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China Bans Horror Movies

Posted by Zonk on from the won't-someone-think-of-the-braaaaaiiinnnnsss dept.

KublaiKhan writes "According to an article on Reuters, the Chinese censors have decided that horror movies are verboten. 'Offending content included "wronged spirits and violent ghosts, monsters, demons, and other inhuman portrayals, strange and supernatural storytelling for the sole purpose of seeking terror and horror," the administration said. This is apparently a sort of Chinese version of the Jack Thompson effect, as the "mental health of adolescents" is cited as one of the reasons for the ban. Presumably, this ban — much like the spitting ban — is intended to improve China's image in the rest of the world before the Olympics open; but given the Streisand effect, would this ban perhaps unintentionally spur a surge of horror movie popularity in China?" Blizzard has had trouble with skeletons in World of Warcraft , and I imagine this decision stems from similar objections.

6 of 292 comments (clear)

  1. Ban Horror, Monsters or Shlock Stock? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    "And maybe I'm suffering from old fartism, but some of the more shlocky stuff lately seems to be, uh, more of the same gore for gore's sake."

    Al Gore:The movie and it's Sequal Al Gore gets gored.

  2. Re:Ban Horror, Monsters or Shlock? by pilgrim23 · · Score: 4, Funny

    problem with Chinese horror movies is.... they are good and all that, but..... an hour later.....

    --
    - Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
  3. Re:Geography 101 by pipingguy · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm aware of this. I'm Canadian and I'm used to people from different geographic regions confusing me for being an American. Just to prove that I'm REALLY a Canadian, I'm going to apologize for your misunderstanding, OK?

  4. Godwin 101 by Hognoxious · · Score: 3, Funny

    no single country dominates Europe to the point where being called European would mean you're a resident of that country
    That's not through want of trying.
    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  5. So... by comm2k · · Score: 3, Funny

    Who scares?

  6. The real reason behind the ban by usul294 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Chinese communications officials saw Army of Darkness and decided that if a single American could travel back in time, make himself a prosthetic arm, defeat an army of his little clones, defeat his evil self, unite 2 warring factions in medieval England, then defeat an army of skeletons, the Chinese are in major trouble from our super-store employees. There's no way the general populace could see that. Also included in the ban are any movies containing an ex-Vietnam special forces agent who makes prolific use of exploding arrows.