Hey folks, Harry here... The past 36 hours have been one of the more mind-numbingly aggravating situations that I have dealt with in the 16 years of running AICN.
I was shown the full unedited version of THE LOVED ONES last year. I love the film. It is a wonderful very hard violent work of horror. I flipped for the film when I saw it. In particular there are moments that just shocked me.
As I was driving home from SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN last night - I got a text message from Monty Cristo alerting me to some manner of ratings issue with THE LOVED ONES. Here's what happened. THE LOVED ONES was given an R-rating in Australia. The folks at INSURGE apparently assumed it would get a similar rating here. Because the tone of this horror film is more realistic, the MPAA has forced INSURGE and the filmmakers to cut 9 SECONDS out of the film to achieve its R-rating.
This is just complete and utter bullshit on the part of the MPAA. More so - the notion that INSURGE caved to the MPAA when these screenings that AICN is partnering with TUGG on. Their BIG release is this series of 11:59 screenings on TUGG. That's it. When TUGG & I were approached we were not told of any ratings issues. In fact, I never even received a call notifying me that this had occurred. I had to find out via TWITTER.
SO - at this point, people have bought tickets in good faith that they were going to get the same film that we here at AICN had enthusiastically supported. I'm still going to head down to the Alamo this Friday night. At this point, I need to see what has happened to the movie. And share the experience with my readers as I said I would. BUT - this is utterly infuriating to me. Having seen PIRANHA 3DD, in everything but TONE, PIRANHA 3DD is far more gratuitous in both gore and especially in terms of nudity and adult relations. But THE LOVED ONES, even with 9 seconds of extreme violence removed... it is still a film about the performances and the situations - I'm sure most of that has not been affected by the 9seconds that were excised. You might think that 9 seconds is a lot of hubbub over very little. But knowing the MPAA, they's cut some very over the top moments - and it was the intensity that this film achieved that made me so interested in sharing it with so many of you.
Everyone is especially pissed off at the MPAA right now - as a more clear case of outright censorship hasn't been this obvious in quite a while. The full cut of this film is not NC17 material. Not even close. In my opinion nor is KILLER JOE, which has been slapped with the rating. But at least they have the balls to release it in that form. I'll give folks details as soon as they are made available to me.
I recorded a piece on THE LOVED ONES for my show last week, for this week. It goes up tomorrow - and that was before this situation occurred.
Local Austinites... I'll be at the screening this Friday - and we'll discuss the absurdity of bowing to the MPAA's High Council on a film that isn't even getting a wide release. It isn't like they're advertising this thing on TV - or in family newspapers. They don't need the MPAA on this film. And they certainly should not be listening to them in this matter.
INSURGE should release the film unrated into the TUGG program. At that point, they'd find horror fans around the country hopefully rallying to see the film in theaters with their fellow horror fans. When you're doing DEMAND IT screenings, I guarantee that Horror fans are not demanding censorship bureau approved versions of their horror films. They want what Australia got. What the rest of the world got! Why are we being handled with kid gloves?
SO that's the situation. I am very strongly disappointed in this situation. It is notably UNCOOL.
