Ahead of the release of Damien Leone’s highly anticipated grindhouse threequel Terrifier 3, big (and possibly bad) news has hit for its international audiences. Set to be released on October 9 overseas, the film has officially been banned for viewers under the age of eighteen in France by the country’s film classification board — a shock for the otherwise largely successful cult trilogy starring David Howard Thornton and Lauren LaVera.
This is the first time a horror film has been banned for minors in the country since 2006, when the release of Saw 3 prompted the same response. France’s Classification Committee rarely issues such a label or recommendation — the French equivalent to an NC-17 here in the States — and the film’s French distributors issued a statement about the ban:
“We can only deplore this unexpected final decision, which will seriously hamper the release of the film, awaited by tens of thousands of French viewers and scheduled for October 9 (and of course maintained). Terrifier 3 is a film d’auteur in the purest tradition of the slasher genre, with perfectly “grand-guignolesque” and unrealistic violence. The film never takes itself too seriously, and we know that viewers will have the necessary distance and maturity to understand and appreciate this artistic approach.
In addition, for over 2 years now, we’ve been working daily and tirelessly to defend free, creative and radical genre cinema, systematically acclaimed by the press and audiences alike,” the teams continued. “The audience for these films, even teenagers, is a passionate cinephile, respectful of the works and the cinemas that show them. The history of genre cinema, its excesses and outrages, is intimately linked to the history of cinema itself. Restricting access to audiences will always be a serious decision with a disturbing message, isolating authors and distancing them from their public.”
This news comes after domestic theaters have had to issue warnings about the film’s level of gore, and several viewers have reported walkouts from those who can’t handle Leone’s unique level of gore, including at the film’s UK premiere. (Though why you’d go into a Terrifier film expecting not to walk out nauseous is beyond us.) The film will, of course, be released in theaters unedited and fully unrated, ensuring that domestic audiences who enjoyed Art the Clown’s first two bloody outings will be able to enjoy this one just the same.
Terrifier 3 hits theaters in the US on October 11. You can buy tickets now.
