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50 of 635 movies banned in Germany. How many have you seen?

The German movie rating board usually has issues with sadistic violence or movies that glorify violence. They are also not too keen on vigilante or revenge type violence.
They have no problem with nudity and sex but with pornographic material. Most of the banned movies had a uncut theaterical release but once they went to home video they may be deemed harmful to minors and banned.

The general rule of thumb is no banned movies in their unedited form on TV or streaming platforms.
Certain banned movies on physical media are still allowed to be sold but in stores only, and only under the counter (they can't be put on display, you'll have to ask for them).
Online sales are verboten.
Streaming platforms and TV may show certain banned movies in their uncut version, usually for a special one-time showing, but there are hurdles to take (permit is needed). It also depends on the movie.
In other cases, streaming platforms and TV had to pay fines for showing certain banned movies in their unedited form.
Last year German TV showed the unedited version of Day of the Dead (1985) leading to Public prosecutors investigating. Turns out they "accidentally" showed the uncut version. They got off with a warning.

Per German law a banned movie is automatically unbanned after 30 years, unless the movie rating board still thinks the film remains harmful to minors.

35/50

36. Seems to be some odd choices on there.

15

yeah very random selection of films there!

I don't think they watched films at random. If it was horror- they banned it. The did they same in 1935 to American Horror films.

Bad Taste (1987)
Hobo with a Shotgun (2011)
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)
House of the Dead (2003)
Halloween II (1981)
Saw III (2006)
Saw IV (2007)
Saw V (2008)
Saw VI (2009)
Saw 3D (2010)  :hatred: :hatred: :hatred:
Halloween II (1981)
Dead Alive (1992)
See No Evil (2006)

seems to me like Germany just randomly decided to ban a bunch of horror flicks

I've seen 22 off of the list.

Quote from: RCMerchant on August 22, 2023, 07:16:03 PM
I don't think they watched films at random. If it was horror- they banned it. The did they same in 1935 to American Horror films.

That's pretty much what they did throughout the 1980s, but the mind set and "morals" of yesteryear barely applies anymore. The german movie rating board is not as strict as they used to be. The laws haven't changed but movies and viewing habits have.

There are a few exceptions, for example The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). Hooper's horror classic was deemed to be banned forever in Germany. That was until German boutique label Turbine went to court to get Texas Chain Saw out of prison. It took a few years and lots of money but they finally succeeded.

the only films I'm aware of being banned here in the UK were THE EXORCIST annd CLOCKWORK ORANGE

iirc they both got finally unbanned in the late 90s or early 2000s because I remember going to see them both at the cinema within a short space of time around then

people were openly laughing at THE EXORCIST in the cinema, and CLOCKWORK ORANGE was apparently banned at Kubrik's request, not the censors

Quote from: zombie no.one on August 23, 2023, 11:04:20 AM
people were openly laughing at THE EXORCIST in the cinema

From what I read the same happen when they showed The Exorcist: The Version You've Never Seen in theaters in 2000.

Quite the contrast when you watch The Exorcist audience reaction and interviews from 1973 on youtube. People were scared and some fainted on camera  :buggedout:

Quote from: claws on August 24, 2023, 04:20:00 AM

Quote from: zombie no.one on August 23, 2023, 11:04:20 AM
people were openly laughing at THE EXORCIST in the cinema

From what I read the same happen when they showed The Exorcist: The Version You've Never Seen in theaters in 2000.

Quite the contrast when you watch The Exorcist audience reaction and interviews from 1973 on youtube. People were scared and some fainted on camera  :buggedout:

I met a woman who told me she had a nervous breakdown after seeing the movie when it first came out. I fell asleep in the cinema watching it.

Our censors were just as bad: remember I'm talking about the same people who banned the book Black Beauty on the title alone 😳

I don't understand the concept of banning anything save child porn, or the recording of someone or a sentient something, like an animal, being harmed against his or her will. Beyond that, prosecute any egregious criminality but what's with banning a fictional narrative? I don't like gratuitous violence, so I don't watch it. Problem solved.

I guess I'm generally a permissive person when it comes to creativity, and that may come from having grown up pushing back against a notoriously repressive mentality that once held a smothering influence over this area. (Largely relegated to the past, glad to say.) This is a city where an art museum once got criminally prosecuted for having a showing of admittedly, I think, gross homoerotic images. Again, don't like them, don't look at them, but to try to put someone in prison for privately displaying them ...?

So yeah I think I grew up fiercely on the side of free expression.

PS: I think I've only seen one movie on that list.

I've only seen four movies from that list, and some make me question the censors.

A Better Tomorrow - yes, it's violent, but it's just Chow Yun Fat shooting everyone.
The Midnight Meat Train - lots of CGI and practical blood effects, but no way near as yucky as the Saw or Hostel movies.
Rambo - yes, violent, but am I jaded?
Death Race 2 - straight to video schlock.

Quote from: Archivist on October 10, 2023, 07:23:12 PM

A Better Tomorrow - yes, it's violent, but it's just Chow Yun Fat shooting everyone.

It was banned for excessive depiction of violence. It was banned again in 2023 by the Federal Department for the Protection of Children and Young People in the Media. Reason:

"did not find any reviews on the internet that gave the film any art value or even a higher art value"

QuoteDeath Race 2 - straight to video schlock.
The Midnight Meat Train - lots of CGI and practical blood effects, but no way near as yucky as the Saw or Hostel movies.

banned because "content was classified as harmful to minors."

