synopsis of silent hill

Rose and her husband Christopher are concerned about their adopted daughter Sharon who has been sleepwalking and having nightmares about a town in West Virginia so Rose takes Sharon to the town. On the way, a police officer named Cybil Bennett asks Rose if she needs help but declines and continues but the police officer gives chase on her motorbike when rose takes the road up to the town.

During this chase Rose and her daughter arrive at the town but Rose crashes the car in an attempt to avoid a mysterious child standing in the middle of the road. Rose is knocking unconscious and when she wakes up, Sharon is nowhere to be seen, and a strange mist has formed with ash falling from the sky.

Rose continues on foot into the town in search of her daughter, where the streets appear to be empty until she encounters what looks to be her daughter's figure in the mist, she follows this figure into a dark alley where she experiences her first shift into the Otherworld. She then stumbles across a mutilated figure in mining gear hanging from a wire fence, and is attacked by a Grey Child. Dozens more show up, causing her to flee into a dilapidated bowling alley. She falls to the floor and the room around her disintegrates, and she loses consciousness.

Rose awakens in the fog world where she finds a strange woman named Delilah who claims that Sharon is her daughter. Rose runs back to her car and finds a drawing of a school. She then meets Cybil who arrests her for child abduction but on the way back from the town they find the road out of the town has disappeared and a creature that has a straitjacket made out of its own flesh appears. It shoots boiling acid at Cybil and Rose runs to the School.

Meanwhile, Christopher has researched the history of the town and has set off to rescue them as every had left due to a coal fire down in the mines but when he gets there rose is stuck in the fog world and therefore cannot be found.

Rose sees the figure of the child again and follows it into the bathroom where she finds the corpse of the janitor wrapped in barbwire with a hotel keychain in his mouth, she goes into the otherworld and meets with Cybil again but are attacked by pyramid head, which is a monster with a big knife.

At the hotel they meet a woman named Anna, who appears to be mentally unstable as she was born in the otherworld. They go to the room that the keychain belongs to and find a secret passage to a sanctuary where rose finds dark Alessa, a doppelganger of Delilah’s daughter.

The darkness begins to fall and everyone runs to the church but Anna is caught by pyramid head who rips her skin off and throws it at the church covering rose and Cybil in blood. At the church the remaining townspeople seem to have formed a cult run by Christabella who informs rose and Cybil that the town is controlled by a demon and rose must face the darkness of hell to find Sharon.

They go to the hospital but Christabella sees the similarities between Alessa and Sharon and calls them witches but rose escapes to the basement as Cybil fights off the cult.

After a close encounter with bubble head nurses, Rose finds Alessa, lying in a hospital bed unable to walk or speak and learns that Dark Alessa is the manifestation of the dark side of Alessa's soul. In a flashback, Rose discovers that Silent Hill has a history of ritual witch burnings, and the burning of Alessa went wrong, resulting in the fire that destroyed the town. Rose is told that Sharon is the manifestation of Alessa's remaining innocence, and was taken to the orphanage and adopted. Rose agrees to help Alessa gain her revenge to save her daughter.

Rose returns to the cult and finds Cybil has been burnt to death and Sharon is going suffer the same so rose tries to convince the cult that they are in denial of their fate but christabella stabs rose which releases Alessa and opens a portal to the otherworld, long streams of barbed wire flows out of the floor and proceed to kill the cult. Afterwards the souls of Alessa combine and they return home but appear to be still in the fog world as Rose and Christopher are in the same room but cannot see or hear each other.

film ratings poster regulation aob6

distrobution podcast aob5

aob4 poster

hills have eyes censorship

this film is the 2006 remake of the 1977 horror. both directed by wes craven. the story is that a family traveling across the country is send off road by false directions of a strange man at the gas station. they crash the car in the desert and are attacked by mutants that were previously miners before the 1950's atomic bomb tests.
just like the saw movie this film had cuts to get an R rating in US cinemas. then the uncut version was release on DVD as unrated. it is common for uncut DVD's to be called unrated in USA.
this film had a very high amount of cut scenes compared to most American films, this is due to censorship that is required by law unlike saw which was edited for rating purposes. almost every other scene of violence has a cut and all together there are 31 altered scenes.

example:
the scene which shows a man being burnt to death on a tree had 5 seconds of footage removed. a close up of the arm which shows burning flesh has been removed. and a close up of his face which is shown melting and his eyes going blind from the heat.

saw censorship

This horror film is one of many new films that are known to be very violent and contain scenes of explicit gore. these films are called Gorno or torcher porn. there is a lot of discussion about these films like there was with the exorcist. there are reports of audience fainting or throwing up during the movie and there are mixed reviews.

the plot: a photographer and a doctor awaken in a bathroom chained to some pipes at opposite ends of the room. there is a corpse in the middle of the room. an audio tape instructs the doctor to kill the photographer to save his family and the photographer has until 6PM to escape. they both have hacksaws that can only be used to cut through their feet and not the chains.

according to http://movie-censorship.com the film was cut to get an R rating instead of NC17 in the US (people under 17 can see R rated films with adults but NC17 is strictly 17+) the film makers did this because the target audience is around 15 - 30 (so teenagers and young adults) and this is the case for most modern horror movies. so this shows how a films rating can effect its gross profit.
Because the BBFC uses a different rating system the uncut version was shown in UK cinemas. in the UK there is no rating that says that under 18's can see a film if with an adult but instead the rating system specifies age groups.

the R rated version had 14 cuts which is equal to 24.2 seconds.

example:
this shot of a corpse was removed but was shown in the uncut version.

censorship

in britain the BBFC is in charge of giving films classifications and censoring scenes that are to explicit for the audience. it is required by law that all films, games, videos, etc are censored before released to the public.

