Tuesday 5 February 2008
Thursday 8 November 2007
Peeping Tom
Synopsis
The antagonist, Mark Lewis (Carl Boehm), meets a prostitute, covertly filming her with a camera hidden under his coat. Shown from the point-of-view of the camera viewfinder, tension builds as he follows the girl into her house, murders her and later watches the film in his den as the credits roll on the screen.
Lewis is a member of a film crew who aspires to become a film-maker himself. He works part-time photographing lurid pictures of women. He is a shy, reclusive young man who hardly ever socializes outside of his workplace. He lives in his father's house, leasing part of it and acting as the landlord, while pretending to be just another tenant. Mark is fascinated by the boisterous family living downstairs and especially by Helen (Anna Massey), a vivacious sweet-natured girl who pities him. A friendship deepens into a serious relationship between them.
Mark reveals to Helen through home movies taken by his father (played by director Powell in a cameo) that, as a child, he was used as a guinea pig for his father's psychological experiments. Mark's father would study his son's reaction to various stimuli, such as lizards he put on his bed and would film the boy in all sorts of situations, even going as far as recording his son's reactions as he sat with his mother on her deathbed. The father, whose studies made him a respected psychologist, was interested in studying fear and the nervous system. He kept his son under constant watch and even wired all his rooms so that he could spy on him.
Mark arranges with Vivian (a stand-in at the studio) to make a film after the set is closed. He kills her and stuffs her into a prop trunk. The body is discovered later by the horrified film crew. The police link the two murders and notice that each victim died with a look of utter terror on her face. They interview everyone on the set and become suspicious of Mark, who has his camera always running, always recording and who claims that he's making a documentary.
A psychiatrist, called to the set to console the upset star of the movie, chats with Mark and tells him that he is familiar with his father's work. The psychiatrist relates the details of the conversation to the police, noting that Mark had 'his father's eyes.'
Mark is then tailed by the police who follow him to the building where he takes photographs. He kills his subject and heads home.
Helen, who is curious about Mark's films, finally runs one of them. She becomes visibly upset and frightened when he catches her. Mark reveals that he makes the movies so that he can capture the fear of his victims. He has mounted a round mirror atop his camera, so that he can capture the reactions of his victims as they see their impending deaths.
The police arrive and Mark realizes that he's finished. As he had planned from the very beginning, he impales himself with a knife attached to one of the camera's tripod legs, killing himself the same way he dispatched his victims, and with the camera running, becomes the final part of his own documentary.
Responses
Peeping Tom was an immensely controversial film on initial release and the critical backlash heaped on the film all but finished Powell's career. However, the film earned a cult following and over the last thirty years has received a critical reappraisal that not only salvaged Powell's reputation but also earned the film a re-evaluation. He noted ruefully in his autobiography, "I make a film that nobody wants to see and then, thirty years later, everybody has either seen it or wants to see it."
Today, the film is considered a masterpiece and one of the best British horror films: in 2004, the magazine Total Film named Peeping Tom the 24th greatest British movie of all time[citation needed], and in 2005, the same magazine listed it as the 18th greatest horror film of all time.. It was included in a BFI poll for the best British films of all time. The film was listed at #38 on Bravo Channel's 100 Scariest Movie Moments. Roger Ebert has included it in his 'Great Movies' column.
The antagonist, Mark Lewis (Carl Boehm), meets a prostitute, covertly filming her with a camera hidden under his coat. Shown from the point-of-view of the camera viewfinder, tension builds as he follows the girl into her house, murders her and later watches the film in his den as the credits roll on the screen.
Lewis is a member of a film crew who aspires to become a film-maker himself. He works part-time photographing lurid pictures of women. He is a shy, reclusive young man who hardly ever socializes outside of his workplace. He lives in his father's house, leasing part of it and acting as the landlord, while pretending to be just another tenant. Mark is fascinated by the boisterous family living downstairs and especially by Helen (Anna Massey), a vivacious sweet-natured girl who pities him. A friendship deepens into a serious relationship between them.
