In the late 1980s, actor Charlie Sheen sat down to watch a horror movie and became so convinced that what he was seeing was real that he contacted the FBI. The film was so graphic, so committed to looking like an actual murder, that Sheen believed he was watching someone die on camera.
The movie was Guinea Pig 2: Flower of Flesh and Blood (1985). Shocking, transgressive and extremely gory, Guinea Pig 2 follows a man who kidnaps a woman and takes her to his dungeon, where he dismembers her in gruesome detail. It was intentionally created to resemble a snuff film — and it worked well enough that Sheen reported it to the FBI, convinced it was genuine.
According to the story, the FBI launched an investigation into the horror movie. Agents were eventually given a copy of a behind-the-scenes video explaining how the gory special effects had been achieved, and the case was closed.
How much of this actually happened is up for debate. Some sources call the whole account an urban legend, while others provide details that make it sound plausible. What’s certain is that the film itself is fictional, and the existence of any commercially produced snuff film has never been verified.
