What book/short story is this?

First off, sorry if this is the wrong place, but it seems like a gq to me :).

My mum was telling me about a story she read once but all she can remember is the basic plot.

There’s this director who makes really good horror movies, and it turns out that the reason they’re so good is that he’s really torturing and killing the actors, but passing it off as special effects. Anyway, the story is about a guy who’s sister was done in in one of the movies and the revenge he takes on the director.

I don’t know if it’s a short story or a novel (or something else) but I’d be really interested in reading it (yes, I’m a bit sick, but it sounds like a cool premise).

Does the description I gave jar anyone’s memory?

A movie I saw with Nic Cage called 9mm

Nah, cause it’s not snuff films. The way I understand it it’s a guy who does, like, Nightmare on Elm St, but it’s really kids being sliced up on camera and not special effect, so it’s more realistic.

Apparantly most of the story is how said brother tortures the director as payback, and the film part is just the setup.

Sounds like something I read a while back, but sorry, I don’t remember details.

The Nicolas Cage movie was 8 MM (as in 8 mm film.} “9 mm” would refer to a gun.

You might get a better response in Cafe Society, so I’ll move it.

bibliophage
moderator GQ

Don’t know about a book/story, but I can name two grossly exploitative movies with similar-sounding premises: Color Me Blood Red and Bloodsucking Freaks. The first is by goremeister Herschell Gordon Lewis, and is about a painter who discovers the “perfect” shade of red (take a wild guess). The second is about a theatrical magician/performer who tortures and kills his “volunteers” live on stage.

Warning, neither of these is for the faint of heart, but the latter film is particularly loathsome.

That rings a vague bell; I used to read a lot of horror stories when I was a kid. I think it may have been in one of the Pan horror anthologies by Herbert Van Thal.
I seem to recall one of the victims having their chest cut open and the ribs broken and pulled outwards to reveal the heart.
The story ends with something like :

It was a long time ago, tho’.

Happy hunting.