Movies
PFFFFT: ‘Final Destination 5’ Poster Banned in UK Because It Makes Kids Visually Upset
We live in a society that’s driven by fear, yet people freak out and complain over stupid (poorly designed) movie posters. Go figure.
The poster campaign for the DVD release of horror movie Final Destination 5 has been banned in the U.K. by the Advertising Standards Authority for upsetting children, reports THR.
The ad watchdog ruled that the poster, which shows a skull being shattered by steel rods driven through its mouth and eye sockets, must not appear again in its current form after upholding a slew of complaints from adults with upset children.
Welcome censorship.
The Warner Bros. release has been advertised by the imagery on posters on the side of buses and on billboards on the London Underground tube network. The campaign ran in August this year ahead of its August 26 rollout and the ASA received (a measly) 13 complaints that the poster was distressing and unsuitable for children to see.
Three people who complained claimed that their young children had become visibly upset when they saw the ad on a bus. These people are overprotective morons, IMO. ASA said in its ruling that it “considered the image was likely to catch the attention of children, especially because it was shown on a poster on the Underground, where it was an untargeted medium.”
Because very young children might view the ad depicting violence, “it was likely to cause fear and undue distress to children,” ASA said.
Warner Bros. argued that the skull was a “fantasy image” and the poster “accurately reflected the content of the film in an appropriate manner without causing excessive fear or distress.”
Despite WB’s protestations, ASA said the ad must not appear again in its original form. The ban won’t affect box office as it is after the theatrical rollout.
Before updating the video nasty Faces of Death, director Daniel Goldhaber and writer Isa Mazzei explored the dangers of online life in tech-thriller Cam, their feature debut that was acquired by Netflix in 2018 after making waves on the festival circuit.
At the end of last year, the Netflix exclusive quietly departed from the streaming platform, left without another streaming home.
It’s not an isolated story; Mike Flanagan’s Hush also left streaming entirely for a period until it was finally picked up on both physical media and other streaming services.
While the tech-thriller currently isn’t available to watch on Netflix, Tubi, Hulu, or any other platforms, that’s not a problem for Cam thanks to a very cool move by Goldhaber: the director has made his breakout film accessible to watch online for free via his website.
As his site notes: “CAM is unfortunately not currently available to view on any platforms, so you can watch it here if you like :).“
No subscriptions or fees necessary, just hit play.
Cam follows Alice (Madeline Brewer), who works as an online cam girl obsessed with her ranking on the cam site. The higher her ranking goes, the more it draws unwanted attention, and Alice soon finds herself replaced on her own show with a doppelganger.
Written by Mazzei, a former camgirl, it uses the horror thriller premise to examine the life of a sex worker; Alice’s career ambition is directly at odds with the shame it brings to her family, and how she tries to spare them from it by keeping them in the dark. It only compounds her danger when the doppelganger enters the equation in Goldhaber’s engaging thriller.
For a deep dive into the treacherous world of Cam, listen to Horror Queers’ episode on it now.
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