Actualités

Being an international super spy comes with its share of drawbacks, which apparently include upsetting censors around the world. While James Bond has faced numerous censorship struggles throughout his more than 60-year on-screen run, he's often had a particular issue in his home country. For example, the original ending of 1971's "Diamonds Are Forever" was a little too S&m for the British censors, and was initially supposed to depict Jill St. John's Tiffany Case being tied to a bed by the charmingly bizarre Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd (Bruce Glover and Putter Smith respectively). That was very quickly nixed by UK censors who felt it was a little too kinky even for Bond.

But kink was less of a concern for the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) than violence. In a 2006 interview with Caped Wonder, "Diamonds" writer Tom Mankiewicz explained how "largely, the Brits cared a great...

The red in tooth and claw classic now requires parental guidance rather than being suitable for anyone. This may seem quaint in the digital age, but it raises important questions

When the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) changes its certificate for an old movie, it is generally to ease up a bit and concede, like strict parents letting their teens have a glass of wine at dinner, that all right, times have changed. The Alien movies were once rated 18; now they’re 15.

However, the recent decision to upgrade the 1978 animated version of Watership Down – the much-loved wild rabbit adventure – from U to PG (Parental Guidance) is a remarkable example of the censoring authority becoming more puritanical over time. Watership Down is violent apparently, with “bloody bite and claw injuries”. To which we can only say: yes. The overwhelming threat of violence is part of what has made Watership Down so compelling.

It may be apocryphal, but apparently when he attended a cinema club screening of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, then director of the BBFC James Ferman said something along the lines of “It’s all right for you middle-class cineastes to see this film, but what would happen if a factory worker in Manchester happened to see it?” This snobbery, and Ferman’s insistence that it wasn’t any one image that kept him from granting the film an X (later 18) certificate but ‘an atmosphere of madness, threat and impeding violence’ kept The Texas Chain Saw Massacre from the eyes of the great unwashed until Ferman’s retirement in 1999.

Since then, Tobe Hooper’s magnum opus has had more releases in the UK than I can count. This latest one, the first UK release on 4K disc is the fourth format I’ve owned the film on, but The Texas Chain Saw Massacre...

Stars: Olivia Luccardi, William Baldwin, Sam Quartin, Owen Campbell, Virginia Rand, Guinevere Turner, Eden Brolin | Written and Directed by John Swab

Whilst it’s set in 1996, Candy Land reminds me very much of the 70s exploitation era of filmmaking, where the lines between genres blurred and a wide variety of subject matter was explored by filmmakers willing to take chances on stories that the mainstream wouldn’t tell… The latter of which is certainly the case here as writer/director John Swab tells the story of Remy (Olivia Luccardi; It Follows), a seemingly naive and devout young woman, who finds herself cast out from her religious cult. With no place to turn, she immerses herself into the underground world of truck stop sex workers a.k.a. “lot lizards,” courtesy of her hosts, Sadie (Sam Quartin; Body Brokers), Riley (Eden Brolin; Yellowstone), Liv (Virginia Rand) and Levi (Owen Campbell; X...

In the age of streaming and parental locks, the BBFC with its Twitter advent calendar, press releases and reclassifications is desperate to prove its relevance

Did you rush to the advent calendar as soon as you woke up today? The British Board of Film Classification advent calendar, that is, which has been running on Twitter throughout this month. We’ve already learned so much. There was the revelation that past examiners considered Ron Howard’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas to be “educational” and believed the star of Rumble Fish and Angel Heart to be one “M O’Rourke”. It was no surprise to discover that a scene of Santa Claus wielding candy-striped chain-sticks was originally snipped from the 1996 comedy Jingle All the Way. The martial arts weapon, also known as nunchaku, was the special bugbear of James Ferman, the board’s director at the time, who seemed convinced that...

Mark Harrison Sep 20, 2017

American Assassin and mother! are both 18-certificate films that landed in UK cinemas the same week. This is not common at all...

This feature is rated 18 for discussion of strong language, sex and violence, and minor spoilers for Black Swan, Logan, John Wick Chapter 2 and American Assassin. There are no spoilers for Mother!.

You know how it is. You wait ages for one film with an 18 certificate and then two of them arrive in UK cinemas in the same week. American Assassin, an action thriller adapted from Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp novels, and Mother!, the new drama from Darrren Aronofsky, both landed in the uppermost BBFC category for 'strong violence'.

It's comparatively rare to see the 18 certificate before films these days, when they used to pop up on all manner of films, from raunchy comedies to sci-fi actioners. In the case of many older films that...

Stars: Rebecca Forsythe, Barbara Crampton, Lucie Aron, Sean Knopp, Adnan Maral, J. David Hinze | Written by Norbert Keil, Richard Stanley | Directed by Norbert Keil

Following in the footsteps of the likes of David Cronenberg, German filmmaker Norbert Keil unleashes his own brand of body-horror on unsuspecting audiences with Replace – a Bathoryesque tale of a beautiful young woman, Kira, who is afflicted with a disease that rapidly ages her skin. After seeking the advice of a dermatologist she discovers she can replace her skin with that of other girls, so of course she abducts and kills a potential donor. But when the disease returns, she is forced to find more victims and soon becomes the target of a police investigation.

