BBFC Cuts by the Year

• 2024 Matchbox Films (RB) Blu-ray (rated 17/07/2024) at UK Amazon #ad released on 23rd September 2024

The BBFC commented:

This work required compulsory cuts. Cuts were required to scenes of animal cruelty, including a cock fight and horse falls.

• 2024 Matchbox Films R2 DVD at UK Amazon #ad

The BBFC commented:

This work required compulsory cuts. Cuts were required to scenes of animal cruelty in which horses were caused to fall.

• 2024 Do It Creative cinema release (rated 26/03/2024)

The BBFC commented:

The distributor chose to remove scenes of violence in order to achieve their desired 12A rating. An uncut 15 classification was available.

• 2024 Signature Entertainment cinema release (rated 25/01/2024)

• 2024 Signature Entertainment VoD (rated 12/01/2024)

The BBFC commented:

The distributor chose to make cuts to bad language ('ass') in order to achieve a U rating. An uncut PG rating was available.

• 2024 World Harvest Christian Centre (TNM Production) cinema release (rated 17/09/2024)

The BBFC commented:

The distributor chose to remove a scene of drug misuse in order to achieve their preferred 12A rating. An uncut 15 was available.

• 2024 Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures UK cinema release (rated 01/01/2024)

The BBFC commented:

We originally saw this film for advice. We informed the distributor we would be likely to classify the film 18 on condition that changes be made to one short sequence depicting sexual activity in the presence of children. This is in accordance with the Protection of Children Act 1978. When the distributor submitted the film for formal classification, the scene had been re-edited, and we were able to classify the film 18.

Thanks to Scott:

An employee of Disney's UK arm confirmed that the cuts were made months ago to an unfinished version of the film, with Lanthimos' consent, and the cut version is the definitive, being released worldwide.

Ireland: IFCO 18 rated with a trigger warning for frequent strong scenes of a sexual nature including male and female nudity, very strong and sexually explicit language throughout, some gory scenes of dead and dismembered bodies, references to drug use and suicide:

• 2024 Disney cinema release (rated 22/11/2023)

• 2016 Cinema Epoch (RA) Blu-ray at US Amazon

Summary Notes

But just to let you know, it has been altered from the version, which is on VHS tape. It has also been revealed that Silvia Kristal had a body double, her name is Judy Helden. However, Ms. Helden only appears in two scenes in the movie, and they are not the famous scenes which those of us in the 35 to 40 age group, who love the movie all know. Miss Helden's scenes appear towards the end of the movie, where we see aroused nipples on a breast, in one shot of the backside that does not match up with Sylvia Kristal's.

• 2024 Media Sales UK Blu-ray (rated 22/05/2024) titled PRIVATE LESSONS

Presumably the cuts are along the lines of the previously cut UK releases.

The BBFC commented:

This work required compulsory cuts to indecent images of children.

The plot centres on a ruse in which an older woman working as a housekeeper seduces a 15-year-old boy in an attempt to steal his father's money. There are scenes in which the woman takes advantage of the boy's sexual curiosity and manipulates the feelings that he develops for her, leading to the two being intimate and eventually sleeping together. In one sequence, a woman feigns death during sex with the teenager, which includes bloody detail. The latter and other sexual scenes place emphasis on female breast and buttock nudity. Other sexually abusive and sexist behaviour involves teenage boys leering at women, sometimes in states of undress, through bedroom windows, binoculars and from photographs. Although the treatment of these issues can be considered as a reflection of the time period in which the film is set, the behaviour is not clearly condemned.

UK: Passed 18 after 3:20s of previous BBFC cuts were repeated prior to submission for:

• 2006 Cinema Club Video

No further BBFC cuts were made when re-submitted in 2006. However the version submitted was pre-cut to eliminate the same material as the previous version. The increased running time is additional, uncontentious footage.

UK: Passed 18 after 3:20s of BBFC cuts for:

• 1992 Braveworld VHS
• 1987 CIC VHS
• 1982 cinema release

The BBFC cuts were:

• Cuts were made in several scenes under the Protection of Children Act. Basically every shot where you could see Kristel's nudity and the boy in the same shot was removed. The scenes affected were the striptease, the bath scene and the two sex scenes. In the storyline the boy was meant to be 15 years old

• 2024 Treasured Films video (rated 01/07/24)

The BBFC commented:

Reality Killers is a horror film in which a man obsessed with violent snuff videos, featuring people being abused, tortured and killed, goes on to commit his own similar crimes.

