Top 10 Horror Movies That Had To Be Censored

Wes Craven and his team of filmmakers had one heck of a time getting “Scream” released. The Motion Picture Association of America, or MPAA, threatened an NC-17 rating if they didn’t make some significant cuts, as the movie was reportedly too “intense” for a theatrical release. Up to eight different versions of the movie were made and submitted to the MPAA, and some of the movie’s death scenes were censored. But the MPAA still wasn't impressed, and the NC-17 rating remained. Finally, the head of Dimension Films personally contacted the association and persuaded them to release the edited product with an R rating. The full uncut version was later released on home video.

The original “Evil Dead” had quite the reputation. It was rated X in the United States, heavily edited in the United Kingdom, and even outright banned in some countries. The 2013 reboot kept this spirit intact and maintained the high level of violence. Of course, this caused some controversy of its own. Just a few months before its premiere at the South by Southwest film festival, director Fede Álvarez revealed that the movie had been given the dreaded NC-17 rating by the MPAA. They were forced to censor some of the more extreme bits of violence in order to obtain an R rating, and by extension, a theatrical release. Luckily for gorehounds, these cuts were later reinstated into the unrated version.

For many, “The Devil’s Rejects” is one of Rob Zombie’s better movies. It’s also one of his most sadistic. And that’s saying something! This is a really nasty film that follows the depraved Firefly family. The MPAA repeatedly gave the movie an NC-17 rating, telling Zombie that it was more a problem with the immoral tone than specific acts of violence. That said, they also took significant umbrage with the motel scene, and Zombie was forced to cut two full minutes from the sequence. After eight different submissions and some heavy edits, the movie was finally rated R for “sadistic violence, strong sexual content, language and drug use.”

A legendary horror film from the early ‘30s, “Freaks” had quite the difficult production. The test screenings were catastrophic, as people literally ran out of the theater and voiced their displeasure with the movie’s content. Fearing the public’s response, MGM cut about thirty minutes of footage from the film, meaning the theatrical product was only sixty-four minutes long. This was done without the consent or approval of director Tod Browning. Unfortunately, the censored footage has long been lost, and the edited product is all we have. Regardless of the edits, the movie was still met with a hostile reaction and was banned in the UK for thirty years.

A remake of the Wes Craven classic, “The Hills Have Eyes” is one of the most brutal and relentlessly dour horror movies of the 2000s. There’s a lot of grotesque stuff here, and it was all a bit much for the MPAA. The movie was originally slapped with an NC-17 owing to the savagery of its violence, and the filmmakers had to censor about thirty scenes to make it suitable for theatrical release. Some of the altered scenes include the burning of Big Bob, the camper attack on Brenda, and the shooting of Lynn. Basically, the initial raid on the Carter family is entirely different in the unrated version.

Few horror movies have been butchered quite like the original “My Bloody Valentine.” Both Paramount Pictures and the MPAA were very strict about the content of the movie, and it required an enormous amount of editing in order to pass with an R rating. Every single death scene was censored to some degree, and the producers were not happy. It’s been suggested that Paramount was very skittish about the movie, as “Friday the 13th” had received a large amount of backlash owing to its graphic violence. It wasn’t until 2009 that much of the violent footage was reinstated for a Special Edition DVD.

Made during the height of the torture subgenre, “Hostel” remains one of the most infamous movies of the 2000s. Directed by Eli Roth, “Hostel” is about a group of tourists getting kidnapped and horrifically maimed. The theatrical version is provocative enough. And to think, that was edited down! The original cut was given an NC-17 rating for its extreme sexual content, which reportedly included real intercourse. As this verged into adult film territory, the MPAA explicitly banned the movie from theatrical release. Roth had to cut about twenty minutes out of the film before it was finally given the OK.

It’s amazing what just eighteen seconds of footage can do for the censors. Based on Bret Easton Ellis’s iconic novel, “American Psycho” is about a Wall Street banker and serial killer named Patrick Bateman. Funnily enough, it wasn’t all the blood and serial killing that the MPAA had a problem with - it was the sexuality. In one scene, Patrick enjoys the company of two sex workers. This sequence caused a lot of problems with the MPAA, and the movie was given an NC-17 rating as a result. The filmmakers cut only eighteen seconds of footage from the scene to attain the more desirable R rating. The uncut version is now widely available on blu-ray.

This classic horror movie effectively kickstarted the torture subgenre that populated the mid 2000s. And all things considered, it’s actually quite tame. At least compared to what came after. For example, “Spiral” had to be submitted to the MPA eleven times before it was finally given an R rating. The first “Saw” was also originally hit with an NC-17, and the filmmakers were forced to censor various graphic shots to attain an R. For example, the scene involving Amanda and the bear trap was heavily censored, and some of the more grisly visuals were cut. The uncensored version was later released on DVD for all to enjoy. Is “enjoy” the right word when it comes to this kind of stuff?

While violent slashers are commonplace today, a movie like this was virtually unheard of in 1974. Tobe Hooper shot the movie without explicit violence in the hopes of obtaining a PG rating. However, the MPAA was outraged by the movie’s content and gave it the polar opposite - X. Several minutes were cut to obtain an R rating, but before it was theatrically released, a distributor actually re-inserted the censored scenes back into the movie. You gotta do what you gotta do. The movie faced similar issues around the world. In Australia, it was edited down to seventy-seven minutes but was still refused by the country’s censorship board. A censored version was also released in Iceland following its initial ban.