I knew it… Back when the marketing machine for Replace started to ramp up I initially compared the film to Brian Thomas Jones’ The Rejuvenator and – turns out – that’s exactly...

Matt Edwards Feb 7, 2017

1991's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Secret Of The Ooze lost its sausages, courtesy of the British Board of Film Classification...

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was a cause of controversy long before Michael Bay became involved in it. The original comic book was no troublemaker, but once it became a cartoon/toy/movie/pop culture phenomenon parents became concerned that it was too violent for children.

See related Inside No. 9 series 2: Pemberton & Shearsmith's twisted genius Inside No. 9: The Devil Of Christmas review 24 great comedy shows that deserve more love Den Of Geek's top TV episodes of 2015

In Great Britain it was subject to mondo censorship, dude. Ahem. The BBFC, the British Board of Film Classification, had chunks of the first film removed. The cartoon series was renamed Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, and weapons and violence were removed (television broadcasts are not subject...

Ryan Lambie Nov 3, 2016

Predicted by Videodrome, gorily explored by The Neon Demon. Ryan looks at how technology has changed movies and the way we consume them.

Whether he intended to or not, Canadian director David Cronenberg captured the zeitgeist with his 1982 movie, Videodrome. His mind-bending, disturbing thriller imagined a world where videotapes and cable signals could literally deprave and corrupt: an apt concept, given the moral panic that would soon surround home entertainment in the UK.

See related How Alien: Resurrection led to the Ice Age movies The Peanuts Movie – Blue Sky’s million-dollar gamble When cinema projection mistakes work out Studio Ghibli: Marnie, its final films, the future of 2D animation

When the humble VHS tape emerged in the late 1970s, it altered the entertainment industry just as radically as the advent of television a generation earlier. Unlike 8mm film, videotape was relatively cheap; suddenly, the ability to...

facebook

twitter

google+

Indirectly spawned by Steven Spielberg, PG-13 is now the rating of choice among movie studios. Ryan charts the effects of its rise and rise.

Even compared to the exploding heads and melting faces of Raiders Of The Lost Ark, The Temple Of Doom was an intense, gruesome affair. The Indiana Jones prequel may have begun with a breezy song-and-dance number, but it soon descended into a dark ghost train ride of human sacrifice, death by crocodiles, child slavery and chilled monkey brains for dinner.

One of the film’s most famous scenes saw a victim’s heart torn out and held, still pumping and oozing blood, before his gazing eyes. Some kids in the audience were probably cackling with macabre glee at all this. Parents and critics were far less amused. One reviewer even suggested that taking a child to see The Temple Of Doom was tantamount to wilful neglect.

facebook

twitter

google+

The Kevin Costner-headlined Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves is a darker blockbuster than people seem to remember...

This article contains spoilers for Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves. It is entirely illustrated with pictures of the late, great Alan Rickman. It was written and originally published before his death earlier this year.

It tends to be a forgotten fact that, in the late 1980s, there were actually three competing Robin Hood projects fighting for a greenlight. A trio of separate scripts were being developed by Tristar Pictures, 20th Century Fox and Morgan Creek Productions, and the only one that would go forward to become a movie would, ultimately, be the Robin Hood screenplay that Kevin Costner chose he wanted to make.

Of the three, the Tristar project was apparently barely in the running. But for a long time, it looked as if 20th Century Fox would win this particular race. It had a director on board, with John McTiernan – hot off the back of Die Hard and in the midst of The Hunt For Red October – set to make its Robin Hood film. And at that stage, it was the most advanced of the projects.

Costner, while this was going on, was making his directorial debut, Dances With Wolves, and was determined not to get boxed in on screenplay changes as he had done on the film before that, Tony Scott’s Revenge. He took a meeting or two with McTiernan with that in mind, and things looked like they might happen.

"Wait a minute. Robin Hood steals money from my pocket, forcing me to hurt the public, and they love him for it?"

The problem was that Fox’s script wasn’t ready enough, and also that McTiernan was also interested in a different, new project with Sean Connery (that ultimately didn’t get made). Upcoming independent Morgan Creek thus moved quickly (having originally sought and failed to get Mel Gibson for the role of its Robin), and pulled a masterstroke by hiring one of Costner’s best friends, Kevin Reynolds, to direct.

Reynolds had directed Costner before on the really very good Fandango, and his involvement – along with a screenplay from Pen Densham and John Watson that was willing to go broader than the traditional Robin Hood legend – led Costner committing to Prince Of Thieves. The Fox and Tristar projects shut down shortly after (although a competing Robin Hood movie, starring Patrick Bergin, would get a UK cinema release in 1991, heading straight to telly in the States).

Yet even with Costner and Reynolds on board, the difficult days were still ahead. It didn’t help that, when Reynolds signed on, he had just a month and a half to prepare a movie that was mainly shooting in the UK. Reynolds, a Texan, would also have to factor in that the movie was not only filming thousands of miles from home, but also that he was shooting in a British winter ("I think the weather in particular was a problem on that shoot because we were shooting in the fall, and especially up north, we had a lot of weather problems, all very rainy and all", he told us). The locations – not one of them the actual Sherwood Forest – would afford Reynolds and his crew comparably few hours of decent daylight a day. It would not be long before Robin Hood would run over schedule. And time was already tight.

