įilm studies professor Boaz Hagin argues that the concept of snuff films originated decades earlier than is commonly believed, at least as early as 1907. It was defined in 1874 as a 'term very common among the lower orders of London, meaning to die from disease or accident'. The word has been used in this sense in English slang for hundreds of years.

The noun snuff originally meant the part of a candle wick that has already burned the verb snuff meant to cut this off, and by extension to extinguish or kill. He alleges that the Manson Family was involved in making such a film in California to record their murders. The first known use of the term snuff movie is in a 1971 book by Ed Sanders, The Family: The Story of Charles Manson's Dune Buggy Attack Battalion. Some filmed records of executions and deaths in war exist, but in those cases, the death was not specifically staged for financial gain or entertainment. It may or may not be made for financial gain, but is supposedly 'circulated amongst a jaded few for the purpose of entertainment ''. A snuff film, or snuff movie, is 'a movie in a purported genre of movies in which a person is actually murdered or commits suicide.