SHAM034 - House on the Edge of the Park: The Archive Conversation

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by BAKA

Any chance of a Blu-ray release? Are the masters not up to it, or is it based on the sales you believe you're likely to have? If it does pass uncut, I'm more than sure there will be a lot of interest in an HD release.

Hopefully New York Ripper sales will be extremely positive, and if there is a possibility of this on Blu, you will re-evaluate it.

I can't speak for Shameless -- I'll leave that for Sarah -- but Arrow will always consider the quality of the source material first (they have to buy it before they can see it) and, if they decide it's good enough for a Blu-ray release, they'll then look at how financially viable such a release would be. I imagine Shameless are exactly the same. Clearly New York Ripper has good source material for a HD release and is a popular enough genre film with a decent fan base to shift units.

I also hope House on the Edge of the Park meets these criteria as it would be a real coup for Shameless to release a BD of it in the UK. However, first stop: Soho Square!

[the blob]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

I can't speak for Shameless --

I also hope House on the Edge of the Park meets these criteria as it would be a real coup for Shameless to release a PDF it in the UK. However, first stop: Soho Square!

I think I'd prefer it as a text file..

Sorry Nos, I couldn't resist!

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Damn voice recognition software! That'll teach me for not thoroughly proofreading a post before hitting the 'Submit' button.

[Prince_Vajda]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

Damn voice recognition software! That'll teach me for not thoroughly proofreading a post before hitting the 'Submit' button.

No problem at all - if I had to write as many posts and mails as you, mine would look a lot worse than yours.

I'm really eager to know Soho Square's opinion on this Shameless release - does anybody know when they will classify House on the Edge of the Park?

Greetings!

[adamthehorrorfan]

I hope the BBFC will improve and put back many scenes intact when House on the edge of the park gets re-submitted to them and hopefully there could be a chance for an uncut UK release. I don't know why nearly 12 minutes of the film was cut but I think the only scene that might have a struggle with the censors could be the girl getting mutilated by David Hess? I guess all we can do is wait and see for the BBFC's decisions on the film.

[Prince_Vajda]

Originally Posted by adamthehorrorfan

I don't know why nearly 12 minutes of the film was cut but I think the only scene that might have a struggle with the censors could be the girl getting mutilated by David Hess?

It is indeed exactly that scene which the BBFC didn't like at all. Nearly 5 minutes of all the cuts are from the Cindy scene. They justify all the cuts of House on the Edge of the Park with "sexual violence, humiliating depictions of female nudity and gross violence".

Just a few thoughts:

- "gross violence": One of the scenes the BBFC complain about is the part where Alex beats Tom's head onto the table. Well, I've seen Irreversible and Deep Red: both movies include painful cephalic violence and both were classified 18 and were uncut. Class dismissed.

- "sexual violence": the BBFC's pet category for justifying cuts. Again, since the uncut release of Irreversible and since all the rape scenes in Cannibal Holocaust were given the censors' blessing, there's no real reason for cutting House on the Edge of the Park. They could come up with strange explanations like Hess' character showing a lot of fun during the killing / torture scenes, though. But I distinctly remember both the cannibals and the anal rapist in the aforementioned flicks looking quite happy while doing their deeds.

- "humiliating depictions of female nudity": They passed The Last House on the Left uncut, including the infamous humiliation scene ("I said PISS your PANTS!"); I think, HOTEOTP isn't more disturbing when Hess forces the young lady to undress. Period.

That said, I really doubt that any of the BBFC's censors will think so much about that flick, let alone compare it to previous decisions.

Well, hoping for the best and being prepared for the worst seems to be a good strategy when it comes to the BBFC's decisions.

Just my two cents.

Greetings!

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Good breakdown of the various points of contention. I'd also throw in A Clockwork Orange for the sexual humiliation part, when Alex 'strips' the bound and gagged Mrs Alexander using scissors whilst dancing around and singing with the other two droogs laughing maniacally.

[PaulD]

Yeah, I'm not familiar of the process involved in submitting a film to the BBFC as such but it would be good if you could have a real dialogue with them and attempt to rebuke their decisions based on films and specific scenes they've previously let pass. It would be quite something to be able to show them how inconsistent they can be when it comes to cutting certain films and passing others*. Still, unlikely to happen I suspect - I'm sure it's just a clear case of "The BBFC's decision is final"

*unless it caused them to reevaulate previous decisions and they went around the country seizing copies of Last House on the Left and other passed Video Nasties!

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

I imagine things like that would only come into play if there were cuts and Shameless were to appeal, citing previous decisions in similar cases.

Sarah, is this going before the advisory committee first?

[Sarah@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

Sarah, is this going before the advisory committee first?

I believe that is the intention. I think they are waiting to get the Cannibal Holocaust classification all sorted first as they still need to submit Deodato's new edit (I think - there's been a lot going on and it gets confusing at times!) so once that's sorted they'll be switching attention to House on the Edge of the Park.