Horror banned across the world was so shocking police raided a cinema that tried to screen it
Horror films, ever since the genre was created, have always been designed to shock audiences who watch them.
Whether it be a Netflix horror that makes fans feel unsafe or more controversial films which have managed to be banned for various films, horror movies have always been able to get massive reactions.
One particular horror film though is widely agreed to be one of the most shocking movies ever made, and was considered so offensive upon its release that UK police raided a cinema that attempted to screen it.
This was part of a controversial release that saw the movie banned in almost 20 countries upon its release in 1975.
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The film, called Salo, focuses on four wealthy and corrupt fascist Italians during the mid 1940s.
Salo was a republic puppet fascist state created by Germany in the latter years of World War II with the four main Italians being from Salo.
They kidnap 18 teenagers and put them through four months of horrific sadism as well as psychological, violent, and genital torture.
As such it should not be surprising that the film was banned in a number of countries.
An Italian horror made by the influential Pier Paolo Pasolini, it premiered in France just weeks after Pasolini’s brutal murder. It was given a short theatrical run in Italy but later was banned.
This ban was also matched in Australia, New Zealand, and was subject to a bizarre incident in the United States in which a policeman in Ohio went undercover to rent the film form a gay and lesbian bookstore.
A large contingent of famous filmmakers, led by Alec Baldwin and Martin Scorsese, wrote an open letter defending the artistic merits of the film, and the arrest was thrown out for violating the fourth amendment rights of the owner.
In the UK, the film was similarly banned after the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) refused to certify it on the grounds of ‘gross indecency’ on account of the simulations in the film of rape, forced ingestion of faeces, and brutally graphics murders.
The Secretary of the BBFC called it ‘one of the most disturbing films’ they had ever had to rate.
In 1977, it was shown uncut at a member’s cinema when the venue was raided by police who confiscated the film and threatened legal action against the owners.
The film was later given a certificate by the BBFC in 2000 after a reapplication, however, is still hard to get your hands on, but those that do leave the film changed.
One post on Reddit in recent years saw someone watching it for the first time, posting on r/movies to say: “WHAT THE ACTUAL F*CK… The last 40 minutes of the movie I was so depressed because of everything I'd seen up to this point that I couldn't really focus on what's going on anymore.
“Those sh*t eating scenes. OH MY GOD. I will never be able to forget what I saw today. Human feces being consumed. I should have said I'm done and close the movie, but I just... couldn't, morbit curiosity.
“A Serbian Film isn't even a tenth as disgusting as that sh*tty mess. I know it's considered the most shocking movie ever created, but of the ones I've seen up to now, Salo takes that spot.”
In essence, if you’re considering watching it to figure out what the fuss is about, consider this a warning that even the most dedicated of horror watchers simply can’t handle it.
Topics: Film, Horror, TV and Film, Reddit
Michael Slavin