Mark reveals to Helen through home movies taken by his father (played by director Powell in a cameo) that, as a child, he was used as a guinea pig for his father's psychological experiments. Mark's father would study his son's reaction to various stimuli, such as lizards he put on his bed and would film the boy in all sorts of situations, even going as far as recording his son's reactions as he sat with his mother on her deathbed. The father, whose studies made him a respected psychologist, was interested in studying fear and the nervous system. He kept his son under constant watch and even wired all his rooms so that he could spy on him.
Mark arranges with Vivian (a stand-in at the studio) to make a film after the set is closed. He kills her and stuffs her into a prop trunk. The body is discovered later by the horrified film crew. The police link the two murders and notice that each victim died with a look of utter terror on her face. They interview everyone on the set and become suspicious of Mark, who has his camera always running, always recording and who claims that he's making a documentary.
A psychiatrist, called to the set to console the upset star of the movie, chats with Mark and tells him that he is familiar with his father's work. The psychiatrist relates the details of the conversation to the police, noting that Mark had 'his father's eyes.'
Mark is then tailed by the police who follow him to the building where he takes photographs. He kills his subject and heads home.
Helen, who is curious about Mark's films, finally runs one of them. She becomes visibly upset and frightened when he catches her. Mark reveals that he makes the movies so that he can capture the fear of his victims. He has mounted a round mirror atop his camera, so that he can capture the reactions of his victims as they see their impending deaths.
The police arrive and Mark realizes that he's finished. As he had planned from the very beginning, he impales himself with a knife attached to one of the camera's tripod legs, killing himself the same way he dispatched his victims, and with the camera running, becomes the final part of his own documentary.
Responses
Peeping Tom was an immensely controversial film on initial release and the critical backlash heaped on the film all but finished Powell's career. However, the film earned a cult following and over the last thirty years has received a critical reappraisal that not only salvaged Powell's reputation but also earned the film a re-evaluation. He noted ruefully in his autobiography, "I make a film that nobody wants to see and then, thirty years later, everybody has either seen it or wants to see it."
Today, the film is considered a masterpiece and one of the best British horror films: in 2004, the magazine Total Film named Peeping Tom the 24th greatest British movie of all time[citation needed], and in 2005, the same magazine listed it as the 18th greatest horror film of all time.. It was included in a BFI poll for the best British films of all time. The film was listed at #38 on Bravo Channel's 100 Scariest Movie Moments. Roger Ebert has included it in his 'Great Movies' column.
Pyscho
Plot summary
The movie opens in Phoenix, Arizona, with discreet lovers Marion Crane (Leigh) and Sam Loomis (Gavin) together in a downtown hotel room. Until Sam's finances improve, the two cannot marry, as he is in debt and must also pay heavy alimony to his ex-wife. Unhappy and desperate to improve their situation, Marion steals $40,000 cash tendered as payment for a real estate deal at the office where she works. Asked to deposit the money at the bank for the weekend, she instead packs and leaves town with the money, which she sees as the ticket to her and Sam's happiness.
Sam lives in a California town where he runs a hardware store. Marion heads there, and her behavior along the way draws the attention of others. In one scene, she trades her car (and pays an additional $700) for another used car while a suspicious police officer watches.
While driving fatigued in the dark, in pouring rain, she sees a seemingly deserted 12-cabin motel. There, Marion encounters Norman Bates (Perkins), the young owner who looks after the motel and his ailing mother in the nearby mansion on a hill. Norman offers to make her a sandwich; while going into the house to prepare the sandwich, Marion hears his mother shouting at him as though his meal with Marion was part of a sordid affair. While talking with Norman, she considers him something of an eccentric, especially when he shows surprising knowledge of the interior of a mental asylum. Unfortunately for Marion, Norman has completely understated his overbearing mother's illness. Ultimately, as Marion showers in her motel room, she is stabbed to death in the now-famous "shower scene" by a shadowy woman's figure while Bernard Herrmann's screeching string score plays.
Norman is horrified when he finds the bloody corpse. To protect his mother, he disposes all evidence of the crime by sinking Marion, her car, and her belongings (including the money, which Bates has not seen) in a swamp behind the Bates' property. Marion's disappearance, with the money, sets a search in motion. A private detective, Milton Arbogast (Balsam), is hired to find and recover the money. He traces Marion to the Bates Motel, questions Norman (who sweats and seems very nervous and edgy) and is similarly slashed to death by Norman's mother after being pushed down a flight of stairs.
