When The 13th Floor talked about I spit on your grave remake a few days ago it didn´t expect to come back to this film as soon as it has happened. The remake of the eighty´s controversial film will be screened these days at the UK´s Frightfest in London. Nevertheless, the movie that the viewers will be seeing is not the cut the filmakers wanted to show.
According to Screen Daily, the The British Board Of Film Classification (BBFC) has cut the film to recieve a "18" rated, which would be the same of an Rated R in the U.S.A. David Cooke, Director of the BBFC, explained why they had to edit the movie: “The cuts to this version of I Spit on Your Grave, which the Board has required, remove elements that tend to eroticise 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 terrorisation 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.”
The guys of Arrow in the Head do not agree with the reason given by Cooke, as they think the movie never intend to "eroticed" the rape and neither "encourages viewer complicity". The 13th Floor remembered a few days ago how the original movie was banned in so many countries and we argued that nowadays the viewers has a more open mind to recieve a film like this one. Apparently, we were wrong.
When Guillermo del Toro made official that he won´t be directing The Hobbit, both press and fans started to ask him which one would be his next project. It didnt take so lonf untill he made the announcement . Right after the Comic Con he surprised us all with the title of his new project. At the mountains of madness, based in the famous novel by H. P. Lovecraft. Even after his highly acclaimed and Oscar winner Pan´s of the labyrinth, the studios wouldn´t give green light to the film. "Even now is very difficult for the studios to take the step of doing a rated R movie with a tough ending, no love story and set in period" said Del Toro a few months ago. But now, with a little bit of help, it looks like he´s finally ready to start shooting.
The director of Hellboy needed the help of a big studio. He needed someone in Hollywood with the money and the power enough to make his dreamed film happen. Well, the director of the two biggest grossing films ever, James Cameron, is going to produce In the Mountains of Madness, letting Del Toro to make the film the way he always has wanted. Cameron only had one condition: it has to be in 3D. Although the Mexican director has never shoot in 3D before, Cameron is sure that del Toro will love the experience of the stereoscopic cameras. "I´m not going to tell you how you have to do this movie, so I´m your ideal producer" says Cameron in this interview, refering to Guillermo del Toro. Truth be said, Cameron actually had one condition, but boy, what a condition!
BLACK SWAN follows the story of Nina (Portman), a ballerina in a New York City ballet company whose life, like all those in her profession, is completely consumed with dance. She lives with her retired ballerina mother Erica (Barbara Hershey) who zealously supports her daughter’s professional ambition. When artistic director Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) decides to replace prima ballerina Beth MacIntyre (Winona Ryder) for the opening production of their new season, Swan Lake, Nina is his first choice. But Nina has competition: a new dancer, Lily (Kunis), who impresses Leroy as well. Swan Lake requires a dancer who can play both the White Swan with innocence and grace, and the Black Swan, who represents guile and sensuality. Nina fits the White Swan role perfectly but Lily is the personification of the Black Swan. As the two young dancers expand their rivalry into a twisted friendship, Nina begins to get more in touch with her dark side with a recklessness that threatens to destroy her.
Revenge, says tradition, is a dish best served cold. Revenge, according to catholic religion, is not a possibility. Revenge, I say, it´s quite fun when it comes to movies. Inglorious basterds, Tarantino´s most successful movie, is about vengeance. In fact, revenge is a theme that the director always shows in his movies. Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas or Saint Augustine are some of the philosophers who have talked about the problematic act of revenge, an act, that could also be understood as an act of love.
I spit on your grave, a rape and revenge film from 1978 was a controversial movie that has inspired a new remake. The original film, banned in almost every country where it was released, was classified as a "vehicle of personal expression reacting to violence against women". Whether the movie was good or bad wasn´t actually the important point of the discussion. The film was too explicit and showed the rape in detail. Was this the first torture porn movie ever? Was it indeed as disgusting as they said it was?
The truth is that a new film has been remade for a worldwide release, telling the same story: a woman is raped by a bunch of men in a small town. Although they think she´s dead after the crime, she finally survives and then starts her revenge against those who raped her. Today´s thinking is pretty different from the early 80´s and viewers are much more used to seeing violence in movies. After revenge movies like Kill Bill and after successful movies like Martyrs, violence against women and acts of revenge are much more understood by the viewers and don´t seem too extreme or controversial. Should we be proud of this fact? It may be a signal that the new generation is so used to violence that they can´t be shocked by a rape and revenge film? Ask yourselves a new question and please, be honest: would you approve the woman´s behavior?
"The act of vengance is an unambiguos declaration that evil is a reality. By contrast, the act of vengeance is also a statement that love, goodness and righteousness are moral realities by virue of the fact that they have been violated "
Quentin tarantino and Philosophy.
Edited by Richard Greene and K. Silem Mohammad
When the main character of I spit on your grave starts her vengeance, one could see it may even be lifesaving, given that the men who raped her will not be able to hurt anyone again. Therefore, revenge wouldn´t be just fair but morally right. Anyway, the vengeance of the main character would be, whether right or wrong, an act of love for herself as one who is violated and, some could argue, an act of love for every woman.
