The Australian Film Censor Recommends…Short film Morgue Street banned from showing at a horror film festival

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See article from horror-movies.ca See article from facebook.com See article from horrorsociety.com

Morgue Street is a 2012 Italy short horror thriller by Alberto Viavattene. With Mario Cellini, D้sir้e Giorgetti, Roberto Nali. Morgue Street was slated for screening at the A Night Of Horror Film Festival in Sidney, but the Australian Classification Board banned it with a ‘Refused Classification’ rating, two days before the screening, claiming its material that is considered to offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults. Morgue Street is based upon the story The Murders in The Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe. It tells the story of two prostitutes, mother and daughter, struggling against a mysterious creature that breaks into their home. Brian Yuzna called it An original artistic horror while cult author Jack Ketchum blessed it as impressive and perverse . By the way of a hint about the reasons for the ban, as well as horror film festivals, it was also screened at the Berlin Porn Film Festival.

The Telephone Book…Once banned by the BBFC, now getting a US Blu-ray/DVD Combo release

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The Telephone Book is a 1971 USA comedy by Nelson Lyon. With Margaret Brewster, Roger C. Carmel, David Dozer. US: Uncut and MPAA Unrated for: US 2013 Vinegar Syndrome RA Blu-ray/R1 DVD Combo at US Amazon released on 7th May 2013 Banned in the UK UK: Banned by the BBFC for: UK 1971 cinema release Not released since the ban Summary Review: Underground The story of a day in the life of a lonely, sensitive, exuberant, attractive, young woman. Her exploits, encounters, and frustrations as she attempts to find a special someone, a caller who has class , as she puts it. Funny, near brilliant, underground movie about the sexual perversions of everyday people. A terrific example of grass roots filmmaking were the creativity and ingenuity of the director. Promotional Material   A major, though forgotten, work from New York’s underground film scene of the late 60s and early 70s, Nelson Lyon’s The Telephone Book tells the story of a sex-obsessed hippie who falls in love with the world’s greatest obscene phone caller and embarks on a quest to find him. Her journey introduces to her to an avant-garde stag filmmaker, a manipulative psychiatrist, a bored lesbian housewife, and more. Photographed in high-contrast black-and-white, and punctuated with a remarkable, surreal animated sequence, The Telephone Book is one of the greatest cult films you’ve probably never heard of. Special Features: Commentary track with Producer Merv Bloch Original Music Soundtrack Photo Still Gallery Theatrical Trailers

Expose AKA House on Straw Hill…Video nasty gets a long awaited uncut US Blu-ray/DVD combo release

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Expos้ is a 1976 UK horror thriller by James Kenelm Clarke. With Udo Kier, Linda Hayden, Fiona Richmond.   US: Uncut and MPAA Unrated for: US 2013 Severin (RA) Blu-ray/ (R1) Combo at US Amazon released on 11th June 2013 UK Censorship History UK: A pre-cut submission was passed X (18) after 1:39s of further BBFC cuts for: UK 1975 cinema release as Expose UK 1975 cinema release as The House on Straw Hill The cuts were: Pre-cut: A shot of Fiona Richmond’s legs streaming with blood was removed. The BBFC required heavy edits to all the sex scenes and shots of bloody stabbings. UK : Released uncut on pre-cert video for: UK 1980 Intervision VHS Prior to the VRA, the video was released uncut on the Intervision label and for no obvious reason it was banned as a video nasty in March 1984. It then stayed on the list throughout the panic and therefore became one of the collectable DPP39s It was also notable in that this was the only UK video that achieved the DPP39 video nasty status. UK: Passed 18 for strong sex and violence after 51s of BBFC cuts for: 2006 Village DVD titled Expose 2002 Odyssey DVD titled Expose 1997 Disc VHS titled Expose See pictorial cuts details from movie-censorship.com Two country boys threaten Linda Hayden with a shotgun and force her to have sex with each of them. The scene goes on for a long time and the guys are shown to be clearly enjoying it whilst the woman rubs her hand up and down the shotgun in a very suggestive manner. The fact that she manages to shoot them both didn’t appease the BBFC who cut almost the entire scene. Also a scene showing Fiona Richmond getting murdered in the shower has been reduced to eliminate blood on the breasts. Promotional Material Banned in Britain as a Video Nasty for thirty years! A shockingly violent and erotic tale of seduction, brutality and revenge. Cult movie icon Udo Kier (MARK OF THE DEVIL, FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN) stars as a successful novelist suffering from writer’s block, who rents a country cottage with his wife (British 70s sex sensation Fiona Richmond) in the hope of finding inspiration. But the arrival of a sensual secretary, played by Linda Hayden (BLOOD ON SATAN’S CLAW, TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA) sets in motion a chain of events that culminate in an unrestrained explosion of sex and savagery. Film elements were long thought lost or destroyed on this sleazy gem but the original camera negative was unearthed in a barn in rural England and painstakingly restored for this first official uncut release anywhere in the world. Director commentary and cast and crew interviews will round out the package.

