The horror of it all
Irish cinema fans complain about scenes that can’t be unseen, brutal deaths, and a ‘live’ Andre Rieu concert
A GAY couple kissing, distressing trailers, and the misleading use of the word
‘live’ for a screening of an Andre Rieu concert were amongst the complaints made to the Irish Film Classification Office over the past year.
Cinema-goers also said they felt ‘defiled morally’ by ‘scenes that cannot be unseen’ in horror film Midsommar, while complaints were made about a section from Oscar-winning movie Joker where a character is bludgeoned to death.
The details are contained in a list of complaints to the Ifco, which were released under FoI.
Just a single complaint has been received this year as cinemas were forced to shut for months due to the outbreak of Covid-19.
One complaint in January caused confusion after a viewer – who had brought their children to see Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker – said an advert before the movie began had featured ‘two different fat couples’ kissing.
Director of film classification at the Ifco, Ger Connolly, expressed mystification at what the problem was. ‘I would be grateful if you could be more specific about why you were taken aback,’ he said.
The viewer responded: ‘Just noticed on my autocorrect of word, so fat was incorrect… ad was a gay couple kissing quite passionately.’
They said they believed in equal rights had no issue with the advert being shown to teens and adults but thought it was a ‘little inappropriate’ for a younger audience.
In response Mr Connolly said sexual orientation was not a classification issue and the scene as portrayed ‘would have no bearing on an age classification [being] awarded’.
Another cinema-goer complained about a 10-minute trailer for the Christopher Nolan movie Tenet that was screened in advance of Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker.
‘It showed the terrorist takeover of a Russian concert hall,’ they said, ‘the police gassing everyone inside… it was extremely distressing for myself, my husband, and my two children.’
They said it was ‘totally inappropriate’ before a film like Star Wars. Mr Connolly responded to say the trailer was rated 12A and ‘classified consistently with our published guidelines’.
He added: ‘I do agree that trailering is difficult from your point of view as, while one can make informed viewing choices regarding the feature, it’s impos-sible for patrons to know in advance what will precede any given film.’
Only two movies – Joker and Midsommar – generated more than one complaint with cinema-goers suggesting both films should have given a higher age rating.
One viewer said the screening of Joker that they attended was halffilled with children and that the film should have been rated 18 in any event.
They wrote: ‘Over half of the audience were under 16. Well under 16. One woman even recognised some of the children from her 12year-old’s class.’
Mr Connolly responded to say he was ‘very disappointed’ to hear about children attending and that he would be in contact with the cinema.
In response to another complaint about Joker, Mr Connolly wrote: ‘While there are some strong and violent scenes, the realistic and very brutal torture scenes of franchises such as Saw & Hostel (all 18) are not present here.’
The Swedish-based horror film Midsommar also raised the hackles of some viewers with one saying the film’s ‘sacrifice/cliff’ scene was particularly gruesome for a film rated 16.
Mr Connolly wrote: ‘There is an element of surrealness or fantasy to this film which, in my opinion, mitigates slightly the effect of the sacrifice scene.’
Another family had taken their daughters to see the film and were ‘still shook’ after watching it.
A regular cinema-goer, they wrote: ‘I certainly feel so defiled morally and to think I inflicted that on my children. Scenes cannot be unseen. This film should be X-rated.’
One complaint centred on cinemas advertising as ‘live’ events like Andre Rieu concerts or performances of theatrical plays and ballets.
‘We do not issue classifications for actual streamed live events,’ wrote Mr Connolly, ‘however, I can understand how one could very well infer that it might actually be live.’
‘Fat was incorrect... ad was a gay couple’
‘I feel so defiled morally’