You know how sometimes an old memory just pops into your head apropos of nothing?
It recently happened to me regarding perhaps the lamest, most pathetic piece of horror movie censorship in UK history.
First of all, take a look at this original poster for Dario Argento’s masterful thriller Tenebre – A powerfully simple image that invokes the sex, style and savagery of the giallo film in one stark image.
Pretty great huh?
Well, here in the UK we have the VPRC (Video Packaging Review Committee) to protect our sensitive eyes from extreme imagery, and they clearly took exception to eerie beauty of Tenebre’s poster.
Thus, we ended up with this –
Yeah, they added a fucking red ribbon round her neck to hide the trickle of blood. A ribbon! What is she, a cat? A Christmas present? A haberdasher’s dummy?
Mind you, just imagine how quickly civilisation would have crumbled into anarchy had the VPRC not acted, so I suppose we should all be thankful.
Ugh, I’ve never seen that UK poster for Tenebre. It kind of speaks to Marie Antoinette but the tight gift like bow is crass, crasser than what they were trying to PG. The whole treatment is off. Hahaha, it reminds me of Patton Oswalt’s Clean Filth joke from Werewolves & Lollipops.
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It somehow turns it into an oddly fetishistic looking image, somehow more distressing than the original.
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They messed with the eyes as well! The hell? I’ve never seen anything other than the original poster. Damn I love Argento so hard. With or without the pretty little bow.
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Yeah, I think the eyes are supposed to make her look less dead? It’s like the horror equivalent of that restoration of the religious painting from a few years ago.
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