In a rare move, the BBFC have refused to grant a certificate to Japanese horror film Grotesque, describing it as "little more than an unrelenting and escalating scenario of humiliation, brutality and sadism." Is this the end of the line for so-called torture porn?
Grotesque is the story of a psychopath who kidnaps and tortures a young couple before savagely butchering them.
"We had expected to receive from the BBFC a list of recommended cuts enabling the film to be passed with an 18 certificate," said a spokesperson for 4Digital Asia, the company behind the film, upon hearing of the decision. This is, after all, what has happened to similar films like Saw and Hostel. The difference, in the minds of the decision-making panel, seems to be one of artistic merit. In a statement, they argued that they consider narrative and character development to be notably absent, so that the whole focus of Grotesque is on the couple's suffering.
The BBFC has not refused to provide a certificate to a film since 2005, when it objected to footage of genuine torture and executions in Terrorists, Killers And Other Wackos.