Whether the movies ask these questions or they don’t, we cannot forget that answering an act of vengeance with more revenge, could become a never ending circle of violence. After all, those who live by the sword die by the sword.
The marketing campaign for Piranha 3D has a clear target audience: young guys ready to have fun with lots of blood and a bunch of top-less wild girls. This last poster for the upcoming movie says so. You´re still not sure if Piranha is your kind of movie?
Then, let me tell you about the last clip that has hit the web. 9 minutes of footage which shows lots of blood, boobs, wet t-shirts and the head of Eli Roth smashed up, among other bloody cool stuff. In fact, this is the footage banned from Comic Con for being "too hot" for the "all ages" audience of San Diego Comic Con. The quality of the clip isn´t as good as we would like it to be because it was recorded whit the camera in the very cinema where they showed the clip.
Well, last week the nerds and freaks around the world met at San Diego, the place where comics, superheroes, zombies and videogames all mix together. There was to much news coming out every day since the very beginning so we´ll focus on the horror movies for now.
Guillermo del Toro, that mexican director who brought us Blade 2, Hellboy or The Pan´s labyrinth is one of those guys who never miss the Comic Con. Although he was there to present the film Don´t be afraid of the dark, he surprised us all announcing that he will be producing and even writing a film for Disney: a new version of Haunted Mansion, the famous attraction of the Disney´s theme parks. Eddie Murphy did a comedy about it back in 2003 but Del Toro quickly said that the film will be dark and that the scary moments of the film there will be truly scary. De Toro will co-write the movie with Matthew Robbins and they will be using 3D technology for this live-action film for which Del Toro promises us the most haunted mansion on the earth.
The other project he was presenting at Comic Con was the film Don’t be afraid of the dark, a remake of a original film which scared the hell out of him when he watched it as a kid. They avoided the sexuality and the use of rude language trying to get a PG13, but the movie was finally rated R. When questioned about all the remakes coming out from Hollywood, Del Toro explained that these films are usually made in fear of making something way different from the original. Therefore, the result is usually a copy paste movie with nothing new to offer to the viewer.
Talking about remaking films, Mat Reeves presented Let me in, which have been filmed following Steven Spielberg’s advices to direct kids in a movie. The panel was pretty interesting as the fans could get a glimpse of how this new version will look. Personally, I am interested in the film because they are using a few details from the book that were left out from the original movie, like the scene with Virginia (Sasha Barrese) sucking her own blood or a storyline involving a cop (Elias Koteas). They showed two clips to the audience at San Diego that have had pretty good reactions within the fan community. The first one showed a sequence which could describe the relationship between the two main characters: Chloe Moretz and Kodi Smit-McPhee getting to know each other in an arcade. Kodi plays Ms. Pac-Man and eats candy while Chloe seems fascinated with Kodi and constantly stares at him. Taking one of the most beautiful moments of Let the right one in, the scene shows Chloe taking some candy so she doesn't hurt Kodi´s feelings even knowing she will be hurt for doing so. After that she asked one of the key questions of the movie: if she weren´t a girl, would he like her anyway? Since the other clip was sort of a spoiler, I´ll keep it from you.
Monsters is one of those movies that ring a bell to you but you are still not sure of what is all about. Well, that´s why they premiered a trailer at the Comic Con, so all you guys out there start talking about it. Basically, the movie will take us to the Earth five years after an alien invasion changed the face of our planet.
Paul Bettany kicking some vampires asses in 3D while travelling through a post apocalyptic world. That is what Priest is about and it definitely looks like an action movie rather than horror one, the sort of thing that Legion tried to achieve. Ok, let´s wait until we watch more to judge the film.
And of course, what would have been of this year Comic Con without a Saw panel? It will be the last one; it will be in 3D and it will wrap the saga with lots of blood and new tricky tramps. Will this be the last game of Jigsaw? Only time and money will tell.
M. Night Shyamalan is having some serious problems. After reached the sky of horror and thriller movies with The sixth Sense and Unbreakable, he made a couple of interesting movies (The Village and Signs). Ok, there was nothing to worry about at that time. But then, it came out The Lady in the water, followed by The Happening. Both of them had big screenplay mistakes, neither of them were really successful and they bored the hell out of audicences around the world. Even though you could still feel the director´s magic in a bunch of great sequences. His name started to be linked with great ideas but poor results.
Both the box office and the reviews started to be really cruel with the director. Avatar: the last airbender was the last try of Shyamalan to finally reach reconciliation with the fans. As it turned out, he failed. The movie is not being what the studio wanted to be: the blockbuster of the summer. As if the box office failure weren´t enough, the critics and the fans had definitely lost their faith in the director.
Anyhow, his ideas for movies are truly interesting and always intriguing enough to talk about any project he is involve with. Devil is the last one. This is the first one in a series of low budget movies inspired by original ideas of M. Night Shyamalan. The film is not even written by him, though. He had the original idea, he helped to write the scrip and he produced the film but were the Dowdle brothers (Quarantine) the ones who finally direct the movie. Devil tells the story of a group of people trapped in a elevator with the devil himself. As soon as the elevator gets stuck, weird stuff happens. Who is the devil within this group? Are they going to survive? And most important, what does the devil want from these people?