QuoteRambo - yes, violent, but am I jaded?

I just read Rambo was taken off the list of banned movies this month 10/02/23. I did not know this.

Quote from: claws on October 11, 2023, 12:09:09 AM

Quote from: Archivist on October 10, 2023, 07:23:12 PM

A Better Tomorrow - yes, it's violent, but it's just Chow Yun Fat shooting everyone.

It was banned for excessive depiction of violence. It was banned again in 2023 by the Federal Department for the Protection of Children and Young People in the Media. Reason:

"did not find any reviews on the internet that gave the film any art value or even a higher art value"

That's laughable. We know better.

Yeah, the German movie censor board moves in mysterious ways. As for Rambo not being banned anymore:

QuoteAfter 15 years an application (by the movie's German distributor) was made requesting to remove Rambo from the index - with success.

It is unclear why the censor board had a change of heart.

To be almost fair to the German censors, that ballbat beating that Chow suffers near the end of ABT is unbelievably brutal. Surely no one not named Chow Yun Fatt would've survived it!

Seems kind of odd that the country that gave us Nekromantik and Violent Sh** has a problem with some of the movies on that list!

I've seen fifteen of the movies listed, by the way.

Quote from: FatFreddysCat on October 12, 2023, 09:02:29 AM
Seems kind of odd that the country that gave us Nekromantik and Violent Sh** has a problem with some of the movies on that list!

Nekromantik was never in danger of being banned in Germany, because it has "art value" and isn't focused on showing murder and manslaughter. There's dark humor, and it artfully illustrates the act of love with a dead person. And its obscure status. That's some of the statement the movie censor board gave when they suggested an "18" rating.

Sick and art is in the eye of the beholder I guess.

Eli Roth's Thanksgiving played theaters in Germany with an "18" rating. However, the German movie rating board refuses to give Thanksgiving a rating for its physical media release. Distributor Sony is appealing, and the release has been postponed until further notice.

Interesting... I found it to be extremely tame by Roth's standards... unclear what would u[set the censors.

Movies have to be rated twice in Germany. Once when it's playing theaters, and a second time for home video release.

Since it's almost impossible for minors to see "18" rated movies at the theater because of ushers and I.D. check, the German rating board has no problem with violent movies playing theaters.

There is no guarantee that minors won't watch violent movies at home. "Thanksgiving" is a rare case where the rating board gave their ok for theaters, but find the violence to be harmful to minors for home video release.

Three, I think.

Except in wartime and to protect children and probably animals, I don't get censorship when free expression potentially bring so much to life. Some things SHOULD be offensive, and that's the point of them, and we should protect ourselves if we choose not to be exposed to them, not have a government make that choice for us.

Quote from: claws on February 24, 2024, 01:10:56 PM
Movies have to be rated twice in Germany. Once when it's playing theaters, and a second time for home video release.

Since it's almost impossible for minors to see "18" rated movies at the theater because of ushers and I.D. check, the German rating board has no problem with violent movies playing theaters.

There is no guarantee that minors won't watch violent movies at home. "Thanksgiving" is a rare case where the rating board gave their ok for theaters, but find the violence to be harmful to minors for home video release.

Yeah, my friend and I got chucked out of trying to see Pulp Fiction when we were underage,  :bouncegiggle:.

Strange, none of those were banned here AFAIK 🤔

Halloween II (1981) is not banned in Germany anymore. After it was taken off the index list, it was submitted again to the movie rating board, and they gave the movie a new "16" rating - not harmful to minors anymore.

Sony were able to convince the rating board to give "Thanksgiving" an "18" rating. Eli Roth's slasher is now set to be released to physical media in Germany in April.

After 25 years, the made in New Zealand film The Ugly (1997) was released from (Banned) Jail

(https://www.horreur.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/pictures/moviesimgs/328-art3.jpg?itok=44Eq2q5_)

Next step would be an appointment with the movie rating board for a possible re-rating, if any company wants to release it to home video.

Quote from: claws on March 29, 2024, 02:18:16 AM
After 25 years, the made in New Zealand film The Ugly (1997) was released from (Banned) Jail

(https://www.horreur.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/pictures/moviesimgs/328-art3.jpg?itok=44Eq2q5_)

Next step would be an appointment with the movie rating board for a possible re-rating, if any company wants to release it to home video.

After the apartheid censor board thankfully shut down in 1994, all the films banned by it from 1933 - 1993 were declared unbanned and most were made available.

The VHS box and the trailer for THE UGLY had me convinced it was a new classic back in the 90s. Quite disappointing. Not much movie there. A lot of gooey black blood splashed around in some scenes, no other objectionable FX that I recall.......  :thumbdown:

Quote from: bob on August 22, 2023, 07:51:52 PM
Bad Taste (1987)
Hobo with a Shotgun (2011)
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)
House of the Dead (2003)
Halloween II (1981)
Saw III (2006)
Saw IV (2007)
Saw V (2008)
Saw VI (2009)
Saw 3D (2010)  :hatred: :hatred: :hatred:
Halloween II (1981)
Dead Alive (1992)
See No Evil (2006)

seems to me like Germany just randomly decided to ban a bunch of horror flicks

add Halloween II (2009) to the list of films GErmany banned that I have seen