CENCORSHIP- A NEW DARK ERA ARRIVING IN THE UK?

Hello Folks,

Jonny T here, a little annoyed to be honest, yesterday i was given by my wife Emma an article in the UK national newspaper The Daily Mail that brought to light the fact that very soon the UK may well come into the dark old days of films being banned again and heavily censored to keep us all safe, well mainly children which on the children point is fair enough but to censor movies or even ban them from being shown in theatres by adults knowingly going to the cinema and paying money to see that particular film, surely that had to be a bad thing right? Below is a  couple of pictures of the beginning of the article written by The Mail's film critic Christopher Tookey.



As you can see from the above pictures it's not just the fact that this subject is being brought up yet again but the way it is written in such a hatred fulled way directed and basically blaming horror movies for everything that's wrong in the world a short minded bigoted opinion that really does piss me off. For example just a few quotes from the opening paragraph such as "One of the most repellent exercises in sexual sadism that i have ever witnessed in a cinema" and on The Human Centipede 2 "Which is roughly ten times more extreme, filthy and psycho-pathic than the original".

1-IF HE HATED THE FIRST FILM SO MUCH WHY DID HE WATCH THE SECOND?

2-HE IS CLEARLY NOT A HORROR MOVIE FAN.

I am a horror movie fan that is of course why i write this blog, i am now and always will be a fan of the horror genre, i have met some really great people through doing this and the podcast not just in the UK but all over the world, you couldn't wish to meet a more helpful bunch of fun loving people, OK there is a difference of opinion over peoples reviews but it's all done it good honest discussion and i can honestly say that non of those people that i know have ever come across as sick, twisted or to quote Mr Tookey "Psycho-Pathtic".

Now to be fair the article does mainly focus on the fact of sexual violence that according to them corrupts teenage boys so when you reach 19 or if you are a girl you are safe, the article makes no sense whatsoever but blatantly has a massive one sided view with no for's or against, just why they are sick films that corrupts teenage boys.

Above is an image that was censored for the release of one of the Harry Potter movies, as you can clearly see in the picture on the right the blood has been removed from the characters hand as this was seen as a "Too violent image to portray to children", Now my argument is an age old one, I grew up and loved Tom and Jerry, Road Runner, The Three Stooges to name but a few and still do, Each one i mentioned if you really delve into it with a shallow mind was incredibly violent and indeed Tom and Jerry is lovingly payed tribute to in The Simpson's as Itchy and Scratchy, The Simpson's is seen as one of the most watched children's TV shows of all time but apart from a small pocket of people the violence level of that particular part of the show has never been censored or banned and is far more graphic than any of the titles i mentioned, My main point on this part is surely it's down to the parents to monitor what there children can or cannot see, now i appreciate the fact the every probable 6 year old upwards has access to the Internet and Teenagers have mobile phones where they can easily access anything on the web weather it be good, bad, sick or ugly and there are programmes/apps available to stop this kind of viewing, has nobody ever heard of browsing history? Like on my mobile phone for example, I use Twitter and Facebook and you often see a link from many horror related sites so you click on it but it comes up that it an over 18 restricted site due to content and is not allowed so surely if that is able to work on my phone why not with anybody Else's?

Now you may have heard this story before.......When i was growing up i was off school for a period of time with illness and everyday i used to go to the shop with my mum and she would leave me in the Video shop so i could choose a film to watch when i got home,She would then pick me up from the shop and ask what film i had chosen and asked the man who owned the shop what it was like and if she agreed it was OK i was allowed to take it home, mainly it was old Val Lewton movies or the Universal monster films but i was allowed to watch the occasional Zombie flick such as Dawn of The Dead but only with my dad who had already seen them therefore already been vetted to make sure it was not too graphic, i was never allowed for years to watch the likes of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I spit on your grave and even The Exorcist, the point is i am not saying that my parents were not shining examples of protection from the world but they knew the line between what was acceptable and not, If you have a parent that lets their kid's openly sit down and watch the likes of A Serbian Film and The Human Centipede then they need to have a rethink, That's my opinion on yes and No's for what you should watch, as an adult you have a choice, i personally would never watch say for example the latest Jennifer Aniston movie featuring cute puppies or any episode of mundane TV soap operas because i find that stuff offensive therefore i stay away, The last time i saw a clip of a soap opera was Eastenders on Christmas day last year whilst i was flicking through the channels and it had just been anounced that one of the main characters had brain cancer, happy christmas from the soaps, watched by millions. 

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE!!

An example above of how UK censorship used to be and i hope it doesn't return to those days, On the left is my LP Soundtrack to Dario Argento's Classic Tenebrae on the right is my USA version of the film, The obvious difference is the on the UK album cover you can clearly see that where the blood is on the DVD cover it has been replaced by a pretty red ribbon, insane! This also happened with the UK cover for many other releases most memorable being Enter The Dragon where in certain releases Bruce Lee was seen to hold aloft a long piece of wood rather than the classic image of him with Nunchaku's also the entire scene was removed from the movie in fear that people would start making their own, again..insane!!

 



Above are just 3 examples of classic UK banned Video Nasties, now i won't go on about the DPP list or raids etc you can see this and may well have done in a brilliant documentary by Jake West simply entitled Video Nasties and if you have yet to see it i urge you to track it down, it explains with some now truly jaw dropping insanity the whole video nasty fear that spread throughout the UK and looking at the article in The Mail lets hope that will be the end of that and sensibility will take hold, after all we are all supposed to be civilised sensible adults right? The main problem you have is the true fact of the more you ban something the more people want it, it's human nature, take 2 examples-

1-As soon as all the films that appeared on the DPP list got banned everyone wanted to see them and to be honest most of them are pretty awfully made films that without being on the list would have disappeared years ago and are still even to this day highly collectible on VHS with the likes of Cannibal Holocaust on VHS GO Label still fetching around £80

2-Human Centipede 2 was to be released, announced on the net UK release dates etc then the news filters through that the BBFC were going to ban it, BOOM! Tom Six was suddenly on a ton of radio and TV shows over here, well done BBFC you got him more publicity than any PR company could have ever managed.

Recently we have had 2 movies banned, Grotesque and The Bunny Game, no doubt i could find them if i wanted to with a couple of clicks, That's the other problem, you ban them and it will drive the films even more underground, People will seek them out and with Torrent sites etc this will lead to the event of increased piracy and do more damage to the film industry than letting us adults paying money and making our own minds up.

Well unfortunately it seems that some have a very low opinion of us horror fans and anyone else that opinions differ from there own cotton wool wrapped world so Mr Christoper Tookey maybe you should look at the news or read another newspaper apart from your own and see what really is going on in the real world and i think you will find that it's not horror films that are causing the worlds problems, try greedy bankers that have plunged the world into recession causing mass poverty and crime or religion that is the cause of 99% of the world wars,I say bring on 2013 and a ton more horror, can't wait to see his review of Human Centipede 3, maybe i will contact him and ask if he would like to go see it with me then a pint, what do you reckon?

Jonny T,