Australian Film Censors Don’t Want I Want Your Love…Gay film banned from film festival screenings

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See article from theage.com.au

I Want Your Love is a 2012 USA drama by Travis Mathews. With Jesse Metzger, Brontez Purnell, Ben Jasper. A feature film that includes explicit scenes of gay male sex has been banned by the Australian Film Censorship Board. I Want Your Love , written and directed by young American filmmaker Travis Mathews, was due to screen at queer film festivals around Australia. Festival films are generally granted exemptions from the censorship process. Festivals provide synopses of the works they are screening but the board can then ask to see individual films. Melbourne Queer Film Festival director Lisa Daniel says that in her 15 years at the festival, I Want Your Love is the first film that has been refused an exemption. It has been seen in many festivals around the world, and its distributors have told her this is the first time it has been banned. Mathews is a well-known filmmaker, and the decision is an embarrassment for Australia, she says. The film focuses on a young gay man who is preparing to leave San Francisco after living there for 10 years. The film shows his last 36 hours in the city, and a party thrown for him by his friends, in which his ambivalent feelings about departure are clarified. The film was also on the program at Sydney’s Queer Screen and the Brisbane Queer Film Festival. Jain Moralee, director of Queer Screen, said she was very disappointed that she would be unable to show the work. The sex scene, she says, is a six-minute montage of friends, housemates and partygoers that is part of the narrative context of the film. She describes Mathews as a filmmaker who explores the line between narrative and documentary.

Italy’s Film Censors Recommend…Morituris by Raffaele Picchio, banned from a cinema release

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See article from bloody-disgusting.com

Morituris is a 2011 Italy horror by Raffaele Picchio. With Valentina D’Andrea, Andrea De Bruyn and Désirée Giorgetti. The film makers said in a press release that the Italian Culture Ministery (il Ministero dei Beni Culturali), had decided to ban Morituris from Italian cinemas. The film censorship commission claimed that the film was a gratuitous essay of perversion and sadism. The commission unanimously reached the decision to ban the film on grounds of: offence to good morals, intending acts of violence and perversion against women, motivated by enjoying of overcoming and thrill of self strength, empowered by consume of alcohol and drugs. The avengers find revenge against both boys, guilty of violence, and girls, victims of violence. At last, in acts of extreme perversion, a little mouse is used as a sex tool.

Father’s Day…Banned in Australia

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A Canadian horror-comedy, Father’s Day has been banned by the Australian Government Censorship Board two days before it was scheduled to screen at the Monster Fest Film Festival at Melbourne’s Cinema Nova. Festival Director and Monster Pictures Manager Neil Foley commented: This is an outrageous decision. Yes Father’s Day is an edgy film, but it is an hilarious and over-the-top spoof that, despite it’s gore, is actually one of the sweetest films in the Monster Fest program!” Father’s Day tells the story of a one-eyed vigilante named Ahab who sets out to stop the murderous rampage of a psychopath dubbed “The Father’s Day Killer” The Australian Film Censorship Board explained: The film is classified RC in accordance with the National Classification Code:  films that depict, express or otherwise deal with matters of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults to the extent that they should not be classified. Father’s Day screened earlier this year at Sydney’s Night of Horror Film Festival’ where it won awards for Best Feature Film and Best Director as well as numerous other awards. The film had been granted a temporary festival exemption by the Classification Board on the occasion of the Sydney screening. In the UK the film was passed 18 uncut by the BBFC for strong violence, gore & sex & scenes of sexual violence & torture for: UK 2012 Spirit R2 DVD at UK Amazon

The Riots: In Their Own Words…Rioters’ words banned by court order

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17th July 2012. See  article from  guardian.co.uk See The making of The Riots: In Their Own Words from bbc.co.uk