Perhaps the first sign of problems came just ahead of shooting. Robin Wright had been cast in the role of Maid Marian, but discovered she was pregnant. Four days before cameras were set to roll, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio was drafted in (the film would then overrun, causing - and don't say we never give you killer bits of trivia - her wedding licence to lapse), more than holding her own in the part. That said, she would pinpoint many people’s feelings about Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves when she said in a 2009 Sunday Herald interview that “It felt like different films, different attitudes, and I’d have much rather been in Alan Rickman’s film. I wanted to do what he was doing”. So let’s start there.

"You, my room, 10.30 tonight. You, 10.45... and bring a friend"

You don’t need us to tell you that the most fun moments in Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves centre around the last outright villain Alan Rickman has played on screen, the Sheriff of Nottingham. He turned the role down a couple of times before eventually agreeing (Sam Neill and Richard E Grant were considered, too), on the condition that he could have relatively free reign with the part.

There’s not a line in the film he doesn’t deliver deliciously, and the story goes that the film was re-edited to take bits of Rickman out, and put more of Costner in, such was the Sheriff’s dominance of the movie.

As it turned out, a longer cut would emerge later on DVD and Blu-ray, and it’s the 148 minute version that’s now available on the UK disc release. Oddly enough though, adding more Rickman makes the film a little weaker. The longer cut explores in more detail his relationship with the bizarre Mortianna, revealing more backstory - specifically that she's his mother - and adds in his worshipping at the altar of dual Gods. But it slows down an already bloated film, weakens the character a little and the leaner cut – which even then, isn’t too lean – is arguably the best.

Not that that either appears to be the director’s cut. Most stories about Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves tend to centre on the sizeable disagreement and falling out between Costner and Reynolds, that led to the latter having his cut of the film taken away from him. Costner (who reportedly did some second unit directing) and his producers instead assembled the final version – as they would do with Waterworld, Costner and Reynolds’ next collaboration – and the director was not impressed with it. However, he didn’t hold the cards here, and whilst the final cut was approved by a director called Kevin, it wasn’t the Kevin who actually helmed the film.

Again, we spoke to Kevin Reynolds back in 2008, and he admitted he was pleased that the longer version had seen the light of day in the end. "What you really wish is that the original version had been that, the original release had been your version. But yeah, to some extent I am happy that people saw more of what I intended", he told us. "But... you'd make yourself crazy if you constantly dwelt on it. I sort of don't understand filmmakers that can go back ten, fifteen years later and want to re-work their film or restore it, because you have to let it go".

"I had a very sad childhood, I'll tell you about it sometime. I never knew my parents; it's amazing I'm sane"

Rewatching Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves, time hasn’t altered at all the rights and wrongs of it. Its introduction of Azeem, the Moor companion that Robin befriends in a savage scene in Jerusalem at the start of the movie (Costner had been keen that we saw backstory of Robin outside of Sherwood Forest) gave Morgan Freeman a decent, if unexpected role. It’s one of the biggest deviations from the Robin Hood legend, but in fairness, it lends the film its best non-Rickman comedy moments (co-writer Pen Densham went on to say in an interview abut including Azeem that "I was told it was a stupid idea by studios, so overcoming those objections made it worth the effort").

And at times, it needs that early comedy. It takes 40 minutes or so for Robin to finally set foot in pretend Sherwood Forest and meet those who will become his merry men, and the journey there is surprisingly dour. A cast iron example of its seriousness: the film has Brian Blessed appear in its opening ten minutes or so, and promptly kills him. What's going on there?

In fairness, we have met the two villains of the piece in that time. And we get our introduction to Alan Rickman's Sheriff. Take his gleeful promise to "cut out your heart with a spoon" as just one example of what he does right here. It's delivered with delicious, pitch-perfect villainy, one step short of winking at the audience (in fact the film does break the fourth wall, right at the end, with such a wink). But let's not forget Michael Wincott's hardly cheery and really quite intimidating Guy Of Gisborne. He rarely gets mentioned when people talk about the film and his work here is actually really good.

It's useful, because - and I say this as a huge fan of the man - Costner's isn't so much. He pitches his Robin as an anti-Errol Flynn, but the first time I saw the film, the cinema erupted in a guffaw when he said in his California tone "this is English courage". As the film went on, Costner wisely abandoned any attempt at an English accent, and his performance thus improved. Furthermore, his comedy moments are strong. Comedy has always been a Costner strength, and is again here.

That said, the accent criticisms would stick, and Mel Brooks would have fun with it in his spoof inspired by Prince Of Thieves, Robin Hood: Men In Tights. When his Robin Hood, Cary Elwes, says "this Robin speaks with an English accent", Men In Tights gets one of its few laughs right there.

"Cut out his heart with a spoon"

It'd be remiss too not to mention a few other standouts.

Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves is the only film to date that brings Kevin Costner and Elmo from Brush Strokes together on the big screen (to date, anyway, depending on Howard Lew Lewis' schedule). And the merry men feature no shortage of fun characters: step forward Nick Brimble's grand Little John, Soo Drouet as his wife, Fanny (behave), and the marvellous Michael McShane as Friar Tuck. It's a grand ensemble.

There's also another American accent in the mix, this time belonging to Christian Slater's Will Scarlett (a role once earmarked for Johnny Depp). It's credit to the writers here that they tried to deepen the story with the twist about Will being Robin's brother, even if Slater's stroppy looks probably gave the game away a bit earlier. Slater also improvised the "fuck me, he cleared it" line, that had to be cut from the UK release to earn a PG rating (14 seconds were chopped in all).

That said, BBFC chief James Ferman would express that his only regret on his retirement was allowing Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves through with such a soft certificate. He had a point. This is a brutal, violent film, with a surprisingly nasty edge for a family movie. And there's also the ending of the film, which leaves a really sour taste.

Up until the final act, Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves is generally enormous fun (appreciating the downbeat early scenes, and the remarkably adept blind man, Duncan). Reynolds - shooting his arrows at 300 frames a second - has a busy camera, that he's willing to point wherever he needs to keep the film moving. His action moments - clearly practical - are strong, and the arrows of fire being launched into the Sherwood camp make for an excellent sequence. He breathlessly mixes up action and comedy, and then takes time to set up a potentially brilliant final sequence, as Robin and chums must halt the Sheriff's wedding, and save ten of their men - one of whom is John and Fanny's son - from being hanged.

What leaves the sour taste is that it's underpinned by a prolonged scene of attempted rape. Even more sourly, it's shot from an audience point of view. And at the time of the film's release, nobody (including me) seemed to notice.

I certainly notice it now, and what makes it doubly unpleasant and disturbing is that it's played for comedy. As the Sheriff tries to have his way with Marian, he's firing out one liners. There's not a blockbuster film now that could or should get away with that as Robin Hood does here. Arguably, Robin Hood shouldn't have done either.

In an era where films such as Die Hard have been downgraded to 15 from 18, it's interesting that Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves is one of the few to have gone the other way. The disc release, with the original 142 minute cinema cut we saw in the UK is now a 12, and even then, there's a sense the BBFC is being a bit generous.

"God bless you, Fanny! And God bless Robin Hood!"

Before I wrap up, It'd be remiss not to touch on the music. Bryan Adams' infamous song would spend longer at the top of the British singles chart that any before it or since.

But more interestingly, Michael Kamen's energetic score to Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves, is brilliant. Kamen died of a heart attack at the age of just 55, and it's one of several excellent scores he penned in his lifetime. It's a tragedy we never got to hear more.

Still, revisiting Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves has been interesting for me. I've always liked the film an awful lot, but my reservations about the ending grow with each viewing. It just doesn't feel right. It did not stop the film from being a massive hit, though.

For Costner, he wouldn't just come through the criticism of his performance unscathed, he'd emerge with a huge success. What's particularly notable about Kevin Costner at the height of his movie star days is that he didn't get there by being symbolised with a gun in his hand. Granted, he had a gun in scenes in a few of his films, yet that wasn't the image of him. At a point when Arnold Schwarzenegger was the world's other biggest movie star, the difference between the two was firmly pronounced.

Costner and Reynolds would patch up their differences, only to fall out in even more spectacular style on Waterworld (only to patch up their differences again and reunite for Hatfield & McCoys). But with Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves, against considerable odds, they fashioned an often hugely entertaining - and hugely uncomfortable - blockbuster, with an immense villain.

And yep, even Sean turning up at the end still raises a smile. Even though his surprise cameo was widely leaked even before the world wide web routinely did that sort of thing for you...

Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.

See related The top 10 movie performances of Alan Rickman The top 25 Kevin Costner films Looking back at Kevin Costner films: The Bodyguard Kevin Reynolds: The Den Of Geek interview Field Of Dreams revisited: why it still hits me every time Movies Feature Simon Brew Kevin Costner 14 Jun 2016 - 06:49 Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves Sean Connery Alan Rickman...

Always with one eye on the past and the other on the present, FrightFest ensure an enduring celebration of genre cinema. After supporting director Jake West and producer Marc Morris’ Moral Panic, Video Nasties and Videotape, FrightFest have once again leant their support to the follow-up documentary Video Nasties: Draconian Days, which picks up where Moral Panic left off to look at the fallout of the 1984 Video Recordings Act.

To celebrate the home entertainment release of Draconian Days that continues a comprehensive discussion of a compelling chapter in British film spectatorship and censorship, HeyUGuys turned the tables on West and Morris as they shared their thoughts on censorship past, present and future, the advantages of notoriety and the positive side to the Draconian Days amongst other points of discussion.

What was the genesis of Video Nasties: Draconian Days? Was it your original intention to do a follow-up?

Jake West:...

The highly anticipated follow-up to their critically acclaimed Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorahip & Videotape documentary, director Jake West and producer Marc Morris continue uncovering the shocking story of home entertainment post the 1984 Video Recordings Act with Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide Part 2 – Draconian Days.

