UK censor bans "Murder Set Pieces" DVD
 

Feb 28, 2008


LONDON — The British Board of Film Classification has banned the DVD release of Nick Palumbo’s psychopathic sexual serial killer pic “Murder Set Pieces.”

Decision to outlaw the DVD, within the terms of the U.K.’s Video Recordings Act, was taken by David Cooke, BBFC director, and a team comprising Quentin Thomas, John Taylor and Janet Lewis-Jones.

The ruling comes a day after Prime Minister Gordon Brown expressed his concerns in Parliament over the potentially destructive social impact of violent films and vidgames. Recently, a cross-party group of politicians has been pushing for reform on violent and sexual material. If successful, the campaign could see the BBFC forced to toughen its stance.

“Rejecting a work outright is a serious matter and the board considered whether the issue could be dealt with through cuts,” commented Cooke. “However, given the unacceptable content featured throughout, and that what remains is essentially preparatory and set-up material for the unacceptable scenes, cutting the work is not a viable option in this case and the work is therefore refused a classification.”

A press release summarizing the ruling outlined the chief concerns: “ ‘Murder Set Pieces’ is a feature with a single-minded focus on the activities of a psychopathic sexual serial killer, who, throughout the film, is seen raping, torturing and murdering his victims. Young children are among those terrorized and killed, and their inclusion in this abusive context is an added concern. In relation to the adult victims, there is a clear focus on sex or sexual behavior accompanied by non-consensual pain, injury and humiliation.”

The BBFC rarely flat-out rejects applications for DVD release. The last DVD to fail at the fence was pornographic title “Struggle in Bondage,” (which features naked women tied-up, gagged and crying near throughout) in 2006.

Philadelphia-based DVD distrib TLA Releasing has the right to appeal the BBFC decision. But an overturning of the decision is unlikely given the BBFC suggests the pic “also raises potential legal questions, for instance in relation to the Protection of Children Act 1978, as well as possible breaches of other legislation such as that on obscenity. Having concluded that the work would in any case have to be rejected on grounds of harm and unacceptability to the public, the board did not think it necessary at this stage to reach a final view on these legal issues, but they would have to be considered in the event of any appeal.”

To stem the flow of copies may be difficult though: five copies of “Murder Set Pieces” from U.K. sellers were on sale on eBay.co.uk at time of press.



No wonder folks in HDC voted it into the Gorific & Visually Challenging Top 100...

The Video Nasties scare all over again! Someone should show old Gordon August Underground's Mordum and really fuck his shit up.
MSP won't be seeing the light of day over here anytime soon either customs usually seize it.... a friend sent me a burn that made it thru however and I like this flick a lot.

How sad, I can't believe countries around the world are still "banning" films.

It is total bullshit and kinda futile in the age of the internet.

The Brits have banned a lot of movies over time. Remember they banned horror movies outright in the 30s, they've banned Nekromantik (like the rest of Europe) and any number of other things. As a country, we have our problems, but our censorship is still softer than other more liberal and informed countries. Cronenberg went through hell with Canadian ratings boards. But, Elvis makes a good point about the internet. People will see it.

You ban something, you make the interested viewers DOUBLY interested in it.

I am sure the burned/illegal copies of MSP will turn up everywhere in the UK shortly.

For sure, this kinda thing has made MSP notorious and made a shitload more people check it out. It'll be like when it was having trouble finding a lab to blow it up to 35mm, it was rejected by a bunch adding to its hype as a nasty flick.

Is Murder, Set, Pieces any good? I thought about renting or buying it, but it looks sort of sloppy and old hat.

It's full of gore and sex which is amazing because you wouldn't think a film could contain copious amounts of those two things and be so damn boring. It's one of those films that's almost sticky with the amount of filth that it portrays but it's done in such a way that the actual level of entertainment is almost nil.

In my opinion anyway...

Its a love/hate kinda deal. I really liked it how it was a trip back to stuff like Maniac and the Toe Tag Pictures effects look amazing. The Tony Todd cameo is great too :D
If you're into low-budget exploitation kinda flicks like me you'll love it.