Movies
Parents Are Mad at Disney for “Disturbing” ‘Predator: Badlands’ Ad
The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has come after Disney for running a Predator: Badlands ad deemed too “disturbing” for young children.
The digital poster features young Predator outcast Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) holding the top half of Thia’s (Elle Fanning) android body.
Deadline reports that Disney has been banned from running the ad in its current form after the ASA ruled that it was likely to “cause fear or distress for young children.”
The ASA said it received two complaints about the ad from people who were concerned it was “inappropriate and disturbing” for children.
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Disney defended the promo, arguing that it had been prepared with a “sense of responsibility.” The company also noted that the severed body was that of a synthetic robot, not a human.
The ASA responded: “Whilst we acknowledged 20th Century Studio’s comment that the smaller figure was not actually a human, but rather a ‘synth’ robot, we considered that was not clear from the ad, and that the figure was likely to be interpreted as a human. We further considered that the realistic depiction of the smaller figure’s severed torso and exposed spine was gory and likely to be disturbing to younger children.”
A Disney spokesperson said: “We acknowledge the ASA’s ruling. We take our responsibilities to audiences very seriously and strive to work closely with partners to meet the required standards.”
Predator: Badlands hit theaters in November and went on to become the franchise’s highest-grossing entry with $184.5 million worldwide. It arrives on Hulu tomorrow and physical media on February 17.
Dan Trachtenberg (Prey, 10 Cloverfield Lane) directs from a script written by Patrick Aison (Prey) and Brian Duffield (Love and Monsters).
It’s been eight years since Ari Aster came onto the scene and helped usher in a new wave of horror with Hereditary, one of the rare horror movies from the past ten years that still seems to come up in conversation every single week. And it’s back in the conversation this week, with Ari Aster revealing at an event that he’s already written a prequel to Hereditary!
Ari Aster was on hand at the American Cinematheque for Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair last week, a Los Angeles festival that screened all of Aster’s movies to date. The website Gold Derby reports that Aster revealed the Hereditary prequel script during a Q&A at the event, and you can watch the full Q&A conversation below for confirmation on the website’s report.
“I wrote a prequel to this,” Aster told the crowd, referring to Hereditary. “It never feels like the right time to do it. It’s a prequel, not a sequel so I don’t know where this goes.”
Would a potential Hereditary prequel dig deeper into the mythology of demon king Paimon? Unfortunately, Aster provides no further details on his prequel approach at this time.
Aster said of Hereditary during the same Q&A, “I was just trying to make a really good horror movie.” I think most horror fans would agree that he more than accomplished that goal, and the past eight years have proven that Hereditary is an enduring classic of its generation.
We celebrated the fifth anniversary of Hereditary here on BD back in 2023.
Ron Breton wrote, “Hereditary offers a similar emotional resonance to this new generation of horror – my generation of horror– as movie-goers in the seventies when they first saw Exorcist. Much like Aster’s film, we see the incomprehensible evil wear the face of a young girl; the victim of a raw deal she had no say in, as it tears a family to its core. Sure, both films offer so many terrifying visuals that can make the hair stand up on anyone’s neck – but it also depicts intense relationships and emotions that are tangible. Real. Familiar.”
“In that familiarity lies the uncanny, ready to rear its ugly head and force us to confront thoughts and horrors laying dormant and clawing at our psyche,” Breton continued his 5th anniversary celebration of Hereditary. “And it doesn’t matter if it’s been five or fifty years. These horrors are always there, as we become pawns in its horrible, hopeless machine.”
Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff, Ann Dowd, and Milly Shapiro star in Hereditary. In the film, “A grieving family is haunted by tragic and disturbing occurrences.”
That’s putting it mildly, eh?!
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