A time when Britain plunged into a new dark age of the most restrictive censorship, where the horror movie became the bloody eviscerated victim of continuing dread created by self-aggrandizing moral guardians. With passionate and entertaining interviews from the people who lived through it and more jaw dropping archive footage, get ready to reflect and rejoice the passing of a landmark era.

I was a huge fan of Jake West and Marc Morris’ first documentary on the Video Nasties scandal of the early 80s and it opened my eyes to a period in time I was actually too young to really remember – at the time of...

Summer is officially right around the corner, which means horror DVD and Blu-rays are starting to heat up as well. This week, we’ve got several cult classics hitting high definition for the first time, another special edition set of the first three seasons of The Walking Dead,and the recent RoboCop reboot directed by Jose Padilha and starring Joel Kinnaman.

As if that wasn’t enough, there’s also a special Doctor Who David Tennant-themed collection being released, several indie creature features and we’re finally seeing the official arrival of the Video Nasties documentaries stateside on Tuesday. Check out all the horror and sci-fi fun you can add to your home collections this week below!

Spotlight Titles:

Death Bed: The Bed That Eats (Cult Epics, Blu-ray)

Prepare yourselves… The strangest bedtime story ever told! Cult Epics brings you Death Bed, George Barry’s uniquely weird journey through a world of wind demons,...

Prepare to be corrupted and depraved once more as Nucleus Films releases the sequel to the definitive guide to the Video Nasties phenomenon – the most extraordinary and scandalous era in the history of British film. Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide Part 2, a three-disc collector’s edition box set, is being released on DVD on July 14th 2014, to tie in with the 30th Anniversary of the Video Recordings Act 1984.

For the first time ever on DVD, all 82 films that fell foul of the Director of Public Prosecutions “Section 3” list are trailer-featured with specially filmed intros for each title, alongside a brand new documentary – Video Nasties: Draconian Days (review), directed by Jake West.

And to celebrate the release, Film4 FrightFest is hosting a special event – the world exclusive London Premiere of the finalised unseen extended 97 minute cut of Video Nasties: Draconian Days at The Prince Charles Cinema on Thurs 3 July, 8.30pm. The...

The highly anticipated follow-up to their critically acclaimed Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship & Videotape documentary, director Jake West and producer Marc Morris continue uncovering the shocking story of home entertainment post the 1984 Video Recordings Act. A time when Britain plunged into a new dark age of the most restrictive censorship, where the horror movie became the bloody eviscerated victim of continuing dread created by self-aggrandizing moral guardians. With passionate and entertaining interviews from the people who lived through it and more jaw dropping archive footage, get ready to reflect and rejoice the passing of a landmark era.

I was a huge fan of Jake West and Marc Morris’ first documentary on the Video Nasties scandal of the early 80s and it opened my eyes to a period in time I was actually too young to really remember – at the time of the Video Recordings Act and the Dpp’s prosecution...

The BBFC has been in existence for several decades now and they are in charge of protecting us against morally bankrupt film material that may deprave and corrupt us. Over the years the censors have had things quite tough on occasion – fighting the 1970s battle against The Devils, Clockwork Orange, Straw Dogs, The Exorcist and Last Tango in Paris. There was also the whole Video Nasties panic and the need for video reclassification.

The original remit of this article was to write about controversial movie scenes that upset the censors. However, when I was doing my research, I came across films where not just one controversial scene appeared, but lots of controversial scenes appeared. In several cases, there is such a glut of controversial scenes, the entire film has to be banned, because censoring it will not lessen its brutal impact.

So I have ended up with a list of...

Feature Ryan Lambie Jan 11, 2013

With Texas Chainsaw 3D out now in cinemas, Ryan looks at the history of the power tool death in horror, and changing attitude of the BBFC...

There’s something irresistibly robust and nasty about the title, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Rolling beautifully off the tongue, it hints at all kinds of horrific and violent acts - and it certainly sounds more violent and exploitative than Tobe Hooper’s 1974 movie actually was.

Far from just another gore-drenched slasher movie, Hooper’s Texas Chain Saw was more about the threat of violent death than its graphic depiction; his use of sound, editing and careful framing made the few murders really count, and made viewers think they’d seen something far nastier and brutal than they really had.

If anything, Hooper was rather too successful in this regard. In spite of his movie’s relative restraint, critics decried...

The director of Britain's film censorship body reveals all about the thinking underpinning its controversial decisions

When it was first set up in 1912, the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) – or Film Censors, as it was known then – concerned itself with the "unnecessary exhibition of under-clothing" or "scenes calculated to afford information to the enemy". Now, as it heads towards its centenary, it finds itself more likely to be fending off Hollywood studios attempting to shoehorn too much violence into films aimed at 12-year-olds.

"The classic borderline is between a 12A and a 15," says BBFC director David Cooke. "The lower one is better, commercially, but they are also trying to push the boundaries at that level. So we often find ourselves not doing what they want. In roughly 10% of cases we give them a higher classification. "

To cut or not to cut: that has been the issue that has faced...

We recently published an article looking at the British Board of Film Classification, and their changing role as the bastions of morality in the UK.