Sam and Marion's sister, Lila (Miles), immediately become concerned when Arbogast does not telephone them after reaching the motel and decide to alert the local sheriff. However, when they mention Mrs. Bates, his wife asks: "Oh, Norman took a wife?" Apparently, Mrs. Bates died ten years ago, when she committed suicide with strychnine.
Sam and Lila, tipped by Detective Arbogast before his demise, are also suspicious of Norman and his mother. While investigating they decide to check into the Bates Motel, to search for proof of Marion, where they find a paper with the sum of $40,000 written on it. Theorizing that Norman's mother might know more about Marion, Lila sneaks into the house while Sam confronts Norman at the office. Sam's heated argument with Norman quickly escalates to violence, and Norman knocks Sam unconscious and flees to the house. Meanwhile, Lila slips into the basement to discover the semi-preserved corpse of Norman's mother just as Norman enters to find her. Cross-dressed in his mother's clothing, complete with wig, Norman is wielding the deadly butcher's knife, preparing to kill Lila. Sam regains consciousness, reappearing just in time to wrestle the knife away from Norman and rescue Lila, who watches in disbelief.
At the end of the film, a forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Fred Richmond (Oakland), explains to Lila, Sam and the authorities that Bates' mother, though dead, lives on in Norman's psyche. Norman was so dominated by his mother while she lived, and so guilt-ridden for murdering her ten years earlier, that he tried to erase the crime from his mind by bringing his mother back to life. Physically, this was done by stealing her corpse ("A weighted coffin was buried," according to Richmond) and preserving it with his taxidermy skills, thereby inciting a split personality in Norman, creating the persona of his mother. He acts as he believes she would, talks as she would, and even dresses as she would, in an attempt to erase her absence and the guilt. Because Norman was so very jealous of his mother while she lived, his split personality is equally jealous of any woman to whom Norman might be attracted. Norman's psychosis prohibits him from knowing of his mother's crimes or her original demise.
The last scene shows Norman Bates in a cell, his mind now completely dominated by the persona of his mother. She blames Norman for the crimes, and plans on demonstrating to the authorities that she is utterly harmless, thinking to herself, "They’ll see, they'll know, and they’ll say, 'Why, she wouldn’t even harm a fly!'" A brief epilogue shows Marion's car being towed from its watery grave in the swamp, presumably to collect her body and the remaining $39,300.
Censorship
According to Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho, the censors in charge of enforcing the Production Code for the MPAA wrangled with Hitchcock because some censors insisted they could see one of Janet Leigh's breasts. Hitchcock held onto the print for several days, left it untouched, and resubmitted it for approval. Astoundingly, each of the censors reversed their positions -— those who had previously seen the breast now did not, and those who had not, now did. They passed the film after the director removed one shot that showed the buttocks of Leigh's stand-in. The board was also upset by the racy opening, so Hitchcock said that if they let him keep the shower scene he would reshoot the opening with them on the set. Since they did not show up for the reshoot, the opening stayed.
Another cause of concern for the censors was that Marion was shown flushing a toilet, with its contents (torn-up paper) fully visible. In film and TV at that time a toilet was never seen, let alone heard. This tradition became so well-known that later shows like All in the Family and Sanford and Son added a laugh track every time a flushing sound was heard.
Also, according to the "making of" featurette on the Collector's Edition DVD, some censors objected to the use of the word "transvestite" in the film's closing scenes. This objection was withdrawn after writer Joseph Stefano took out a dictionary and proved to them that the word carried no hidden sexual context, but merely referred to "a man who likes to wear women's clothing".
Internationally, Hitchcock was forced to make minor changes to the film, mostly to the shower scene. Notably, in Britain the shot of Norman washing blood from his hands was objected to and in Singapore, though the shower scene was left untouched, the murder of Arbogast and a shot of Mother's corpse were removed.
