horror movies are all about pushing
boundaries taking audiences and ratings
boards to the very limit of what they
can stomach some films have been so
hardcore that entire countries have
taken steps to ban them from their
theaters in some cases making screening
or possessing them a criminal act
sometimes you can see the rationale
behind a movie being banned but not
always for one reason or another these
horror films were all battle grounds for
censorship deemed too disturbing for
viewers but they still managed to find
their audiences anyway a serbian film a
serbian film has a reputation as one of
the most extreme horror movies ever made
and it's a reputation that's well earned
centering on an adult film actor who's
been hired to participate in an
increasingly sadistic production the
story is meant to be a metaphor for life
in Serbia conveying how the country
screws its people over from birth the
metaphor gets very literal being
represented on screen by torture murder
necrophilia and other even worse things
with that kind of taboo content it's far
from surprising that a large number of
countries wanted nothing to do with the
movie at one point or another a Serbian
film was banned in Germany Norway Brazil
Australia New Zealand Malaysia Spain and
Singapore and the countries that
eventually allowed the movie required
significant edits the movie is so
extreme that it's almost gotten people
thrown in real-life prison
following a Serbian films ban in Spain
the director of a film festival faced
criminal charges for daring to show the
movie anyway a move which drew
condemnation from the film's director
despite how violent the film is it uses
its extreme violence to make a point and
of course no children were actually
harmed during the making of it a Serbian
film may be one of the most
boundary-pushing movies ever made but
it's still just a movie and as a horror
movie it's pretty genuinely effective
saw 6 and saw 3d the Saw series of
horror movies was sadistic from the
start but weirdly it wasn't until the
6th entry that any country made moves to
ban them for some reason saw 6 was
initially banned from thailand and spain
with spanish regulators giving the film
a rating usually reserved for
pornography
it's an odd move considering the sixth
movie doesn't do anything the previous 5
didn't already get away with the
follow-up picture alternatively called
saw 3d saw 7 or saw the final chapter
was also banned from public exhibition
in
Germany for its violence but what makes
that movie more violent than the
installments that preceded it is a
mystery the seventh saw movie was kind
of a cornball gimmicky sequel lousy
enough to put the franchise into
hibernation for years hostile in hostile
part to lots of European commentators
had an issue with the first hostile for
making the continent seem like a lethal
tourist trap but it was only in Ukraine
that the movie pushed enough buttons to
get itself banned
both hostel and its sequel were outlawed
in the country for excessive cruelty as
well as for portraying the neighborhood
as a place where tourists get tortured
for money despite the ban the movie is
still legally available for private
viewing just don't let them catch you
screening it in the front yard beyond
Ukraine the uncut version of hostel part
2 is banned in Germany and New Zealand
and the film was only released in
Malaysia and Singapore after undergoing
cuts to its more extreme scenes some
politicians in the UK have also argued
that the film should be illegal a
crusade made extra absurd by the fact
that at least one politician who spoke
out against the movie eventually
admitted that he'd never even watched it
it's a fact that speaks to how arbitrary
these censorship measures often are one
viewers trash is another audiences
trashy goodtime possession possession is
one of the best and most bonkers horror
movies ever made but that doesn't mean
everyone was comfortable with its
content when it was released in 1981
following a limited theatrical run in
the UK possession was labeled as a
distasteful video nasty and effectively
banned for a decade not getting released
on home video in uncut form until 1999
the movie also had a difficult time
getting an uncut release in the United
States while it was never formally
banned the original US release was
heavily edited resulting in a number of
different versions being circulated with
dramatic variations one version
notoriously cut out in astonishing 40
minutes rearranging scenes and adding
optical effects that turned an already
challenging movie into something all but
impossible to understand it wasn't until
2000 that the original version became
widely available in the US which is
shocking considering the movies
relatively tame nature while its plot
may feel like a fever dream it's no more
violent or graphic than other horror
movies of the era it's just a lot
weirder land of the dead banning a movie
instantly makes it more notorious most
authorities tend to do it only in
in circumstances with movies so extreme
that they test the mettle of even the
most jaded viewer so it's odd that a
relatively tame studio effort like
George Romero's land of the dead ended
up being banned in the Ukraine
especially when more typically
restrictive places like the UK
classified the movie as being suitable
for teenagers the movies ban in Ukraine
comes down to unique context
specifically he was banned for his
portrayal of cannibalism not because it
seems of humans getting devoured were
especially gory but rather due to
concerns that such content would evoke
memories of the Holodomor a man-made
famine that killed millions when it was
inflicted on the nation by Joseph
Stalin's government between 1932 and 33
the reason behind the ban raises more
questions than it answers Land of the
Dead was released in 2005 some 72 years
after the events of the genocide and
doesn't have anything to do with famine
or Soviet history you can almost see the
rationale but is a zombie movie that
