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Old 30th May 2010, 05:38 PM
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Originally Posted by User1138 View Post
First of all, this basically sums up the horror market in the UK.

Between Government intervention (a Video Recordings Act that wasn't made legal for 25 years anyone???) and companies who have produced heavily pre-cut, sub-standard prints on bare-bones discs, true fans - including myself - have for years had to import discs from mainland Europe and America.

The fact that Arrow are at least investing in these releases and are attempting to bring some added value in the form of extras to these classic films says a great deal for them and they should be supported, especially in an age where DVD extras are certificated / censored by the BBFC.

But ultimately, Arrow have to also change the public's buying habits, and this cannot be done with only a handful of releases (despite the excellent work on Day Of The Dead and City of The Living Dead) A cut to a movie, whether we agree that it is necessary or not to the story, is still an incomplete movie. If Joe Public has been buying uncut, unrated DVDs from America for the last 10 years, he is not likely to change overnight and buy something is censored. He is more likely to ask "what reason do I have to invest in another version of this film" and until these run of releases the answer has always been "none"!

The Day Of the Dead and City Of The Living Dead releases were both steps in the right direction, but Inferno shows that there is still a gap that needs to be bridged between what is acceptable to UK censors and what fans will buy. Lots of extras may compensate for the cuts, but for many fans, including some on this forum, this won't be enough as they know that other uncensored releases will appear around the world within a matter of months (either with or without extras).

I don't know how it can be managed, but until laws are changed then there will always be that gap and that is why Arrow will continue to find things tough going in the UK horror market.

On another subject, the debate is over five seconds of cuts. Some say that they are not necessary to the story, others say they are... at the time of the interview with Dario, did anyone consider asking his opinion on camera as I'm sure that, knowing the past censorship controversy, Arrow must have seen this debate coming!
Well said.

I've never thought of horror films as a corrupting influence. I have always felt that some films were a step too far.

Sexual violence and real animal cruelty in all those exploitation flicks I understand why they were heavily cut, but something as remotely normal as a sequence involving a cat eating a mouse for 5 seconds is ridiculous to remove.

Last edited by P-Mac; 31st May 2010 at 09:05 AM.