As a follow up to this, we put some questions to Craig Lapper, a Senior Examiner with the BBFC about their way the organisation works, the process they go through when deciding on a rating for a film, and how the board, and their stance on certain issues, has changed over the last decade or so.

How many people are involved in classification of any particular film?

In general, cinema films are viewed by two examiners, whereas works submitted for DVD or Blu-ray release are viewed by a solo examiner. However, if a work sits on the borderline between two categories, the initial examiner(s) might suggest a further viewing by additional examiners, Senior Examiners and the Director. If a work raises particularly difficult or...

Win A Sony ‘Bloggie’ Camcorder And Learn Ten Things About The Original Straw Dogs……And Ten Things About The New Version!

Rod Lurie’s remake of Straw Dogs is released in the UK on Friday 4th November and we have teamed up with Sony to give away a Sony “Bloggie” Camcorder to one lucky reader. Additionally, the lucky winner will also receive an awesome poster from the film. Details of how to win are at the bottom of this page.

David and Amy Sumner (James Marsden and Kate Bosworth), a Hollywood screenwriter and his actress wife, return to her small hometown in the deep South to prepare the family home for sale after her father’s death. Once there, tensions build in their marriage and old conflicts re-emerge with the locals, including Amy’s ex-boyfriend Charlie (Alexander Skarsgård), leading to a violent confrontation.

Here’s an image of the bloggie...

When we think of the great horror performances of the last 100 years, the tendency is immediately to think of the monsters and killers: Anthony Perkins, Bela Lugosi, Max Schreck. This isn’t entirely fair on the other cast members, but it reflects the way that most horror movies aren’t all that interested in the victims. What might be harder, though, than playing a memorable villain is giving a great performance in a horror movie as the one responding to the horror. Lots of teenagers have been chopped up by Freddy, Jason and Michael, and usually the audience is relieved to see them go. But how many have made us really care about their plight?

I would like to submit Ellen Burstyn’s turn in The Exorcist as simply one of the best the genre has ever seen. It’s a magnificent performance; subtle, heartbreaking, and entirely believable. I’m...

To mark the release of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer 25th Anniversary on Double-Play, Studio Canal have given us three copies to give away. It stars Michael Rooker, Tracy Arnold, Tom Towles and is directed by John McNaughton.

Based on the harrowing true story of one of America’s most notorious mass-murderers, Henry Lee Lucas (portrayed with a dead-eye passivity by a scarily resonant Michael Rooker), John McNaughton’s Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer builds to a disquieting and horrific climax and provides a sobering, nightmarish glimpse into a deranged and damaged mind. On its initial release, America’s MPAA gave the film the notorious X-rating, claiming that they “wouldn’t know where to begin cutting”. While in Britain, Chief Censor James Ferman took a whole year to give the film a certificate. “One of our psychologists said the film was remarkably accurate,” he argued, effectively giving it its best review.

I don’t believe in film censorship. I believe that adults (as legally defined) have an inalienable right to watch disturbing or challenging material if they choose to do so.

I do however believe in a system of clear and simple film classification, which functions as a set of parental guidelines and as a means by which adults may avoid watching content that will offend them. Classification should be about providing adult consumers with the knowledge to make informed choices, and nothing more.

In the 1990s I worked as label manager for a number of UK video labels and distributors, a role which usually included acting as a VHS release producer (and, for a time, LaserDisc) responsible for all or most of the steps involved in getting videos mastered, packaged and on to retail shelves. In that capacity I had a few enlightening experiences dealing with the mindset of the...

Prepare to relive the early 80s again and be “depraved and corrupted” once more as Horror Channel broadcasts a season of films that define the Video Nasties phenomenon – one of the most extraordinary and scandalous eras in the history of British film – the Season of the Banned.

Headlining this new season is the world TV premiere of Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship and Videotape, which will be broadcast on November 4th @ 10.55pm

Directed by renowned filmmaker Jake West (Doghouse, Evil Aliens) and produced by Marc Morris, (co-author of ‘Art of the Nasty’ and ‘Shock Horror: Astounding Artwork from the Video Nasty Era’) – both of whom are pictured above – this era-defining documentary features reflective interviews with filmmakers Neil Marshall and Christopher Smith as well as charting the heroic stand taken by journalist/author Martin Barker, who single-handedly came out in protest against what he saw as the erosion of civil liberties.

Cinema Retro issue #21 has a short but insightful article about how well-known films have fallen victim to the British censor. Thus, readers will be interested in this notice we have received from BBC Four:

Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

BBC Bristol’s Timeshift Dear Censor: The Secret Archive of the BBFC lifts the lid on the world of cinema censorship, this programme has been given unique access to the files of the British Board of Film Classification.

Featuring explicit and detailed exchanges between the censor and film-makers, 'Dear Censor' casts a wry eye over some of the most infamous cases in the history of the board.

From the now seemingly innocuous Rebel Without a Cause, the first 'naturist' films and the infamous works of Ken Russell, and up to Rambo III, this frank and surprisingly warm documentary demonstrates how a body created by the industry to safeguard...

The decision to withhold certification for the horror flick The Human Centipede II in Britain won't stop people from getting hold of it. So does censorship mean anything these days?

