joel Schumacher who had deconstructed psychologically dark minds in Falling Down and was written by Andrew Kevin Walker who wrote the dark masterpiece Se7en, with the films interrogating the questions of why people do terrible things. While it does paint the myth of Snuff Films perfectly to the vision of those who feared it exists, it’s more interested in the psychology of the monsters who make and consume it-and how traumatized those who come into contact with such materials become. My particular favorite scene is at the end where our hero confronts one of the murderers who lives a seemingly normal life with his mother and claims “I’m not a monster”, showing the dark reality that people who make and do despicable things will never truly see themselves as terrible beings. It’s similar to how pedophiles today claim they aren’t monsters while casually stating their desire to sexually assault children, and believe they should proud of it. But today, I want to discuss a film that might not be a perfect horror film-but does perfectly capture the essence and fear of Snuff films in their purity. So, let’s discuss Vacancy. Vacancy is one of those often-forgotten mid-2000s horror films that honestly deserves more credit than it does. It’s a film that avoids the then popular trend of remakes or ghost stories in favor of being a throwback to 70’s slasher films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Last House on the Left. Granted, it’s not an incredibly violent or provocative film considering what it’s clearly inspired by and didn’t have much effect on the horror genre as a whole. The Strangers came out only a year later, serving as a much more iconic modern take on the somewhat dead slasher sub-genre. One could argue it was trying to capitalize on the success of films like Wolf Creek and Hostel in the wave of “Tourist Horror” that accompanied films like Turistas and The Ruins. Regardless of its inspiration and impact, Vacancy still stands as one of the better American produced horror films in a time where the genre had devolved severely.
The film was directed by Nimrod Antal, a Hungarian director who is best know for directing the 2010 Predators film under producer Robert Rodriguez. I will say that while Predators is overall a superior film thanks to the production muscle behind it, but Vacancy might be the stronger film on a narrative and thematic level thanks to its writing. The script was penned by Mark L Smith who’d go on to write modern classics like The Revenant and Overlord, and even with this simple premise-he manages to create an engaging story. The film follows a couple as they go off on an unknown stretch of road before their car breaks down and they’re forced to stay at a motel. However, strange occurrences happen almost immediately and the pair realize they’re in a place where guests are murdered for the sake of snuff films What I like about the film is the confined storytelling and lack of explanation. There’s no flashbacks or cutaways to somewhere else that would break the tension, we’re just there to watch this couple and see if they survive. The audience almost takes on the perspective of the killers where you could be watching one of the snuff films this seedy motel creates and distributes. It makes you somewhat complicit in the actions of the film. That’s one of the strongest elements, the power of perspective and how powerless the audience feels to help. The other strong element is that this film perfectly captures the premise of an urban legend. Much in the same way snuff films are technically an urban legend, the story and set up of this film feels like the telling of any number of urbans legends that are told. The killer with a hook hand, the lady at the bar who steals your kidneys or the killer calling from inside the house all fit under these. None of those are real but are inspired by actual events or concepts. Vacancy sounds like that too; a couple arrives at a mysterious hotel only to be murdered and made into snuff films for freaks to enjoy. That very concept captures the innate fear of snuff films. While many preached their fake existence as some kind of moral brigading based on puritanical values, the real truth is snuff films would be terrifying if you were the one targeted. If you and someone you cared for were suddenly the would-be victims for psychopaths who wanted to use your deaths as consumable media, that would be terrifying. That’s why the lack of explanations on the why is so satisfying. Why would understanding murder pornographers and their motivation to kill you give you any comfort? Poverty, pleasure, abuse, cults or sick corporate greed wouldn’t make you less terrified. That’s why I think the film captures this urban legend so well. It removes psychology and explanation for pure terror, much in the same way The Strangers did to capture the fear of outsiders intruding your home to purely kill and terrorize you. At the end of the day, we as people are selfish and value our own self-preservation. That’s why stories like Vacancy can torment us so well. I am aware that there’s a prequel that supposedly explains the backstory of the snuff filmmakers, but I refuse to watch it. Even though it’s from the same writer as the first film, I just have no interest in knowing the motivation as it ruins the innate fun and horror of the original film. Granted, the original film isn’t perfect-it starts up the scares at the motel way too quick and I do believe it would be a superior film if it leaned harder into 70s exploitation or even video nasty level content. But, considering this was a Screen Gems in house production-they probably needed to play it safer. That’s still disappointing considering that Screen Gems distributed films like Eli Roth’s two Hostel films and Attack the Block. Vacancy could’ve been an early equivalent to Don’t Breathe in capturing the full level of shocking 70’s slasher exploitation vibes. But regardless, the film still works on its own terms and is absolutely worth a watch if you never saw or haven’t seen it in over a decade. So, those are my thoughts on Vacancy. At the end of the day, violence in media is less a sign of cultural decay or the desire to harm other within individuals. Violence in games, films, comics and all media is an expression by artists to commentate and reflect on our beliefs, fears and societal world. To deny the expression of one of humanities most notable traits is to deny human nature itself, something which can repress who people actually are and ultimately create something inhuman.
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