Director Dave Parker talks about content advisory
When filmmaker Dave Parker (exclusive interview) set out to direct his latest feature The Hills Run Red for Dark Castle Entertainment, he approached the movie with no restrictions on the movie’s graphic content or gore quotient. After all, “unrated” releases of direct to DVD movies are the norm these days.
Dark Castle themselves had great success with the unrated release of their 2007 film Return To House On Haunted Hill. However, when the first cut was viewed for The Hills Run Red, Warner Premiere opted (for now) to only release an R-rated version, forcing Parker to excise approximately 10 minutes worth of material from the film before submitting it to the ratings board.
On the cusp of it’s September 29 release date, The Hills Run Red sports an admonitory sticker on the front cover. Normally reserved for sales pitches such as “contains 3 hours of bonus features” or “features new footage not seen in theatrical cut”, The Hills Run Red has a “Content Advisory” sticker stating “Contains Graphic Violence, Sexual Content and Nudity; Not Suitable For Minors.”
This is the first time we’ve ever seen this for a recent horror release. So, we checked in with Parker for his thoughts on the addition warning label for his new movie:
“The simple answer as to why, at this time, there is no unrated release of The Hills Run Red is that there was, from my understanding, a policy change at Warner Brothers, and that they were no longer going to release unrated versions of their movies,” he says. “While at times this can be frustrating and distressing for a filmmaker, these are the realities that one faces while doing a movie for a studio. That being said, I have had nothing but great support from everyone at Dark Castle and Warner Premiere and the intention was only to make the best movie possible.”
“The material that was taken out was very strong and graphic,” he continues, “but so far the reaction from those that have seen the film has been ‘That was the R-rated cut?’ so I hope that for people that don’t know what was taken out, they won’t notice. As far as the sticker, I can only guess that it was put on the DVD as further caution to parents to let them know clearly that this is not for kids – personally I can only take it as a compliment that we delivered a horror film extreme enough to warrant it, even in it’s R-rated form. Kudos to Warner Premiere for taking such a step, because I know if I was browsing that week’s new releases, that sticker would make me pick up the movie immediately!”
Click here for photos, trailers and clips from the film!
Source: Robert Galluzzo
