21 of the Most Banned Films in the World

One of the original found footage horror films is also one of the most effective and is a grisly testament to the power of suggestion, so visceral that it fooled authorities into thinking the filmmakers had committed an actual murder. The scenario is very similar to The Blair Witch Project : after a film crew goes missing while filming a documentary about indigenous cannibal tribes in the Amazon rainforest, the anthropologist sent to find them only discovers footage of them, which is horrifying. Some saw it as a clever commentary on the horrors of the modern world; others think it’s mostly just disgusting (if that’s what it really is). The film, shot in Italy, was confiscated in that country shortly after production; It didn’t help that the prints were smuggled out: the ruse convinced the French authorities that it was all real. Director Ruggero Deodato suddenly discovered that murder had been added to the obscenity charge for which he was eventually convicted . The actors came to prove they were alive and help clear his name, but the film was still banned in France and other countries for violating animal cruelty laws. The very real deaths of animals on screen are a major reason why the film remains controversial to this day, long after concerns about fictional violence have subsided.

Banned in: At some point in Australia, UK, US, Italy and other countries (original advertising claimed the film was banned in 50 countries, which is probably an exaggeration); it remains banned in Iceland, New Zealand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Norway and Finland.

Where to stream: Peacock, Kanopy.

Another film that inspires discussions about art and dirt. This time a film by a famous director who was brutally but mysteriously murdered before its release. Based on the works of the Marquis de Sade, Salò depicts mostly anonymous teenage characters being tortured and sexually abused (boy does it!) to such an extent that it has earned a reputation as one of the most difficult films to watch in cinema. a story – certainly coming from a director as prestigious as Pier Paolo Pasolini, who has a lot to say here about consumerism, capitalism and totalitarianism. He just says it while portraying the plight of the characters being forced to literally eat crap. Not a bad metaphor, come to think of it.

Although it had never been banned in the United States before, it became part of a minor storm in 1994 when a video store owner was arrested for renting out copies. Many artists, including Martin Scorsese, came to his defense, and the case was dropped.

Banned in: Australia, Finland, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Australia, UK, Italy, Canada; still banned in Iran and Singapore.

Where to watch: Nowhere currently, but the film is now part of the prestigious Criterion Collection, so you may not enjoy it in high definition .

Stanley Kubrick’s controversial adaptation of Anthony Burgess’s slightly less controversial novel follows antisocial teenager Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell), an ultra-violent criminal whose rehabilitation raises questions about authoritarianism and the scope of freedoms we must give up in the name of security. The film makes sense, but not without depicting quite a bit of stylish violence, including a rape scene that’s all the more difficult to watch precisely because it looks a little silly – like it’s all a big joke that Alex and his fellow friends think it’s all about. This. Sexual violence (and the nudity associated with it) has been the biggest source of controversy, along with some questionable copycat crimes in its native UK. In the United States, the film was edited upon release to receive an R rating and is still condemned by authorities at the time. the powerful National Catholic Film Board, which banned Catholics from seeing the film.

Banned in: Canada, the UK (where it was pulled from release at the request of Kubrick, whose family received death threats, a “ban” that lasted almost three decades ), Ireland, Brazil, South Africa, Malaysia, Singapore, Malta and South Korea.

Where to stream: Max

In Bernardo Bertolucci’s erotic drama, middle-aged widower Marlon Brando is involved in a rather unpleasant relationship with a young Parisian woman played by Maria Schneider. The film’s most memorable scene, involving forced sex and a stick of butter, immediately became the source of its greatest controversy and continues to tarnish its reputation, with Schneider recounting the abuse she suffered at the hands of Bertolucci and Brando , especially during the filming of the scene. This ongoing controversy aside, the film was quite shockingly sexually explicit for its era, and is likely the first time an actor of Brando’s caliber discussed the joys of having a finger up the ass on screen.

Almost all attempts to ban the film were based on the perception that it was obscene or generally obscene; The usual suspects were offended, but the National Organization for Women wasn’t thrilled with the film either, finding the film’s sexuality one-sided.

Banned in: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Italy, Portugal, Philippines, South Korea, Singapore and Venezuela.

Where to watch: digital rental.

Blasphemy! It was a cry heard around the world when Martin Scorsese’s heartfelt religious drama dared to suggest that Jesus (Willem Dafoe) may have once briefly considered having a girlfriend. A theater in Paris was bombed during the screening, injuring more than a dozen people, and protests in the United States led to a shadow ban on the film; although theater owners were never banned from showing it, they were threatened with violence, causing some to be reluctant to show it.