The release of a sequel is rarely unalloyed good news in the film world. This rule has once again been demonstrated by The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence), a horror film by the Dutch director Tom Six, which was due to be released in the UK on DVD but refused a certificate by the British Board of Film Classification – not trimmed, not cut, but every single horrible minute found to be objectionable. The BBFC decision has startled many, with some even suggesting that in this new Conservative era, censorship has become politically fashionable once more.

In the first film, a sadistic surgeon kidnaps and drugs three young people and, detaching their entrails on the operating table, uses these to connect...

With the controversial A Serbian Film released from 10th December, FilmShaft thought it would be a rather prescient time to have a good old chat with the British Board of Film Classification’s Senior Examiner Craig Lapper about working at the BBFC, how it makes its decisions and defends accusations levelled at the organisation.

For non-uk readers this interview offers an insight into the British way of doing things. It was director Jake West who suggested I talk with the BBFC when we met to chat about Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide.

The history of film censorship in the UK has always been a hot topic, sometimes draconian and more often than not led by a moral panic or two. Recently A Serbian Film was cut by four minutes plus. It is the most butchered movie in sixteen years and after the ‘James Ferman Years’ many assumed the BBFC were...

Last night FilmShaft sent our fearless contributor Cheryl Carter to experience the full horror of A Serbian Film at the Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square. We’ll have our review closer to release date but rest assure this Serbian effort has made history in the UK by becoming the most censored film in the past sixteen years. That’s quite an achievement!

The last movie to get extensive cuts was the Indian production Nammavar. A BBFC spokesperson has revealed the reasons for the four minutes worth of deletion:

“A number of cuts were required to remove elements of sexual violence that tend to eroticise or endorse sexual violence.”

Since the draconian days of James Ferman who ruled like a dictator over film classification decisions the BBFC relaxed its stance to make it appear to be up-to-date with the opinions of the hoi polloi. They still trim films here and there but the larger,...

Yesterday we posted our exclusive interview with director Jake West discussing his superb compilation reel and documentary, Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide. It is an incredible work and one horror fans and film students alike should see. You can read the first part of the interview here.

West and his co-producer Marc Morris released Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide on 8th November via their Nucleus Films company. It is highly recommended viewing and really can claim to be the ‘definitive’ word on the subject. You can read my review here.

Did you go back and watch all the films that were on the Dpp list?

I’d kind of tracked all those films down over the years so I’ve seen them all. All of the really goods ones like The Evil Dead, Inferno, Tenebrae and Driller Killer, I knew those films pretty well. It was looking back at films...

Take a blood-soaked trip down memory slain with Jake West’s compilation montage Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide. The early 1980s was a time when horror films really were horrific and some lucky titles (72 in total) offended The Man so much they were placed on a reverse Schindler’s List and condemned by the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Yes, a particular selection of cine-nightmares were accused of moral bankruptcy and threatened to unleash the latent psychosis in the plebs that gorged on them, thus spearheading the very fall of society into a cesspit of depravity and vice. Think of the children!

The moral panic centred around the rise of home video entertainment paved the way for the Video Recordings Act alongside stringent and bothersome guidelines especially during James Ferman’s reign as head of the BBFC. Amongst horror critics and film fans in general, this man wasn’t well liked.

Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide

The UK in the early 1980’s. The birth of the video age and the birth of one of the most notorious periods in British movie history – the era of the Video Nasty!

As the proliferation of home video grew, independent video distributors filled the gap left by a Hollywood system too afraid to release films on video with a mind-boggling selection of movies – in fact almost anything they could lay their hands on! From obscure horror films, to sex films, kung-fu, cult classics, obscurities and outright trash, all these and more could be found in local video rental stores located on almost every high street in the country. That was until 1984 when the tabloid newspaper moral panic whipped up by clean-up campaigner leader Mary Whitehouse and fanned by newspapers like the Daily Mail and their infamous “Ban the Sadist Videos” headline finally brought about the Video Recordings Act…...

A 15 certificate for Made in Dagenham tells Stephen Woolley that, despite the growing violence of recent 12A films, bad language is still the final frontier at the BBFC

Over three decades of bewildering confusion, my personal relationship with the British Board of Film Classification – as exhibitor, distributor, producer and punter – has been turbulent, fraught and surreal. There seems to be no sign of that changing, even though the BBFC has finally decided to let the public speak; it has held various "consultations" and "in-depth discussions", and has concluded that the great British public want continuous, unmitigated violence, but won't stand for a bit of swearing.

For example, the violent Inception and The Dark Knight were granted 12A certificates, and Scott Pilgrim Vs the World is granted a 12A, despite the unending riot of comic-strip hacking, chopping and walloping of body parts. A 12A means anyone can attend, but kids under...