The scene with Dr. Fred Richmond was just about forced upon Hitchcock so that the audience would have a sense of relief that everything about Norman could be neatly explained and tidied up. However, he had the last laugh by cutting back to Norman Bates after Richmond's speech and scaring them all over again, just like the novel.
Psycho is a prime example of the type of film that appeared in the 1960s after the erosion of the Production Code. It was unprecedented in its depiction of sexuality and violence, right from the opening scene where Sam and Marion are shown as lovers sharing the same bed. In the Production Code standards of that time, unmarried couples shown in the same bed would be taboo. In addition, the censors were upset by the shot of a flushing toilet; at that time, the idea of seeing a toilet onscreen - let alone being flushed - was taboo in American movies and TV shows. According to Entertainment Weekly, "The Production Code censors... had no objection to the bloodletting, the oedipal murder theme, or even the shower scene—but did ask that Hitchcock remove the word transvestite from the film, He didn't. At one point, Hitchcock actually considered releasing the film without censorial approval. Its box office success helped propel Hollywood toward more graphic displays of previously-censored themes.
Psycho is widely considered to be the first film in the slasher film genre.
The movie opens in Phoenix, Arizona, with discreet lovers Marion Crane (Leigh) and Sam Loomis (Gavin) together in a downtown hotel room. Until Sam's finances improve, the two cannot marry, as he is in debt and must also pay heavy alimony to his ex-wife. Unhappy and desperate to improve their situation, Marion steals $40,000 cash tendered as payment for a real estate deal at the office where she works. Asked to deposit the money at the bank for the weekend, she instead packs and leaves town with the money, which she sees as the ticket to her and Sam's happiness.
Sam lives in a California town where he runs a hardware store. Marion heads there, and her behavior along the way draws the attention of others. In one scene, she trades her car (and pays an additional $700) for another used car while a suspicious police officer watches.
While driving fatigued in the dark, in pouring rain, she sees a seemingly deserted 12-cabin motel. There, Marion encounters Norman Bates (Perkins), the young owner who looks after the motel and his ailing mother in the nearby mansion on a hill. Norman offers to make her a sandwich; while going into the house to prepare the sandwich, Marion hears his mother shouting at him as though his meal with Marion was part of a sordid affair. While talking with Norman, she considers him something of an eccentric, especially when he shows surprising knowledge of the interior of a mental asylum. Unfortunately for Marion, Norman has completely understated his overbearing mother's illness. Ultimately, as Marion showers in her motel room, she is stabbed to death in the now-famous "shower scene" by a shadowy woman's figure while Bernard Herrmann's screeching string score plays.
Norman is horrified when he finds the bloody corpse. To protect his mother, he disposes all evidence of the crime by sinking Marion, her car, and her belongings (including the money, which Bates has not seen) in a swamp behind the Bates' property. Marion's disappearance, with the money, sets a search in motion. A private detective, Milton Arbogast (Balsam), is hired to find and recover the money. He traces Marion to the Bates Motel, questions Norman (who sweats and seems very nervous and edgy) and is similarly slashed to death by Norman's mother after being pushed down a flight of stairs.
Sam and Marion's sister, Lila (Miles), immediately become concerned when Arbogast does not telephone them after reaching the motel and decide to alert the local sheriff. However, when they mention Mrs. Bates, his wife asks: "Oh, Norman took a wife?" Apparently, Mrs. Bates died ten years ago, when she committed suicide with strychnine.
Sam and Lila, tipped by Detective Arbogast before his demise, are also suspicious of Norman and his mother. While investigating they decide to check into the Bates Motel, to search for proof of Marion, where they find a paper with the sum of $40,000 written on it. Theorizing that Norman's mother might know more about Marion, Lila sneaks into the house while Sam confronts Norman at the office. Sam's heated argument with Norman quickly escalates to violence, and Norman knocks Sam unconscious and flees to the house. Meanwhile, Lila slips into the basement to discover the semi-preserved corpse of Norman's mother just as Norman enters to find her. Cross-dressed in his mother's clothing, complete with wig, Norman is wielding the deadly butcher's knife, preparing to kill Lila. Sam regains consciousness, reappearing just in time to wrestle the knife away from Norman and rescue Lila, who watches in disbelief.