Banned in: Greece, South Africa, Turkey, Mexico, Israel, Chile, Argentina. Still banned in the Philippines and Singapore.

Where to stream: Peacock

A version of The Last House on the Left that eschews any social commentary offered by Wes Craven’s highly controversial film in favor of wallowing in rape scenes and escalating the ensuing revenge violence, I Spit on Your Grave has become a cult favorite precisely because she is so shockingly tasteless. Violence has long been a flash point, mostly involving fairly brutal sexual torture (American censors were willing to give the film an R rating if scenes suggesting anal rape had been cut). This was followed by an unauthorized sequel and a remake, which itself spawned four sequels. None of them made a penny, but there seem to be enough brands here that exploitation filmmakers continue to hope that next time things will be different.

Banned in: Ireland, Norway, Iceland, West Germany, Canada and the UK; only the censored version was initially available in the US and Australia.

Where to watch: Tubi, The Roku Channel, Redbox, Pluto.

Although the film adaptation of the hugely popular novel The Da Vinci Code did not cause the same outrage as The Last Temptation of Christ , Ron Howard’s film adaptation of the hugely popular novel The Da Vinci Code was considered blasphemous for suggesting that Jesus and Mary Magdalene married, gave birth children and gave birth to a still living child. descendant (or something like that… it’s all pretty confusing). This is all obviously fiction and quite stupid, but there were protests throughout the United States, and the film was completely banned in a number of countries and regions. This is probably the most boring banned movie ever made.

Banned in: Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Syria, Belarus, Pakistan, Vatican City and China.

Where to watch: TNT, TBS, Tru TV.

“So funny, it was banned in Norway!” read the poster blurb for “The Life of Brian,” the story of a man born next door to and on the same day as Jesus and found himself mistaken for the Messiah. Although the Monty Python-produced comedy was a box office success, it was either banned or rated X in several dozen British localities, even after undergoing a series of cuts, and British television refused to air the film for years because of its alleged blasphemous content. content. Likewise, in the United States, several cities and towns refused to allow the film to be shown, and even in New York, screenings were met with picket lines.

Banned in: UK and US (at least in certain places, not nationwide), Ireland, South Africa and Norway.

Where to watch: Netflix

It’s very rare that a queer themed film breaks through at the box office to the point where everyone gets upset. Such was the case with Brokeback Mountain , which promised a new era of queer films that never materialized but had a significant cultural moment and also inspired a generation’s laziest gay jokes. The film was quickly banned in parts of Asia and the Middle East in particular due to its depiction of homosexuality, and also because it became a flashpoint in the culture wars in the US, where several theaters (such as in Salt Lake City ) refused to show the film immediately. Apparently it was also banned from the homes of many elderly Oscar voters who somehow decided that Crash was Best Picture when they were both nominated for Best Picture. Italian state television aired a version in 2008 that cut out all the gay material… which, unsurprisingly, left viewers with little to no idea what was going on.

Banned in: China, UAE, Malaysia, Bahamas, heavily censored in Lebanon.

Where to stream: Peacock

The aforementioned Cannibal Holocaust ushered in a mercifully short wave of cannibal-themed exploitation pictures, of which the work of writer-director Umberto Lenzi was the most famous. Unlike Holocaust, which is argued (though not always convincingly) to have at least a modicum of cinematic value and social commentary, Ferox has nothing beyond shock value. The quality of the gore effects is mixed (with the exception of… a memorable scene with a woman suspended by her breasts), and in this regard the film definitely favors quantity over quality. And like the Holocaust , it also includes scenes of actual animal mutilation, especially turtles. The film was banned in the UK as one of the notorious “video nasties” of the 1980s, and promotional copy claimed that it was banned in 31 countries. Guinness even lists this page as one of its most banned pages on this basis. I’m not sure, as it only seems to have been controversial in the UK (although it was not particularly widespread and would probably have been banned in the same countries that banned the Holocaust ). Out of respect for the film’s reputation, I’ll leave it here, while acknowledging that by the time it came out, people were probably already terrified of cannibal films.

Banned in: UK.