Nucleus Films are set to release the definitive guide to the Video Nasties phenomenon next month – covering all the dirty secrets of one of the most controversial eras in the history of British film. For the first time on DVD, all 72 films that fell foul of the Director of Public Prosecutions are trailer-featured with special intros for each title, in a rather snazzy three-disc collector’s edition box-set, alongside a brand new documentary - Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship And Videotape, directed by Jake West. Disc One presents the 39 titles that were successfully prosecuted in UK courts and deemed liable to deprave and corrupt. These included: ‘Absurd’, ‘Cannibal Holocaust’, ‘The Driller Killer’, ‘I Spit on Your Grave’, ‘Nightmares in a Damaged Brain’, ‘Snuff’ & ‘Zombie Flesh-Eaters’. Disc Two presents the 33 titles that were initially banned, but then subsequently acquitted and removed from the Dpp's list. These included: ‘Death Trap’, ‘Deep River...

An exceptionally gory entry in the slasher movie genre, Nightmare was one of many films banned under the legendary 1984 Video Recording Act. Dave takes a look back…

Romano Scavolini's 1981 film Nightmare (also known as Nightmare In A Damaged Brain, Schizo and the much less scary sounding Blood Splash) follows a formula that would be (and had been) oft imitated: a killer escapes to return to his childhood home, leaving a trail of devastation behind him and laying waste to the current inhabitants.

The film focuses on a mental patient, George Tatum, who suffered a childhood trauma and whose doctors have been heavily dosing him with drugs to keep his dreams under control. Thankfully, the drugs do, indeed, work and the doctors are all pretty much excited about their success, turning a psychopath into a fully functioning member of society. However, George isn't fully functioning at all. In fact, he's...

Censorship has reared its ugly head at the Film 4 FrightFest 2010. Srdjan Spasojevic’s A Serbian Film has been pulled from its scheduled screening slot on Sunday due to a ban imposed by Westminster Council.

The film was supposed to be shown in its uncut form before the powers that be; meaning people who probably haven’t even seen the film and want to dictate to the rest of us, imposed a ban. Like Hitler from Inglourious Basterds shouting “nien, nien, nien, nien, nien”.

It recalls the dark years of James Ferman who lorded it over the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) telling us all what we could and couldn’t see.

Ian Jones, the co-director of FrightFest 2010 has said:

“FrightFest has decided not to show A Serbian Film in a heavily cut version because, as a festival with a global integrity, we think a film of this nature should...

In the early 1980s, fearing that the morality of British youth was being corrupted by the explosion of ultraviolent film on home video, British authorities passed a sweeping new law on video content. It outright banned a total of seventy two films - though some would later be allowed on appeal - creating what ironically became the definitive list of extreme cinema for many collectors. These were the so-called Video Nasties.

In an age where everything you could possibly imagine is available for free on the internet the idea of controlling access to these titles seems sort of quaint but back in the day, if you were in the UK and wanted to see Cannibal Holocaust or I Spit On Your Grave the only way to do it was via illicit tape trading and an underground network of collectors.

And now, looking back on that era is Doghouse and Evil Aliens director Jake West,...

Nucleus Films have announced the UK DVD release of Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide in October, which follows the debut of the Jake West directed documentary Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship And Videotape (which forms a part of this release) at this years London Film4 FrightFest in August.

The three-disc DVD set covers the most notorious period in the history of British home entertainment and presents, for the first time ever on DVD, all 72 films that came under scrutiny from the Director of Public Prosecutions (Dpp) – making it the definitive source for all things “video nasty” and a must buy for horror fans everywhere. Check out the freshly released teaser trailer, which features contributions from Andy Nyman and Christopher Smith:

Disc One in this three disc set features the 39 titles which were successfully prosecuted in UK courts and officially deemed “liable to deprave and corrupt” – the standard by which all video nasties were measured.

The UK's most amazing horror film festival Film4 FrightFest has released what could very well be another one of the best horror line-ups we've seen ever for its latest show taking place from Thursday the 26th of August to Monday the 30th of August, brimming with films we've been salivating over Stateside!

From the Press Release

This year there are eight British films in the main programme (another record) including Monsters, Gareth Edwards’ sensational post-Apocalyptic debut, The Ford Brothers’ Cannes-hyped African Zombie flick The Dead and Johannes Roberts F – in which a school gets a lesson in horror! Other home-grown titles are Dead Cert (East-End gangsters meet Eastern European vampires), Isle Of Dogs (nasty gangland horror), Paul Andrew Williams’ harrowing Cherry Tree Lane and werewolf thriller 13Hrs. Plus, Jake West will be presenting his in-depth documentary Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship And Videotape, which will be followed by a Q & A panel discussion.

The complete lineup for the 2010 edition of the Film4 Frightfest has just been announced and, as usual, it is a quality selection of the best in horror film from the UK and around the world. The program splits into two programs - the main lineup and sidebar Discovery program - and you'll find both below!

Programme = Screen 1

Thursday Aug 26

6.30pm Hatchet II  (World Premiere)

FrightFest continues its strong relationship with Adam Green by hosting the world premiere of the sequel to his 2006 slasher sensation. Picking up right where the splatter-tastic original ended, Marybeth escapes the clutches of the deformed, swamp-dwelling iconic killer Victor Crowley. After learning the truth about her family's connection to the hatchet-wielding madman, Marybeth returns to the Louisiana swamps along with an army of hunters to recover the bodies of her family and exact the bloodiest revenge against the bayou butcher. Delivering unapologetically unrestrained gushers of gore,...