rights for the film. He eventually saw no potential in the picture and shelved it. In 1975, seeking to recoup his investment in that film, Shackleton was inspired to release it with a new ending after reading a newspaper article on the rumor of snuff films produced in South America, and deciding to cash in on the urban legend. Shackleton started advertising the film in December 1975 through several press releases, before the new footage had even been shot. When Michael Findlay realized that it was his own film being promoted under the new title Snuff, he tried to renegociate his contract with the distributor, but eventually failed to secure more money from Shackleton. The filmmaker hired to produce the additional footage was Simon Nuchtern, who directed a new ending in vérité style, in which a woman is brutally murdered and dismembered by a film crew, supposedly the crew of Slaughter. The new footage, shot over one day in Carter Stevens's adult film studio, was spliced onto the end of Slaughter with an abrupt cut suggesting that the footage was unplanned and the murder authentic. However, the cast and scenery in Nuchtern's ending have no resemblance with those appearing in Findlay's original footage. The publicity material implied that the film featured an actual murder, without stating it outright: Snuff was released with the tagline "The film that could only be made in South America... where Life is CHEAP!" Shackleton also removed all other credits from the film to increase the air of mystery surrounding its production. Controversy As a publicity stunt, Shackleton reportedly hired fake protesters to picket movie theaters showing the film. According to his associate Carter Stevens, Shackleton was surprised when some genuine protesters also started picketing the theaters. Shackleton's efforts succeeded in generating a media frenzy around the film, with media commentators and citizen groups condemning the film without having actually seen it. Although the film was exposed as a hoax in Variety shortly after its release, it became popular in New York City, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Boston. The Adult Film Association of America (AFAA), of which Shackleton was a member, took pains to avoid any association with Snuff, as the snuff movies urban legend included rumors that the sex industry was involved in those films. The AFAA expelled Shackleton, announced that affiliated adult movie theaters would not show the picture (which anyway was being shown