Where to stream: Tubi, Kanopy, Fandor

Despite the fact that Possession was directed by Andrzej Zulawski, the famous Polish film director, and won the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival, it was reviled upon release : it was declared a “disgusting video”, removed from circulation in the UK and consigned to incoherent oblivion (and Not to mention, it’s a brilliant use of horror as a metaphor: Zulawski produced the film while in the midst of a traumatic divorce, and he brings literally monstrous poignancy to the story of a disintegrating marriage between an international spy. agent(?) played by Sam Neill and his frustrated housewife played by the truly fearless Isabelle Adjani. (Honestly, the most shocking thing about the 2023 movie is how incredibly hot they both are.)

Come for the slimy creature effects, stay for the truly disturbing, solo scene in which Ajani completely loses his shit in a subway tunnel . Luckily, streaming service Shudder recently rescued the original version from cinematic obscurity.

Banned in: UK; Over 40 minutes were cut for the original American release.

Where to watch: Shudder

Lightyear is a characteristically charming and poignant Pixar film with a strong sci-fi flavor. It was also a pretty big box office bomb, partly because its deeply twisted premise was hard to sell (it’s pitched as a Buzz Lightyear (Chris Evans) movie that inspired a Toy Story toy or something). It also caused controversy among the usual suspects on social media: Buzz’s commander and best friend Alisha (Uzo Aduba) marries Kiko during the film, the two women eventually becoming grandparents to Izzy (Keke Palmer), who teams up with Noise many decades later. (you see, there are a lot of things going on that involve time dilation). A very chaste kiss between a much older Alisha and Kiko was first interrupted and then reinstated by Disney (that kind of wiggle is guaranteed to piss off just about everyone), and the film was banned in a number of countries and censored in others.

Banned in: United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Jordan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Palestinian Territories, Syria and Iraq.

Where to watch: Disney+.

While Tobe Hooper’s film may be one of the most restrained slasher films of its time, at least in terms of its explicit content, it nevertheless has a well-deserved reputation for being a harrowing and generally brutal thriller that leaves you viewers are left with the impression that they have seen more than they actually have (this is much less true of the later sequels). According to the British Board of Film Classification , this was a blow to the film when it came to UK release: the board deemed the film unsuitable at first glance, and since the film implied so much blood, there was actually a lot of violence in it. there is nothing to cut out to provide classification. Since wide national release was not possible, local councils made decisions to allow screenings – in London, for example, it was approved with an X rating. It was not until 1999 that the film received national approval for cinemas and home video.

Banned in: parts of the UK, with additional bans in Germany, Norway, Ireland, Singapore, Sweden and Iceland.

Where to watch: Shudder, Peacock, Tubi, Freevee.

This is not a case of broad international censorship, but very specific regional censorship. The first feature-length South Park adventure features a plot involving Saddam Hussein, then a recurring character on the TV show, and Satan, who engage in a steamy and very sexy gay romance together. I wonder if Hussein even saw any of this film before it was banned in Iraq ?

Banned in: Iraq

Where to watch: Paramount+

Nagisa Oshima’s gorgeous, sensual, overtly sexual masterpiece is a frank exploration of sexual freedom and obsession during a time of rising imperialism in Japan. Set in 1936, it is based on the real-life Sada Abe (here played by Eiko Matsuda), a geisha and sex worker who murdered her lover in a story that became a national sensation; Abe came to represent either a figure of horror, or a sexual adventurer, or an angel avenging wronged women, or perhaps some combination of these three qualities. Details, such as the fact that Abe carried her lover’s penis and testicles in a kimono after the murder, helped preserve the story. The non-simulation of sex and male frontal nudity *sigh* not only led to the film being banned in Japan, it was even impossible to film there. The filmmakers said they were making a French film and shipped it to France for editing. The sexually explicit version premiered in Tokyo, but the government nevertheless brought forward obscenity charges: Oshima was found not guilty, and his testimony contained useful wisdom : “Nothing that is expressed is obscene. What is obscene is what is hidden. »

Banned in: Japan, USA, West Germany, Belgium.

Where to watch: Criterion Channel.

As is often the case in controversial films, especially those involving sex and/or violence, some debate revolves around questions of whether explicit images are important storytelling tools or simply gratuitous ( Salo , similarly, arises along these lines). debate). The Serbian film quickly earned a reputation for being incredibly violent and extremely disturbing, following a man forced to commit increasingly crazed and sadistic acts against strangers and family members. This film may or may not be an allegorical depiction of the suffering of the Serbian people under the rule of a corrupt government. I’ve never been able to get through this, so I’ll leave the final decision to those with stronger stomachs and/or a better understanding of the Serbian cultural context.