takes place in post-apocalyptic
Pennsylvania really going to be the
thing that opens those old wounds it's
one of George Romero's worst movies sure
but it's not that bad grotesque 2009
scrote esque is a 73 minute exploitation
horror movie from japan that focuses
chiefly on the kidnapping and sadistic
murder of a young couple that's it
nothing else happens grotesque is the
dictionary definition of torture porn
the UK's Film classification Board
refused to put any stamp of approval on
the film stating that the movie actually
posed a risk to society running down the
movie's main offences the censor cited
acts of amputation I go gene castration
and evisceration resulting in a gory and
violent death in other words a typical
horror movie fans definition of a fun
Friday night the lack of a traditional
narrative only bolstered the board's
decision to reject the movie with their
assessment being that the film could not
be cut to satisfy their standards when
its very concept was so objectionable
grotesques home country had no such
concerns although the British band did
spark a debate over the artistic merits
of the splatter film the controversy
brought a wave of new publicity to the
movie suggesting once again that there's
nothing so valuable for a movie's
long-term reputation as the Allura games
from being banned father's day described
as pure grindhouse madness Father's Day
is a Canadian horror comedy about a man
getting revenge on the killer who
molested and murdered his father the
outlandish concept
clearly tongue-in-cheek in execution not
that that mattered to the Australian
government although Father's Day was
allowed to screen in Sydney for its 2012
theatrical premiere classification was
refused for its home video release
resulting in an effective ban on the
movie in the country with future
screenings of it at film festivals being
cancelled with the film banned from a
video release a distributor for Father's
Day took Australian censors to task for
taking the movies content out of context
after much back-and-forth in the press
the movie was eventually released in
2013 leaving a censored version that
toned down the gore Slender Man Sony
Pictures Slender Man is the first studio
movie to be inspired by the online
horror phenomenon telling the story of a
group of teenage girls who seek out the
mysterious monster at least that was the
plan prior to its release Slender Man
sparked controversy due to its
relationship to a real-life attempted
murder that took place near Waukesha
Wisconsin in 2014
when two middle school students
violently attacked their friend in an
effort to appease the fictional creature
in a lead-up to the movies theatrical
rollout the father of one of the
attackers condemned the movie accusing
its producers of capitalizing on a
tragedy saying in my opinion it's
extremely distasteful all we're doing is
extending the pain all three of these
families have gone through reportedly
the negative buzz spooked Sony into
dramatically chopping down the movie
removing much of the film's violence as
well as plot arcs and entire characters
but for some exhibitors that
self-censorship wasn't enough with
theaters near the site of the attack
refusing to screen the movie at all the
result of all the drama was an
incoherent mess of a movie that got
little in the way of a marketing push
getting poorly received by just about
everyone the most puzzling thing is that
anyone could have seen the controversy
coming from a mile away which makes one
wonder why producers even tried to make
the movie in the first place the bunny
game an independent 76 minute movie
produced for $13,000 the bunny game
easily ran afoul of British censors upon
its release in 2010 short slight and
brutal the movie centers on the
kidnapping and torture of a prostitute
hitchhiker by a sadistic truck driver
nothing more nothing less
the BBFC refused classification for the
movie on the basis of its graphic
depictions of sexual abuse calling the
movie unacceptable to the public the
Board's decision didn't come down to any
one objectionable scene but rather
movies very concept according to a
statement made by the board the
principle focus of the work is the
unremitting sexual and physical abuse of
a helpless woman as well as the sadistic
and sexual pleasure the man derives from
this in short there may be no version of
the bunny game that British censors
would find acceptable on principle alone
that's a pretty big bummer for British
fans of the horror genre The Human
Centipede - full sequence
despite its notoriously disgusting
concept the first Human Centipede movie
has a fairly traditional feel to it its
central idea of kidnapped people being
stitched together into end is body
horror more nauseating and concept than
an execution with the movie itself being
fairly restrained when it comes to
graphic detail that restraint went out
the window for the movie sequel which
went to extreme lengths to shock and
horrify getting itself banned from
several nations upon its release stark
and confrontational the human centipede
2 full sequence hit the throttle on its
use of sadistic nihilistic violence
while the first film's villain was a
demented surgeon who at least sort of
knew what he was doing the second movies
villain is just a minted creating his
centipede with brute force and barbed
wire the film is so bleak and brutal
that the British Board of Film
classification outright refused to give
it a rating saying no amount of cuts
would make the movie acceptable enough
to be exhibited or sold the movie was
eventually approved for release in the
United Kingdom but only after having two
and a half minutes of footage cut out
Australia required 30 seconds worth of
edits while New Zealand never let the
movie screen at all if you missed out on
the sequel you didn't miss much but it's
still so much better than the third
movie in the series which sensors around
the world didn't even bother with that
one's not terribly offensive it's more
just terrible