UPDATE: I’ve just read that Frightfest has pulled A SERBIAN FILM completely from its line-up. Read the statement below the original text.
If you’re going to UK’s Frightfest and you’re planning on seeing I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, you’re not going to witness the version you were meant to see. That’s the word from Screen Daily, which reports that the British Board Of Film Classification required numerous cuts to the film before if could be shown at the annual horror festival. The same goes for the ultra-violent A SERBIAN FILM.
The producers of both films agreed, and it’s the edited versions of I SPIT and SERBIAN FILM that will be screened.
David Cooke, who runs the British ratings board, had this to say (minor SPOILERS follow): “The cuts to this version of I Spit on Your Grave, which the Board has required, remove elements that tend to eroticize sexual assault (for example, through the use of titillation), as well as other elements that tend to endorse sexual assault (for example, by encouraging viewer complicity by the use of camcorder footage, filmed by the rapists, during the various scenes of sexual assault). With these cuts made, the film’s scenes of very strong terrorization and sexual violence remain potentially shocking, distressing or offensive to some adult viewers, but are also likely to be found essentially repugnant and aversive. The Board takes the view that, with these cuts, they are not credibly likely to encourage imitation.”
So it’ll still be shocking, offensive and repugnant, but now you won’t want to reenact some sequences.
I understand the need for the cuts to meet the festival’s requirements, but I don’t necessarily agree with what Cooke says here. I’ve seen I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, and while it’s truly disturbing sometimes, I found no evidence of anything being “eroticized”. Nor do I agree with his point that the movie “encourages viewer complicity”. I guess it’s just subjective… All I know is, if anyone wants to imitate what they see in this movie, it’s not the movie’s fault.
That said, I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE is still targeting an unrated release here in the states in October. No word on when A SERBIAN FILM is coming out.
(Regarding A SERBIAN FILM being pulled completely: “Film4 FrightFest has decided not to show A Serbian Film in a heavily cut version because, as a festival with a global integrity, we think a film of this nature should be shown in its entirety as per the director’s intention. Several film festivals across the world have already done so. Unlike the I Spit on Your Grave remake, where we are showing the BBFC-certified print, as requested by Westminster Council, the issues and time-line complexities surrounding A Serbian Film make it impossible for us to screen it,” said FrightFest Co-director Alan Jones.)
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What’s Not Allowed