At the end of the film, a forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Fred Richmond (Oakland), explains to Lila, Sam and the authorities that Bates' mother, though dead, lives on in Norman's psyche. Norman was so dominated by his mother while she lived, and so guilt-ridden for murdering her ten years earlier, that he tried to erase the crime from his mind by bringing his mother back to life. Physically, this was done by stealing her corpse ("A weighted coffin was buried," according to Richmond) and preserving it with his taxidermy skills, thereby inciting a split personality in Norman, creating the persona of his mother. He acts as he believes she would, talks as she would, and even dresses as she would, in an attempt to erase her absence and the guilt. Because Norman was so very jealous of his mother while she lived, his split personality is equally jealous of any woman to whom Norman might be attracted. Norman's psychosis prohibits him from knowing of his mother's crimes or her original demise.
The last scene shows Norman Bates in a cell, his mind now completely dominated by the persona of his mother. She blames Norman for the crimes, and plans on demonstrating to the authorities that she is utterly harmless, thinking to herself, "They’ll see, they'll know, and they’ll say, 'Why, she wouldn’t even harm a fly!'" A brief epilogue shows Marion's car being towed from its watery grave in the swamp, presumably to collect her body and the remaining $39,300.
Censorship
According to Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho, the censors in charge of enforcing the Production Code for the MPAA wrangled with Hitchcock because some censors insisted they could see one of Janet Leigh's breasts. Hitchcock held onto the print for several days, left it untouched, and resubmitted it for approval. Astoundingly, each of the censors reversed their positions -— those who had previously seen the breast now did not, and those who had not, now did. They passed the film after the director removed one shot that showed the buttocks of Leigh's stand-in. The board was also upset by the racy opening, so Hitchcock said that if they let him keep the shower scene he would reshoot the opening with them on the set. Since they did not show up for the reshoot, the opening stayed.
Another cause of concern for the censors was that Marion was shown flushing a toilet, with its contents (torn-up paper) fully visible. In film and TV at that time a toilet was never seen, let alone heard. This tradition became so well-known that later shows like All in the Family and Sanford and Son added a laugh track every time a flushing sound was heard.
Also, according to the "making of" featurette on the Collector's Edition DVD, some censors objected to the use of the word "transvestite" in the film's closing scenes. This objection was withdrawn after writer Joseph Stefano took out a dictionary and proved to them that the word carried no hidden sexual context, but merely referred to "a man who likes to wear women's clothing".
Internationally, Hitchcock was forced to make minor changes to the film, mostly to the shower scene. Notably, in Britain the shot of Norman washing blood from his hands was objected to and in Singapore, though the shower scene was left untouched, the murder of Arbogast and a shot of Mother's corpse were removed.
The scene with Dr. Fred Richmond was just about forced upon Hitchcock so that the audience would have a sense of relief that everything about Norman could be neatly explained and tidied up. However, he had the last laugh by cutting back to Norman Bates after Richmond's speech and scaring them all over again, just like the novel.
Psycho is a prime example of the type of film that appeared in the 1960s after the erosion of the Production Code. It was unprecedented in its depiction of sexuality and violence, right from the opening scene where Sam and Marion are shown as lovers sharing the same bed. In the Production Code standards of that time, unmarried couples shown in the same bed would be taboo. In addition, the censors were upset by the shot of a flushing toilet; at that time, the idea of seeing a toilet onscreen - let alone being flushed - was taboo in American movies and TV shows. According to Entertainment Weekly, "The Production Code censors... had no objection to the bloodletting, the oedipal murder theme, or even the shower scene—but did ask that Hitchcock remove the word transvestite from the film, He didn't. At one point, Hitchcock actually considered releasing the film without censorial approval. Its box office success helped propel Hollywood toward more graphic displays of previously-censored themes.
Psycho is widely considered to be the first film in the slasher film genre.
Case study : Last House on the Left
"To avoid fainting, keep repeating-it's only a movie..."
