DREAD X: DEATHCEMBER Director Florian Frerichs’ Top 10 Horror Films “Indiziert” (Criminalized) in Germany
Florian Frerichs is one of the directors of DREAD’s upcoming horror anthology Deathcember! For this edition of Dread X, the German filmmaker lists his Top 10 movies that were criminalized in his home country when he was just a kid.
“Up until the early 2000s these films were ‘verboten’ and people distributing them in their uncut versions were (sometimes) fined and even put in jail,” Frerichs explains. “So, growing up in Germany in the 90s and being a film buff was a very special task. These titles were only sold ‘under the counter’ and you needed to have connections.”
Check out Frerichs’ Top 10 Horror Films that were “indiziert” (criminalized) in Germany when he was growing up below the trailer and synopsis for Deathcember.
Synopsis:
A collection of 24 films that take a look at the dark side of the festive season. 24 international directors with the most diverse ideas and styles; linked by short animated segments that deal with the Advent calendar itself.
The Terminator
“Germany burned books, cities, and people in its past – but showing the fake skin burning off of a cyborg in a movie? That’s obscene!”
Robocop
“When I ordered my Criterion Collection DVD, it was confiscated by the Zoll (customs). Somebody at Frankfurt airport must have built up a great DVD collection…”
The Thing
“One of the greatest evenings of all time, when I finally laid hands on an uncut widescreen region 1 DVD of this movie – In Germany all you could get was a heavily cut, full-screen pan and scan VHS tape… YUCK!”
Mad Max
“Cars, a dystopian society, and Mel Gibson in the lead? Sounds like it was made for German audiences. Censors saw it differently. It was banned until 2015!”
Running Man
“‘Sub-Zero – Now: Plain Zero!’ Maybe it was too humorous for Germany. Anyway, its uncut version was banned for ages. Written by the master of one-liners Steven de Souza, who would later become the sensational lead character in my Deathcember short X-mas on Fire.”
From Dusk till Dawn
“It must have been 1998 when Berlin’s cult video store M sucht nach Film called me excitedly: ‘We have an uncut DVD from England!’ But when they realized I was far from being 18, I had to bring my mom to the store to buy it for me!”
Friday the 13th
“At the time when German theaters were flooded with cheap sex comedies like Yodeling in the Lederhosen and Sex Express in Upper Bavaria, censors saw no room for cheap scares and slashers…”
Scarface
“‘Say hello to my little friend’… It would have been okay for German censors if he had taken off his trousers after that line… but shooting at people? Nein, nein, nein! VERBOTEN!”
Commando
“Another one-liner festival de luxe by Steven de Souza. I think at some point in the 80’s German censors must have stopped watching films starring Arni and simply banned every movie with his name on it.”
Starship Troopers
“‘Militaristic, martial, violent’: Not suitable for German audiences, of course. VERBOTEN!”
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