Another week and another new rating for William Friedkin‘s Killer Joe, or should I say Killer Joe: A Twisted Redneck Trailer Park Murder Story. The DVD and Blu-ray for Killer Joe will be released on December 21 in an unrated form and I have to assume this new, R-rated cut will be released in Walmart stores and similar outlets that don’t want to release unrated material with graphic nudity and violence.
The more interesting thing about the decision to cut it down to an R brings me back to said:
Cutting would not have made it mass appeal. Cutting it would have been the equivalent of what members of the United States government and military leaders said about the Vietnam War. They said, “We have to destroy Vietnam in order to save it,” and that’s what I would have done to Killer Joe. To get an R rating I would have had to destroy it in order to save it and I wasn’t interested in doing that.
Who’s up for buying a destroyed version of Killer Joe?
Additionally, this week brings the R-rating for Vin Diesel‘s Riddick. The Chronicles of Riddick was rated PG-13 after the R-rated Pitch Black, but it would seem this third installment is returning to the franchise roots. A release date, however, has not yet been confirmed, though an early 2013 release has been mentioned.
You can click on any of the titles mentioned above for more information, otherwise, here are the latest MPAA ratings from Bulletin #2247.