BBFC History

the company was founded in 1912 and used the certificates of U and A (public) this gave films the impression of its intended audience. U would be for children and A would be for adults but at this time no film contained any content unsuitable for young audiences so the ratings depended on the overall theme of the film instead.
in 1920 the Middlesex County Council made cinemas only show BBFC-rated films. then the london council did the same but only allowed children into A rated films if they were with an adult. soon all counties did the same. when the horror genre came about people got concerned of the content of the films so the H rating was introduced in 1932 and only people aged 16+ could see the films. only a few films had this rating. the rating was changed to X in the 1950's as not all films were horror but included violence and sexual referance.
the 1970's had a more broaded variety of certificates as there were a large range of films being made.
U - universal
A - children age 5+ but parents are advised that content unsuitable for children under 14 may be shown.
AA - people 14+
X - 18+

the ratings were revised in 1982 with
U
PG
15
18
r18 (only special licensed cinemas could show these films)

the development of technology has made an impact on the BBFC as they have to be aware of these changes to how people get hold of content. in 1984 they decided to bring in the video recordings act. The VHS had been out for a while and more and more people were able to have one so the BBFC needed to give ratings to these videos because children can get these videos easier than they can get into a cinema so it is a bigger problem for the BBFC who aim to keep harmful content away from children. also this separate form of calcification would need to be stricter because of its ease of access so films are censored more and maybe given a higher rating than it had in the cinema.
the ratings were the same as the cinema ratings but with the aditional Uc for children and R18 could only be sold in sex shops
in 1989 12A was added to the cinema ratings and 12 was given to video ratings.

Legal and ethical constraints:
violence - most films will have violence in them but the films rating will depend on how the film adresses the violence. a cartoon like the looney toons will have comic violence that does not harm children so it would be given a U or PG rating but it would not be suitable for very young children so it would not get a Uc rating. a horror film will have lots of gore but the way the film treats this violence will depend on its rating. if it has lots of close ups and prolonged cuts then it would be given an 18 or would be required to be censored as it could harm audiences. slow motion techniques used to show the graphic detail will also have the same effect.
the context of the violence is also an issue. the character who is being violent can effect the rating, the hero usually defeats or kills the villain and that is exceptable as he saves the world but on some occations a film like seven is made where the villain wins and this can effect the audiences attitude towards the film and many would be emotional harmed and upset by the outcome.
the form of violence is an obvious issue as well because fist fighting can get a low rating and gun violence can as well but more brutal forms of violence will get high ratings such as decapetation, stabbing and other forms of graphic violence.

language - modern films can have frequent use of language and this must be taken into concideration by the BBFC. a U rating can have infrequent mild language, a PG can have more frequent mild language, 12 can have frequent mild language and infrequent use of strong language, a 15 will be able to use most language but if it is too frequent and agressive it will be given an 18 which has no constictions at all.


sex - a U/PG rating can have romantic references such as kissing. a 12 can have sexual references as long as they are not graphic for example a Bond film usually has a sex scene but it is censored with the use of darkness and silhouettes (die another day) or the use of camera angles which pan away from the subjects and fades out to the next scene. the use of 'real sex' can only be used in films sold in sex shops with the rating of R18 but one film was an exception, '9 songs' is a British film which is classed as the most sexual explicit film released in cinemas and has scenes of 'real sex' which did not get cut or censored in any way.

drugs - pg films can have drug references as long as they carry out an anti drug message. a 12 rating cannot inform the audience about how to use drugs but it does not have to have an anti drug message but must not encourage it. 15's also cannot encourage drug taking. 18's can have any content but if it can harm the audience then it must be cut.

"The Cinematograph Films (Animals) Act 1937" states that no films can have any scenes that show animal cruelty

"the protection of children act 1978" states that it is illegal to show indecent images of children under the age of 18
"the obscene publications act 1959" says that no film can be obscene meaning no explicit sex scenes can be shown. (films that do will be given an R18 rating and can only be sold in a sex shop as it would be classed as porn unless the scene is cut)

"the licensing act 2003" requires all cinemas to have a license to show films and they must obey the laws put in place to prevent underage people from seeing a film with a high rating. plus preventing crime, harm to children and public safety.

public order act 1986 - "hatred against a group of persons in Great Britain defined by reference to colour, race, nationality or ethnic origins" cannot be shown in film or TV unless it includes anti racial messages.