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Author
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Topic: Horror film posters get the chop
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Michael Brown
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1522
From: Bradford, England
Registered: May 2001
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posted 03-24-2007 11:46 AM
Item Here
quote:
Horror film posters get the chop
Thousands of US adverts for the new horror film Captivity will be pulled following complaints about graphic scenes of kidnapping and murder. The posters, which appeared on 30 Los Angeles billboards and on over 1,000 New York taxis, went up on 13 March and will be taken down this week. A spokesperson for production company After Dark said the billboards were a communication error with the printers. The posters portrayed star Elisha Cuthbert being tortured and killed. The film's distributor, Lionsgate, made the decision to take down the adverts after receiving a barrage of calls from members of the public who objected to them. Release date Lionsgate spokesman Peter Wilkes said the studio did not know about the contents of the adverts and had not approved them. He said the film's promotional campaign was being handled by After Dark. "Once aware of the materials and the reaction to them, we immediately asked After Dark to remove the billboards, to which they immediately and co-operatively responded," he explained. The film, from British director Roland Joffe, is due to be released in the US and the UK on 18 May. Joffe is best known for 1980s films The Killing Fields and The Mission. Cuthbert made her name in popular television series 24 as the daughter of agent Jack Bauer, played by Kiefer Sutherland. She also appeared in Richard Curtis's ensemble film Love Actually and teen film The Girl Next Door.
If you do a google search you can find an image of the offending billboard. I'm not sure where my opinion lies on this, I understand the need for powerfull advertising but you need to be careful of what posters and billboard you go about plastering in public places.
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 03-24-2007 01:38 PM
Violence is the new porn.
Well, actually it's not new, but it's still functioning as a type of porn. These "survival horror" genre films of late have simply been capitalizing on that factor.
After watching The Film Is Not Yet Rated last night on DVD, this new controversy reminded me of a section in Kirby Dick's documentary, which deals with the strange tolerance we seem to have to violent acts against women in movies. You'll get a NC-17 rating if the camera lingers on her face while she has an orgasm. But beat her up and slash her throat on camera and you'll just get an "R."
![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
The artwork on the Captivity billboard and bus stop poster designs even sells the violence as porn and violence against women angles to draw viewers. I'm against just about any form of censorship, but I do agree with those who are offended that those posters definitely cross a line into bad taste. The imagery doesn't really function any differently than the box of a hardcore porn DVD.
The thing which I wonder is, "what were those movie marketing people thinking?" It makes me think about the "bitches and hoes" gangsta rap culture infused into American popular culture these days, particularly in the younger set of viewers. The United States definitely has a greater level of interest in angry, sick violence these days. Meanwhile, we're strangely puritanical about sex. Let little Timmy decapitate bad guys in his video game. Nevermind the spurting blood and exposed, severed spinal columns. Just be sure he doesn't see any exposed tits.
Many in Europe laugh their asses off at us over this kind of crap.
I also wonder what the filmmakers who create "survival horror" type movies are trying to accomplish. Are they trying to out-do a certain standard of shock value? If so, they need to give up on that already.
We currently live in a time where people can see explicit, real acts of horror and death. News programs show all sorts of things uncut for public viewing at almost any time of day. Any of that stuff is available on the Internet. Terrorists videotape sniper attacks on soldiers or insanely perverted acts of shooting or beheading bound and defenseless hostages.
With those conditions present, I'm not sure just how films like Saw, Hostel or violence against women marketed movies like Captivity are supposed to gain any traction with audiences. I have no desire to see Captivity. It doesn't look like a serious movie at all. It only looks like a highly exploitative, gratuitously violent movie made with a video game mentality. It doesn't look like anything that would have an entertaining, enjoyable payoff. It only looks like 2 hours of very gloomy, depressing, hatefully violent shit. The actual movie could be different, but that's the negative impression I get from the posters.
Horror movies can still be highly entertaining and effective. However, I think filmmakers need to get away from exploiting extreme acts just for shock value effect. It just isn't shocking anymore.
The scariest horror movies are those that actually get back to basics and work on character development. The audience has to give a damn about the character and be rooting for that person to also be able to feel any real fear for them if they are dropped into a life-threatening situation. That's real dramatic tension. Just showing a dead body flopping out of a closet or chainsawing up some teenager introduced three scenes ago does very little to move along a story. This is fundamentally why most horror movies are boring pieces of shit.
One thing that seems to be occurring with new horror movies is that the viewer isn't supposed to necessarily root for the person being victimized and hope they can escape.
The way Captivity appears to be marketed is that of a snuff film. The audience is rooting for her to get killed. The billboard even shows iconic images for the various stages of progress leading up to her death. You're getting told she is going to be killed in this movie and that what's all done in between is supposed to be entertaining. What the hell does that say about our society? I'm pretty ashamed of it. YMMV.
Hardcore porn has goal-oriented aspects too: orgasm. But that doesn't really hurt or kill anyone. Which is worse? Showing a person getting fucked on camera, or killed on camera? In America we think the latter is more palatable.
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