Torture porn: The Bunny Game with Jeff Renfro and Rodleen Getsic.
Adam Rehmeier’s The Bunny Game, a mix of explicit sex and physical and psychological abuse, has been banned by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), reports Total Film. A few weeks ago, the BBFC stirred up quite a bit of talk after it decided to ban Tom Six’s The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence), which opened (to disappointing business) via IFC Films in the United States last week.
The BBFC explained its position in a statement that reads: “The principal focus of The Bunny Game is the unremitting sexual and physical abuse of a helpless woman, as well as the sadistic and sexual pleasure the man derives from this.”
BBFC director David Cooke added that “it is the Board’s carefully considered view that to issue a certificate to this work, even if confined to adults, would be inconsistent with the Board’s Guidelines, would risk potential harm within the terms of the Video Recordings Act, and would accordingly be unacceptable to the public.”
Missing from the above statement is that The Bunny Game is supposed to be based on real-life events that befell performance artist Rodleen Getsic, who co-wrote the film’s screenplay with director Rehmeier. The Bunny Game, in fact, seems to be an unusual therapeutic experiment, as Getsic also has the lead role in the black-and-white film: a broke, drug-addicted sex worker who gets kidnapped by a truck driver (real-life trucker Jeff Renfro) apparently suffering from a Playboy Bunny fixation – among other, more serious issues. In fact, from the descriptions and reviews I’ve read of The Bunny Game, the photo illustrating this article is mere foreplay.
Perhaps not quite getting the point of the BBFC’s decision to ban his film, Adam Rehmeier complained that “Rodleen and I didn’t make The Bunny Game to glamorize prostitution. It is far from an erotic film. It is a modern cautionary tale grounded in reality.”
DVD distributor Trinity X can resubmit The Bunny Game with cuts, though there’s no guarantee it’ll be granted a certificate of approval. But then again … Six’s The Human Centipede 2 will have a Nov. 4 UK release following more than 30 cuts made to the original film.
As an aside, on its website the BBFC offers a warning to potential viewers of Whit Stillman’s 15-rated Damsels in Distress: “Contains moderate sex references.” In the UK, “no-one younger than 15 may see a ‘15′ film in a cinema. No-one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15′ rated video work.”
Isn’t it great to have a handful of BBFC members play the role of parents and guardians of all United Kingdom denizens?
See also: Long-thought (partially) lost Ed Wood film Necromania unearthed.
The Bunny Game photo: Death Mountain Productions
2 comments
PS
One example of damaged sense of boundaries in victims of abuse, are some some people who were sexually abused as children. Some turn to prostitution, because the sense of boundaries is broken, and they have low self esteem, and they allow the abuse continue this way. It may be strange, but it is not a rarity. Why the main actress allows the situations in the movie?Ask any therapist dealing with abuse survivors.
“Isn’t it great to have a handful of BBFC members play the role of parents and guardians of all United Kingdom denizens?”
Well, if some are not mature enough, have trouble to make choices and set boundaries, than why not? “Cautionary tale” is a lame excuse for passive sadism. A line needs to be drawn somewhere, or shouldn’t here be any kind of certification, anyone could put whatever they want to show? Or maybe should we make sexual harassment or hate speech legal, on base of freedom of expression? Any civic society has some kind of systems regulating it homeostais, and vilifying them as censorship is silly. Actually any well adjusted adult “censors” his/her choices. As for art therapy: this belongs to art therapist office, and the circle of helping professionals. And art can be highly personal, but needs to transcend personal stuff.
As fro the real life events: often victims of server abuse have trouble setting boundaries. Movie like this is an expression of such difficulities. Psychoterapy restores the lost ability to restore sense of boundaries in victims whose sense of boundaries was violated. Making a movie as “therapy” is a very bad idea, those who help with this project are enablers, not helpers.