Talk:An American Werewolf in London (1981 uncut version)/@comment-86.40.189.248-20150412154403

The ratings system works differently from country to country. We always hear about the BBFC, or the MPAA etc but many countries have their own censors who can cut a film again even after its been cut, should they deem it necessary. Here in ireland we have the the Irish Film Censors Board. Censors worldwide have somewhat relaxed their standards over the years. During the eighties, they were hardcore saw doctors in comparison. As I said below; my local video rental stocked X rated titles at the time. Im not sure of the exact time frame but a couple of years later, all the stocks of X rated films disapeared. Some tapes had no rating on them of any kind at all! They were replaced with 18 rated versions of the same films. All those 18 rated video tapes, were different to the x rated predecessors, in that they all had cuts were the X rated ones had none. When the video nasty controversy came along, there were no uncut versions of any films to be found. You might be lucky enough to find the odd left over copy, here or there at your local family run VHS rental, but for the most part, uncut versions could only be found on the black market from then on in. The interesting part is that even films which werernt considered video nasties, but which contained strong scenes of a violent or sexual nature, were withdrawn, cut, and re-released with an 18 rating. If you read, or listen to people talking about the process of cutting films back in the eighties, you will often get the impression that the film was cut before it was released on videotape. Thats not the way it was! When the new classification system came in, aswell as the stuff that got banned, the censors also had a backlogue of titles which were already available on shelves under an X rating, which the censors then targeted, to be submitted to the new classification system. The film "The Exterminator" is another example of this, as that was also available as an X on VHS her in Ireland for a time, then withdrawn by the censors, and recut to remove some strong scenes of violence in a vietnam flashback scene and another that took place in a slaughterhouse. Then, that VHS was put back onto the streets with an 18 rating.Thats how it went down here. Films released after the intoduction of the new classification system, would sometimes be uncut in the cinema, or have some cuts, but they would undergo cuts before they were released onto video.