Reality Killers consists of a series of short vignettes in which people, including women and children, are killed. In some cases, acts of sadistic violence follow or involve sexual behaviour and nudity. The protagonist acts as a narrator, relishing in the violence and endorsing the actions of the killers. Women, in particular, are portrayed as either sexual objects to be abused or as predatory killers themselves. Potentially harmful attitudes, such as the suggestion that victims and perpetrators enjoy violence, and that women are presented primarily as sex objects or predatory killers, are not clearly challenged, nor is there a narrative counterbalance to the sustained focus on sadism.

As a last resort, the BBFC may find content unsuitable for classification, in line with the objective of preventing non-trivial harm risks to potential viewers and, through their behaviour, to society. In our Classification Guidelines we state that this may occur where a central concept is unacceptable, such as a sustained focus on rape, other non-consensual sexually violent behaviour or sadistic violence. The guidelines also state that we consider whether the availability of the material to the age group concerned would run contrary to broad public opinion.

The BBFC considered whether the film's issues could be adequately addressed through intervention such as cuts. As Reality Killers consists almost entirely of scenes of sadistic violence and abuse, we determined that cuts would not effectively address these issues. The film, when taken as a whole, transgresses BBFC Classification Guidelines and policy, and we believe that its classification even at 18 would run contrary to broad public opinion. The BBFC therefore found Reality Killers to be unsuitable for classification.

• 2024 Artificial Eye Film Co. cinema release (rated 30/01/2024)

The BBFC commented:

The company obscured rude gestures in order to achieve their preferred category of PG. An uncut 12A classification was available.

Thanks to Scott, Jake and Chris.

The rude gesture was in fact the robot showing his middle finger when copying members of a street gang. The director was involved in deciding how to obscure the gesture by covering it up. The solution to cover up the gesture with a black strip proved more than acceptable as it gets a laugh from viewers realising that the robot is making the gesture and that this has been censored.

• 2024 Curzon cinema release (rated 16/01/2024)

• 2024 Radiance Films RAB Blu-ray at UK Amazon #ad released on 18th November 2024

The BBFC commented:

This film required a compulsory cut to a potentially indecent image of a child. Cuts were made in accordance with BBFC Guidelines, policy, and the Protection of Children Act 1978.

• 2020 Kl Studio Classics (RA) Blu-ray at US Amazon
• US 2006 Lions Gate R1 DVD via UK Amazon and at US Amazon

There are reports that the original US R Rated version was cut to avoid an X rating in 1970. The film was cut for a PG rating in 1974 but the R rating was restored in 1976. Any such cuts have long since being forgotten though, and the current uncut US version is definitive.

• 2024 Studio Canal Blu-ray (rated 13/05/2024)

The BBFC commented:

Compulsory Cuts were required for illegal horse falls and potentially indecent images of a child.

• UK 2008 Optimum R2 DVD

The BBFC commented: Four cuts were required to remove the presence of cruel, dangerous and illegal horse falls

7s

distributor
23s

• UK 2005 Momentum R2 DVD

Bizarrely the Momentum Pictures resubmission in 2005 ended up by being unnecessarily more cut than the previous version. The BBFC made the following statement: The BBFC requested 7 seconds of cuts to remove cruel horsefalls but the distributor made additional voluntary cuts of 23 seconds to remove an acceptable horsefall and part of a rape scene. These cuts were not required by the BBFC but were in line with cuts made to previous video releases.

• UK 1999 BMG VHS

The BBFC cuts were:

• The cuts as per previous Embassy version except that slightly less cut from the rape scene

• UK 1986 Embassy VHS

The cuts were:

• Cuts are to a scene showing the rape of an Indian woman, during the massacre of the village
• Cuts to a shot of a naked Indian woman strung up by her wrists with blood on her breasts
• A horsefall has been removed

• UK 1970 cinema release

The BBFC cuts were:

• Cuts to a scene showing the rape of an Indian woman, during the massacre of the village
• Decapitation of indian squaw removed