Controversial 1992 movie called Mikey is still banned in the UK for a horrifying reason
Have you ever heard of Mikey? You're forgiven if the name doesn't ring a bell - the 1992 slasher has never had a UK release and is still banned to this day.
But rather than its depictions of gore and bloodshed - there is that too - Mikey couldn't get past the censorship board due to its link to a deeply disturbing real-life murder case.
Before we get into it, let's take a look at what the film's about. The premise is simple - a seemingly sweet and innocent boy is adopted after every member of his previous family died in horrific circumstances.
Advert
However, as you may have gathered by this point, it's the titular eight-year-old who's behind the murder and mayhem.
Directed by Dennis Dimster, Mikey is certainly not the first attempt at bringing child killers onto the big screen - but it might just be one of the most controversial.
Not only does it depict a young boy, played by Brian Bonsall (Blank Check, anyone?) bashing, drowning and electrocuting his way through relatives, but it did so with zero subtlety or nuance.
Granted, it is meant to be a slasher and therefore somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but the movie is so poorly written and edited it's better off being viewed as a comedy.
But perhaps most disturbing of all are the numerous scenes involving Mikey walking in or perversely spying on fully nude, fully grown women.
Ultimately, the movie was panned by the critics upon its release, and it didn't even make it that far over in Blighty.
You see, Mikey was submitted to the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) at around the same time as the murder of two-year-old James Bulger in Liverpool.
The 1993 incident shocked the nation, not least because the perpetrators were two ten-year-old boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables.
Though there were deep-rooted issues that led up to this horrifying case, the tabloids had a field day pointing the finger at slasher movies and video nasties, suggesting they were to blame.
Childs Play 3 became a particular focal point, despite the fact that it was never fully established that the boys had watched the horror.
Nonetheless, people were backing the call to tighten the rules on such films, and Mikey became a casualty of this movement.
The BBFC, which was under the strict rule of head censor James Ferman at the time, extensively pondered whether to release it over concerns it could come under fire for the decision.
Eventually, child psychologists and police were called in to watch the film, and they deemed it potentially harmful to impressionable young viewers.
Clearly the BBFC was hoping to find a way to make it work, as the organisation made cuts to certain scenes to reduce its impact - but to no avail.
In 1996, the distributor's rights to release the movie were coming to an end and so the censorship board felt they had no choice and Mikey was rejected. It remains unrated in the UK and has never been released to this day.
That being said, we live in completely different times now - if you're still desperate to see what all the fuss is about, the 90s flick has since been uploaded to YouTube.
Just remember - look at it like a comedy and be prepared for cheesy music, dodgy writing and some very questionable nudity.
Topics: TV and Film, Crime, True Crime, UK News
Daisy Phillipson