Detailed knowledge of the film
Directed by Wes Craven
Produced by Sean S. Cunningham
Written by Wes Craven
Starring Sandra Cassel
Lucy Grantham
David Hess
Fred J. Lincoln
Jeramie Rain
Marc Sheffler
Gaylord St. James
Cynthia Carr
Ada Washington
Music by David Alexander Hess
Cinematography Victor Hurwitz
Editing by Wes Craven
Distributed by Hallmark Releasing Corp.
Release date(s) August 30, 1972
Running time 91 min.
Country USA
Language English
Budget $87,000 (estimated)
Provocative content
The film had problems with censorship in many countries, and was particularly controversial in the United Kingdom. The film was refused a certificate for cinema release by the BBFC in 1974 due to scenes of sadism and violence. During the early 1980s home video boom, the film was released uncut as a video that did not fall under their remit at the time. This changed when the "video nasty" scare which started in 1982 led to the Video Recordings Act 1984. This in turn banned the film as one of the infamous Department of Public Prosecutions list of "video nasties".
The film remained banned throughout the remainder of the 1980s and into the 1990s. However it had built a cult reputation in the UK, plus critics such as Mark Kermode began to laud the film as an important piece of work. In 2000, the film was again presented to the BBFC for certification and it was again refused, though it was granted a license for a one-off showing in Leicester in June 2000, after which the BBFC again declared that the film would not receive any form of certification, resulting in the film being put up for home video release in 2002. The release was declined when the distributors were unwilling to cut the film as the BBFC requested.
The film finally received a UK DVD release in May 2003 with 31 seconds of cuts. The cut scenes were viewable as a slideshow extra on the disc, and there was a weblink to a website where the cut scenes could be viewed. The film has still not received a British certificate for a cinema release, nor has it been released uncut on DVD in the UK.
The gang catch up with her, however, and-in one of the most controversial scenes in the film-Sadie reels out her intestines. Mari eventually convinces Junior to let her go. However, as they get up to leave, they are also stopped by Krug who, after showing her Phyllis' severed hand, slices his name into her chest and rapes her. After the rape, Mari vomits and walks away into the lake, where, half submerged, she is shot and killed by Krug.
Type of censorship
Certification:
UK:18 (re-rating: 2002) (cut) / Australia:R (re-rating: 2004) / UK:(Banned) (1984-2002) / Australia:Refused Classification (original rating: 1987) / Germany:18 / USA:Unrated (uncut) / Sweden:15 (uncut) / New Zealand:R18 (re-rating: 2004) / Norway:16 (DVD rating) (2005) (self applied) / UK:R (original rating: 1974) / Canada:R / France:-16 / Iceland:(Banned) / Ireland:18 (cut UK version) / Netherlands:16 / New Zealand:(Banned) (original rating) / Norway:(Banned) / USA:R (heavily cut) / West Germany:(Banned) / Italy:VM18 / Finland:K-18 / Germany:16 (heavily cut)
The film was refused a certificate for cinema release by the BBFC in 1974 due to scenes of sadism and violence.
The film finally received a UK DVD release in May 2003 with 31 seconds of cuts. The cut scenes were viewable as a slideshow extra on the disc, and there was a weblink to a website where the cut scenes could be viewed. The film has still not received a British certificate for a cinema release, nor has it been released uncut on DVD in the UK.
In the 2002 television special Masters of Horror (sometimes called Boogeymen II: Masters of Horror and not to be confused with the Showtime series Masters of Horror), Wes Craven admits that, due to the film being rejected multiple times by the ratings board, it had been extremely edited down. At a later point in time, they re-inserted much of the removed footage. Producer Sean Cunningham then borrowed a fellow filmmaker's print featuring R rating tag and spliced it in, allowing the film to be released uncut at least for a time in the United States.
The film was originally shot with Mari's parents finding her still alive, identifying her attackers before she dies. Editing and dialogue changes were made to depict Mari as dead when her parents find her. However, in the film when her parents find her, she can be seen moving and breathing, and her parents mouths don't match the dubbed "She's already dead" dialogue.
Arguements for
Arguements against
Notion of protectionn
My views
"To avoid fainting, keep repeating-it's only a movie..."
