Wound

A Montreal courtroom is booked for April determine whether a local filmmaker's graphic horror flick is obscene.

Remy Couture faces obscenity charges for creating Inner Depravity , a short film series depicting gory scenes of murder and sexual assault.

The goal was to reproduce the deviant mind of a serial killer, said Couture, a special effects make-up artist who's worked on films such as Barney's Version .

The series, which once won most deranged movie of the year at a film festival, was posted online in 2005 and was eventually forwarded to Interpol and police in Montreal.

According to a statement on Couture's website, Interpol was alerted to the film series by a German web surfer who was under the impression that the on-screen murders actually occurred. Police arrested Couture and raided his studio.

Couture maintains that he created the series to flex his skills as a make-up artist who got his professional start in the horror genre. The website featuring his project was only available to web surfers above the age of 18, he said in a statement. You can see the same thing in big budget movies so why mine is worse than the others, I don't understand, he told CTV Montreal.

Police charged Couture with production of obscene material, mainly for his depictions of graphic sexual violence. The charges, however, have drawn criticism from fans and some in the artistic community. He pushed some boundaries because it is shocking with what you can see, but it's in an artistic way, said Alexandre Duguay, a movie critic and horror aficionado.

Couture's lawyer Veronique Robert said this is the first time she's seen someone face obscenity charges for the content of a horror film. Previous obscenity cases have dealt with pornography.

Couture's trial will begin in front of a jury in late April, three years after his arrest.

Wound is a 2010 New Zealand horror by David Blyth

It came to the attention of New Zealand nutters of Family First last year. According to the campaigners the film shows an unconscious girl being raped by a man wearing a pig's head and should be banned,

National director Bob McCoskrie said: Research clearly shows that explicit sexual content of this nature contributes to an increase in sexual violence. I can't see how incest and graphic violence can be presented in an entertaining way

But the New Zealand film censor's office didn't go along with the nutter recommendation. They explained that the impact of some of the more shocking content of the movie is limited by it's low budget and unrealistic special effects. The censor's office has rated it R18: contains graphic violence and sexual violence.

The BBFC has just rated the film as 18 uncut with the comment:

Contains strong bloody violence, sexual violence and sadomasochistic scenes

A Kiwi horror film that shows an unconscious girl being raped by a man wearing a pig's head should be banned, say nutter campaigners.

Wound is described by its creators as a shocking supernatural tale of mental illness, bondage, incest, revenge and explicit graphic violence .

It features disturbing scenes including a pregnant woman being hit on the stomach with a bat to induce a miscarriage.

Wound is due to premiere at the New Zealand Film Festival in July if approved for release by the chief censor Bill Hastings.

But it has 'enraged' the nutters of Family First. National director Bob McCoskrie said: Research clearly shows that explicit sexual content of this nature contributes to an increase in sexual violence. I can't see how incest and graphic violence can be presented in an entertaining way.

Director David Blyth defended the use of graphic violence, saying it was a social commentary on New Zealand: It's about sexual abuse in this country, no one else is talking about this. All my films have had a female theme and they all deal with the disenfranchised. I think it's important to find a place for movies of all kinds, and not just what the Film Commission approves.

Update: Nutters Wounded

26th June 2010. Based on article from  3news.co.nz

Calls for a ban on cult Kiwi filmmaker David Blyth's new movie have fallen on deaf ears. Lobby group Family First wanted the release of Wound stopped.

It is set to debut at the Incredibly Strange Film Festival next month, and is billed as a supernatural tale of incest, bondage, mental illness and graphic violence.

But the film censor's office says the impact of some of the more shocking content of the movie is limited by it's low budget and unrealistic special effects. The censor's office has rated it R18: contains graphic violence and sexual violence.