More Films That Shocked The World

World Movies channel has scheduled another week of controversial films under the banner More Films That Shocked The World.

As the only channel in Australia permitted to play R18+ films on television, it will screen films including John Waters’ Pink Flamingos, the exploitation thriller I Spit On Your Grave and erotica classic Caligula.

“In 2013, World Movies dared to broadcast a week of films so controversial, that they had never been seen on Australian TV before. Films That Shocked The World was the highest rating week in the history of the World Movies channel,” said World Movies General Manager Chris Keely. “World Movies has enjoyed a long history of bringing Australian audiences a diverse range of the world’s most ground-breaking, compelling cinema.”

Pink Flamingos (USA, 1972) 9.30pm Monday 17 March
Featuring themes that are way ahead of its time, this is the film that launched John Waters as the world’s leading authority on bad taste. Still unsurpassed in its filth today, Pink Flamingos follows the adventures of Divine (living under the alias of Babs Johnson), a fat, style-obsessed criminal who lives in a trailer with her mentally ill mother Edie, her delinquent son Crackers, and her travelling companion Cotton. Divine, however, is furious when a pair of perverts, Raymond and Connie Marble, try to steal her title of “filthiest person alive.”

I Spit On Your Grave (USA, 1978) 9.30pm Tuesday 18 March
This exploitation thriller was refused classification in the USA; it was also at the top of the list of “Video Nasties” championed by conservative campaigner Mary Whitehouse, which led to copies of videos being destroyed in the UK. In Australia, the film was condemned by the censors and local governments, who feared it would lead the audience to commit violence on society. Jennifer Hills, a magazine writer from New York City, retires to a secluded cabin in the woods to write her first novel. There she is brutally assaulted, raped and left for dead by four country boys. Emotionally destroyed, she finds herself choreographing a horrific revenge scheme to inflict punishment on her four assailants, inflicting upon them every horrifying and torturous moment they carried out on her.

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (USA, 1986) 9.30pm Wednesday 19 March
This controversial film was completed on a shoestring budget in 1986 but spent four years on the shelf, deemed too brutal for general release – so horrifying it was banned in numerous countries, including Australia. Michael Rooker is unforgettable as Henry, a soft-spoken loner with a cool exterior masking an inner rage that boils at blast furnace intensity. When fellow ex-con Otis invites Henry to move into his Chicago apartment, he becomes a willing participant in Henry’s senseless, random killing sprees. Meanwhile, Otis’ unsuspecting sister, Becky (Tracy Arnold) is smitten with Henry, whose broken childhood mirrors her own.

Emmanuelle (France, 1974) 9.30pm Thursday 20 March
This erotic tale was banned in France upon release, but the ban was revoked with the sudden death of the French president Georges Pompidou. Emmanuelle became one of France’s most successful films, captivating audiences around the globe, and was a rite of passage for generations of adolescents. In Bangkok, Emmanuelle (Sylvia Kristel), the young wife of a French diplomat, enters the world of sensuality and sexual passion. Guided by the mature Mario (Alain Cuny), and with the complicity of her husband (Daniel Sarky), she discovers the delights of eroticism and lets herself slide into pleasure. Based on the controversial book by Emmanuelle Arsan, Emmanuelle remains a ground-breaking picture: the first openly erotic film meant for the general public. The movie’s evocative cinematography which captures the beauty of Thailand and uses it very effectively to support other erotic images, helped this film cause something of a cinematic revolution.

Caligula (USA/Italy, 1979) 9.30pm Friday 21 March
Starring Helen Mirren, Malcolm McDowell and Peter O’Toole, Caligula details the graphic and shocking, yet undeniably tragic story of Rome’s most infamous Caesar, Gaius Germanicus Caligula. With an all-star cast – and a screenplay by iconic writer Gore Vidal – the stage was set for Caligula to become the next Ben Hur. With an air of secrecy, an eccentric director and 17 million dollars, Penthouse owner Bob Guccione took this potential masterpiece and gave it the Penthouse treatment – and unfortunately for the cast, they were completely unaware. Caligula was the first major motion picture to feature eminent actors and unsimulated sex scenes, and is as hedonistic and dramatic as the era it depicts. World Movies presents an R18+ cut of this controversial film.