Detailed knowledge of the film
Directed by Wes Craven
Produced by Sean S. Cunningham
Written by Wes Craven
Starring Sandra Cassel
Lucy Grantham
David Hess
Fred J. Lincoln
Jeramie Rain
Marc Sheffler
Gaylord St. James
Cynthia Carr
Ada Washington
Music by David Alexander Hess
Cinematography Victor Hurwitz
Editing by Wes Craven
Distributed by Hallmark Releasing Corp.
Release date(s) August 30, 1972
Running time 91 min.
Country USA
Language English
Budget $87,000 (estimated)
Provocative content
The film had problems with censorship in many countries, and was particularly controversial in the United Kingdom. The film was refused a certificate for cinema release by the BBFC in 1974 due to scenes of sadism and violence. During the early 1980s home video boom, the film was released uncut as a video that did not fall under their remit at the time. This changed when the "video nasty" scare which started in 1982 led to the Video Recordings Act 1984. This in turn banned the film as one of the infamous Department of Public Prosecutions list of "video nasties".
The film remained banned throughout the remainder of the 1980s and into the 1990s. However it had built a cult reputation in the UK, plus critics such as Mark Kermode began to laud the film as an important piece of work. In 2000, the film was again presented to the BBFC for certification and it was again refused, though it was granted a license for a one-off showing in Leicester in June 2000, after which the BBFC again declared that the film would not receive any form of certification, resulting in the film being put up for home video release in 2002. The release was declined when the distributors were unwilling to cut the film as the BBFC requested.
The film finally received a UK DVD release in May 2003 with 31 seconds of cuts. The cut scenes were viewable as a slideshow extra on the disc, and there was a weblink to a website where the cut scenes could be viewed. The film has still not received a British certificate for a cinema release, nor has it been released uncut on DVD in the UK.
The gang catch up with her, however, and-in one of the most controversial scenes in the film-Sadie reels out her intestines. Mari eventually convinces Junior to let her go. However, as they get up to leave, they are also stopped by Krug who, after showing her Phyllis' severed hand, slices his name into her chest and rapes her. After the rape, Mari vomits and walks away into the lake, where, half submerged, she is shot and killed by Krug.
Type of censorship
Certification:
UK:18 (re-rating: 2002) (cut) / Australia:R (re-rating: 2004) / UK:(Banned) (1984-2002) / Australia:Refused Classification (original rating: 1987) / Germany:18 / USA:Unrated (uncut) / Sweden:15 (uncut) / New Zealand:R18 (re-rating: 2004) / Norway:16 (DVD rating) (2005) (self applied) / UK:R (original rating: 1974) / Canada:R / France:-16 / Iceland:(Banned) / Ireland:18 (cut UK version) / Netherlands:16 / New Zealand:(Banned) (original rating) / Norway:(Banned) / USA:R (heavily cut) / West Germany:(Banned) / Italy:VM18 / Finland:K-18 / Germany:16 (heavily cut)
The film was refused a certificate for cinema release by the BBFC in 1974 due to scenes of sadism and violence.
The film finally received a UK DVD release in May 2003 with 31 seconds of cuts. The cut scenes were viewable as a slideshow extra on the disc, and there was a weblink to a website where the cut scenes could be viewed. The film has still not received a British certificate for a cinema release, nor has it been released uncut on DVD in the UK.
In the 2002 television special Masters of Horror (sometimes called Boogeymen II: Masters of Horror and not to be confused with the Showtime series Masters of Horror), Wes Craven admits that, due to the film being rejected multiple times by the ratings board, it had been extremely edited down. At a later point in time, they re-inserted much of the removed footage. Producer Sean Cunningham then borrowed a fellow filmmaker's print featuring R rating tag and spliced it in, allowing the film to be released uncut at least for a time in the United States.
The film was originally shot with Mari's parents finding her still alive, identifying her attackers before she dies. Editing and dialogue changes were made to depict Mari as dead when her parents find her. However, in the film when her parents find her, she can be seen moving and breathing, and her parents mouths don't match the dubbed "She's already dead" dialogue.
Arguements for
Arguements against
Notion of protectionn
My views
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