Movie News

Ryan Simon's British supernatural chiller Demon Eye , starring Darren Day, and Liam Fox, and Brad Baruh's Coen-sequel mystery thriller Night Drive , starring AJ Bowen and Sophie Dalah, both receive Friday night UK TV premieres on Horror Channel .

There are also channel premieres for John Carpenter's cult classic Assault On Precinct 13 and Finnish-German sci-fi Nazi horror spoof Iron Sky: The Coming Race , directed by Timo Vuorensola (Iron Sky) and starring Udo Kier, reprising his role as Adolf Hitler.

Plus, cult classic Farscape returns with the channel premieres of Season 3 and 4. This Australian-American Sci-Fi TV series, created by Rockne S. O'Bannon, has proved a big hit with Horror Channel audiences.

Horror Channel reveals raft of UK TV premieres for May plus channel premieres for Dalek movies

Stewart Sparke's award-winning dark comedic monster movie Book of Monsters and Audrey Cummings's grisly chuckler She Never Died , starring Olunike Adeliyi, are amongst the raft of Saturday night UK TV premieres on Horror Channel during May.

Also in prime-time slots are the UK TV premieres of gruesome action thriller Becky and Henry Jacobson's stylish crime chiller Bloodline, starring Seann William Scott. There is also a Channel premiere for Peter Medak's classic supernatural horror The Changeling , starring George C. Scott.

Plus, there are channel premieres for Dr Who and The Daleks and Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. The films star Peter Cushing as Dr Who and also feature Roberta Tovey as Susan. The second had Bernard Cribbins as Tom Campbell, years before he played Wilfred Mott in the revamped series.

Following last year's triumphant return to Broadway's Screen 1 after a scaled-down Skeleton Edition of the festival in 2020, organisers are excited to once again begin planning for the festival's traditional four-day event in October.

Mayhem's organisers promise the biggest edition of the festival yet 203 festival co-director Chris Cooke says: We're looking forward to bringing you together for the most anticipated and exciting examples of the genre, special guests and more206 across four days of glorious global cinema 203 in a packed-out Screen 1 at the very best venue out there, Broadway Cinema!

Planning is currently underway for Mayhem Film Festival's 18th edition with more information and announcements coming soon. Mayhem Film Festival will take place at Broadway, Nottingham on 13 203 16 October 2022.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is a 2022 USA action Sci-Fi horror by Sam Raimi
Starring Elizabeth Olsen, Rachel McAdams and Benedict Cumberbatch

Banned in Qatar, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia in April 2022

Middle East film censors have banned the release of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness over the inclusion of an openly gay character.  Although the censors have not provided any reasons for banning the film's release, it's the latest Marvel movie to fall victim to state-sponsored censorship to constrain certain civil liberties and human rights norms, including the expression of a LGBTQIA+ lifestyle. By including an openly LGBTQ+ character in its film , America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), the Marvel film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has been banned in Saudi Arabia, as well as Qatar and Kuwait .

Sam Raimi's Doctor Strange 2 introduce's a gay character, America Chavez. America was the first lesbian Latina in Marvel Comics, debuting in 2011's Vengeance #1.

It is reported that the America Chavez character plays a major role in the film and it seems unlikely that the Middle East release can be aved via cuts,

Summary Notes

After the events of Avengers: Endgame, Dr. Stephen Strange continues his research on the Time Stone. But an old friend turned enemy seeks to destroy every sorcerer on Earth, messing with Strange's plan and also causing him to unleash an unspeakable evil.

Benedetta is a 2021 France/Belgium/Netherlands historical romance by Paul Verhoeven
Starring Virginie Efira, Charlotte Rampling and Daphne Patakia  

A 17th-century nun in Italy suffers from disturbing religious and erotic visions. She is assisted by a companion, and the relationship between the two women develops into a romantic love affair.

A lesbian nun thriller that features a sex scene that has been slammed by Catholic groups who have claimed it as appalling and blasphemous. The film was released on Good Friday,

The film, Benedetta, directed by Paul Verhoeven, is based upon a real-life story of a 17th century nun called Benedetta Carlini who is suffering from from disturbing religious and erotic visions.

A scene which features a statue of Virgin Mary being used as a sex toy has been particularly slammed by Catholics. A spokesman for the Irish Society for Christian Civilisation, Damien Murphy said:

This movie is a fraud and nothing more than a blatant attack on the Catholic faith. There is no way that a director would depict Mohammed acting in a sexual manner. There is not one director in Hollywood or Europe who would dare mock Mohammed or the Jewish faith -- it just wouldn't happen.

The Irish Society for Christian Civilisation have launched a petition calling for the film not to be released, which has drawn more than 13,000 petitions. The petition reads:

I strongly oppose and condemn your distribution and promotion of Paul Verhoeven's film Benedetta. It offends God, and countless Catholics all over the world. This immoral film blasphemously features several Jesus-on-nun intense 'make outs', a statuette of Mary Most Holy used as a sex-toy and voyeuristic lesbian nuns pornography.

The Irish Film Classification Office rated the film 18 uncut for strong sex and violence including scenes of torture and sexual assault.

The film is being release MPA Unrated in the US.

Meanwhile the BBFC has also rated the film 18 uncut, but for sexual violence, strong sex, nudity, bloody violence:

• 2022 MUBI R0 4K Blu-ray at UK Amazon #ad released on 1st August 2022
• 2022 MUBI (RB) Blu-ray at UK Amazon released on 1st August 2022
• 2022 MUBI R0 DVD at UK Amazon #ad released on 1st August 2022

The BBFC have additionally commented:

There are scenes of strong sex, including cunnilingus, masturbation and implied penetration with a wooden sex toy. Such scenes also contain sexualised breast, buttock and genital nudity. In one sequence, a woman masturbates in front of her lover, who is reluctant to engage in sexual acts, ultimately refusing to touch her. sexual violence and sexual threat

A woman is tortured using genital mutilation; it is implied that a device is used to penetrate her, but this is not shown in strong detail. In another sequence, a man attempts to rape a woman while she is restrained by others, but violence puts an end to the sexual threat.