A court has banned the BBC from broadcasting a film about last summer’s riots. The film, about the experiences of rioters during the disturbances, was due to be broadcast on BBC2. The two part series is a dramatisation based on the testimony of interviews conducted for the Guardian and London School of Economics research into the disorder. It features actors who play anonymous rioters speaking about their experiences of the riots last August. In a blog posted before the film was pulled, a BBC producer on the project said that using the important and illuminating interviews in the drama would provide insight into why and how the riots had happened . The BBC did not give details about the nature of the court order. Update: Murder trial judge banned documentary over possible issues of sub judice 20th July 2012. See  article from  guardian.co.uk A judge prevented the BBC from broadcasting two documentaries about last summer’s riots without having watched the films — and later prevented the media from reporting his injunction. Mr Justice Flaux, who was presiding over the murder trial of eight men who were acquitted at Birmingham crown court on Thursday, made the injunction on the grounds that the film raised issues which echoed arguments put before his jury. He used an unusual power under section 45 of the Senior Courts Act 1981, which in some circumstances grants crown court judges the same powers as those used by the high court, to prevent the film from being broadcast. The BBC and Guardian had sought to challenge the ruling, on the grounds that the films made no reference to the case being considered by the jury and did not even mention rioting in Birmingham. However, the judge rejected the appeal, saying the films touched on issues related to his case, and if he were to allow the films to be broadcast, jurors could potentially have social contact with others who watched the programmes. The end of the trial rendered the orders redundant.

Crawling Along…New Zealand belatedly bans Human Centipede 2

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Thanks to refused-classification.com See article [pdf] from censorship.govt.nz

The New Zealand film censor at the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC). Has banned Tom Six’s Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence). The film was banned as ‘objectionable’ on 4th April 2012. The OFLC summarised its reasons for the ban: The publication is a DVD containing a sequel to a well-known horror film and a number of extra components relating to its development and marketing. The availability of the publication is likely to he injurious to the public good. The feature is an unsubtle portrait of a sexually deranged man who tortures a group of largely anonymous victims in extreme, unflinching detail. Despite the occasional flashes of humour and a degree of sub-textural irony, these elements are overwhelmed by the feature’s sustained, gratuitous focus on victims’ torture, mutilation, forced defecation, rape and murder. These images are linked by a threadbare plot that provides limited narrative justification. While the feature does not promote or support this material, the likely injury to the public good is one of inuring people more generally to cruel, violent and degrading material through its presentation as entertaining, and of eroding the viewer’s ability to empathise with others. This material would disturb and shock most people. Consideration was given to offering excisions in order to remove the strongest images, however due to the pervasiveness of this material excisions were not deemed practical. While the classification is an absolute restriction on the freedom of expression as contained in the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990, it is a restriction consistent with Parliament’s intention that publications containing such a high extent and degree of torture, violence, cruelty, sexual violence and strongly degrading, dehumanising and demeaning material can be classified as objectionable to prevent the likelihood of injury to the public good.

Australia Crawls Under a Stone…Human Centipede II banned after government appeals against the previous uncut R18+ certificate

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Thanks to Bob See article from blogs.crikey.com.au

The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) has been been banned by the Australian Classification Review Board (ACRB). The review was the result of an appeal against the previously uncut R18+ certificate awarded by the Classification Board. The appeal was requested by Australia’s Justice Minister Brendan O’Connor, reportedly on the advice of the New South Wales Attorney General Greg Smith. The film has already opened at select cinemas a fortnight ago, including Melbourne’s Cinema Nova, which advertised the film with a prophetic see it before it’s banned motto. From the ACRB’s official press statement: A three member panel of the Classification Review Board has by unanimous decision determined that the film The Human Centipede II (full sequence) is classified RC (Refused Classification). In the Review Board’s opinion, The Human Centipede II (full sequence) could not be accommodated within the R 18+ classification as the level of depictions of violence in the film has an impact which is very high. In addition, the film must be refused classification because it contains gratuitous, exploitative or offensive depictions of violence with a very high degree of impact and cruelty which has a high impact. Films classified RC cannot be sold, hired, or advertised in Australia.

Hopping Around…The Bunny Game on course for release in US, Germany and Scandinavia

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See article from variety.com

The Bunny Game is a 2010 US kidnap film by Adam Rehmeier. See IMDb. The BBFC ban on The Bunny Game has ended the chance of a release in the UK, but it looks as if Brits will be able to import the film from a choice of other countries. German has now picked up the film for distribution via Illusion Unlimited, and the film will be distributed in Scandinavia by Njuta. There are hopes that a US distributor can be revealed in the next week.