Serbia itself had little problem with the film, but Westminster City Council in London refused to allow the film to be screened at a horror festival without significant cuts, at which point the filmmakers backed down. The later London Film Festival circumvented the ban by declaring the screening a private event.

Banned in: UK (but mainly London), Australia, Brazil.

Where to watch: Vudu, Arrow Video

What’s wrong with a little necrophilia between lovers? West German director Jörg Buttgereit’s film isn’t one that aspires to any higher moral or political purpose: it’s almost pure shock, featuring endlessly gross (if inventive) scenes of splatter and sex with corpses (if that’s a spoiler). , you completely missed the title). As with any overtly shocking work of art, there is certainly reason to believe that its very existence is political, and the fact that it has been banned in different countries at different stages is an argument of its own.

Banned in: Iceland, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Finland, and the provinces of Nova Scotia and Ontario in Canada.

Where to watch: Shudder

Modern revisionists would have you believe that Disney’s Song of the South was completely free of controversy upon its release; vice versa. A film that literally and thematically depicts free black people of the Reconstruction era yearning for the good old days of slavery against the backdrop of Uncle Remus’ tales of cute animated animals (“written” by a white man who collected and rewrote African Americans). folklore, not bothering to give credit to anyone but himself). Despite Disney’s defense of the film (primarily on the idea that the characters were not yet slaves, so their nostalgia for the antebellum era was normal), it generated controversy during production, was met with national protests led by the NAACP, and was attended by Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. described it as “an insult to American minorities [and] everything that America as a whole stands for.” Its star, James Baskett, was unable to even attend the separate premiere in Atlanta . Naturally, a film that more or less flopped in 1946 did very well when it was re-released in the Reagan ’80s, where much of the nostalgia around it is satirized.

Banned: Not technically banned, but buried so deep in the Disney vault that poor Uncle Remus will probably never find his way out.

Where to stream: Good luck.

John Alan Schwartz and company, the makers of The Faces of Death , used its controversial nature as a badge of honor, promising that the film would be “banned in 46 countries!” – what… maybe? It became a hot topic in the UK in the 1980s when watchdog group the National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association classified it as one of the “video nasties”, films freely available on VHS that were more closely regulated in cinemas. A mixture of archival footage of death and new scenes that look real, this “death chronicle” has become a rite of passage for teenagers at sleepovers (I myself refused such an invitation, and I’m not particularly upset about it), and was simply designed as an effective poster for a censorship crusade .

Banned in: 46 countries apparently? Of course, it was either completely banned or heavily edited in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Germany.

Where to watch: Roku Channel.

This middling comedy from James Franco and Seth Rogan involves several journalists who are about to interview North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (Randall Park), who has been recruited by the CIA to assassinate him. Even before the film’s release, the North Korean government became aware of the film and threatened to take vague action against the United States if the film was released. Sony edited the film, but North Korea nonetheless followed through when an associated cybercrime group, Guardians of Peace, hacked Sony before threatening terrorist attacks. After its Los Angeles premiere, other screenings were canceled and wide release cancelled , largely because theater chains didn’t want to show it. The film was eventually released digitally, marking a relatively early example of a “theatrical” film receiving such a release.

Banned in: Well…technically not banned , but banned from wide release in the US.

Where to watch: Netflix

New Queer Cinema pioneer Gregg Araki’s self-proclaimed “Heterosexual Movie” (only partly true) was still full of sex and violence, and had a very strong love/hate situation among critics at the time of its first film festival run. Variety loved it, Roger Ebert hated it, and no one else saw it. After gaining some buzz at this festival, Samuel Goldwyn Films acquired the rights, and then founder Samuel Goldwyn Jr. watched it and was so offended that he refused to distribute it. Small distributor Trimark Pictures then picked up the film for a very short theatrical run before making changes to the content. The blockbuster home video market demanded even greater cuts to the film, resulting in only a heavily truncated version being shown, if at all, between now and 2023, when it was restored . In the modern USA (well, in most of them ) films are not prohibited, and that’s good! However, we let rich people with often very questionable tastes decide what we are going to see.

Banned: Strictly speaking, nowhere, but only a heavily stripped-down version was available between 1995 and 2023.

Where to watch: Criterion Channel.