Marcus Dunstan on Torture Porn Censorship and Saw VI

Marcus Dunstan: First shot boobs, second shot blood, third shot violence there's an
explosion, ha, comes in a movie.

Ted Balaker: Hi, I'm Ted Balaker with Reason TV today I will be sitting down
with filmmaker Marcus Dunstan. Dunstan and his partner Patrick
Melton wrote the last three Saw films including Saw VI which this
theaters October 23. This summer, Dunstan made his directorial
debut with The Collector which he and Melton also co-wrote. So
let's drive into Saw VI with the viewer’s appetite a bit, what can
they expect?

Marcus Dunstan: Well, what I'm truly excited about with Saw VI is that for the first
time in a series that’s—you know been around consistently every
year on Halloween weekend, they elected to tackle a timely issue.
It’s an issue you can turn on your TV and hear about it every night.
We've seen people fight about it, die for it, shed blood for it and
now this movie was a genuine wonderful opportunity “Oh, you
think it’s bad now, what if it was put through the sewing machine
and you really see this issue come to life and probably the most
ferocious way possible”.

Well hopefully taking a nice bit of joy of seeing what happens.

Ted Balaker: And that issue is?

Marcus Dunstan: Well that that’s going to be the—

Ted Balaker: If I asked nicely?

Marcus Dunstan: Yeah, I literally had a phone call with the YNZ President and I'm
going in and might ask me a few questions and they’ll blow up
details, we know where you live. And they do and then they drop
their voice and you actually here that—

Ted Balaker: You must have run into censorship is to use that some point with
this saw films?

Marcus Dunstan: The line of what is too far changes from year to year. And it you
know I had the good fortune to witness it a few times and witness
the techniques on how to avoid that. I mean you can, run in and
you screen this films in front of a room of people that are going to
hold that line and determine where it is that they, should they be
offended they can request that a whole heck of a lot of show goes
away.

Ted Balaker: But even things like you know violence against animals is a very
taboo. I'm thinking of the collector would you, would your
directorial debut and the poor little kitty who gets pealed off you
guess?

Marcus Dunstan: Yeah, so in one case thief one is into a room and discovers that the
floor has been covered with an adhesive napalm substance but
“Oh, the family cat stuck in it too” and it’s creating a very life like
version of an alarm going instead of going beep, beep, beep it’s a
cat with its hair mouthing that got—freaking out. So I thought
wow if we've really pushed this just right and we do it, we can, we
can have something that will absolutely keep their attention be a
genuine original moment I think by this point we've seen every you
know tool in the garden shed used on some teenager maybe this
one can be owned by this very movie.

This is something that only what you’ll only see in that. And yes, it
did involved destroying our lovely, lovely film cat. The actual cat
of course all three of them that play that part we’re just fine. Yeah,
that was great.

Ted Balaker: You want to kill bad cats.

Marcus Dunstan: Well this cat was an obvious racist.

Ted Balaker: Okay, well I see that.

Marcus Dunstan: No, not even a GED.

Ted Balaker: And off with its fur.

Marcus Dunstan: Just junk.

Ted Balaker: Well you must have been gratified when they saw the reviews
you’ve got, great reviews and I want it focus first on the, the new
media aspect of that because this outlet any cool news that nobody
that ever heard off you know, not so long ago. Figured in very
prominently in the promotion of the collector, can you talk about
that?

Marcus Dunstan: Oh, my goodness. Well, you know, you get the right good review
for example we, I think any cool news was lighting bolt of good
fortune for the collector because of race awareness of the film
throughout the town then all of the sudden ones it became a point
of awareness in Los Angeles well then, well we didn’t have to
create an event a spectacle out of the time that it would be shown.
We would be receiving people that we’re already chopping at a bit
to see it and providing the best time for them.

So it’s the movie that are already had it’s, you know, introduction
to them so to speak. Then the day before it comes out I believe
when a wonderful review from variety pops up, holy cow, it’s not
just the blog of spear that saying this is okay. Now, a variety the
one that’s also praising in the latest drama, the latest you know fine
tuned Indie something like that, it raises its profile and then it also,
it gives I think a sheen that is very helpful. We went from what
would been a modestly science premiere and a very excellent
gothic location a cemetery too man we've got some good winners.

Well have a proper prayer we’re going to mans Chinese, were
doing this, mom and dad everybody is coming and here’s the extra
part at right across the street with his fancy pool side hotel. And it
was, it was you know intoxicating on any number of levels to see
that. And Patrick and I who had had this idea for years and years in
cultivated that became the collector we’re able to stand and
introduce it front of an audience of our friends family and the
people that’s sweating blood to make it happened and I think one is
absolutely lucky to get one of those feelings in a lifetime.

Ted Balaker: You mentioned the variety of review, very strong it does uses the
term torture porn. And the people talk when they talked about Saw
films when they talk about the hostile films for example that you
hear the term torture porn, gorenography, Eli Roth, I think doesn’t
much like that. But again the variety you’ve used it in the positive
contest how do you respond to these terms.

Marcus Dunstan: Well I think one is, you know it’s a classification that creates more
of a genre than any reaction of like play a hostility for me. It’s
okay, if this does feature such an act of intentional naming and
what not then you know what, sure if I was supposed to take a step
back, it’s like yeah. This was the one where we've got three or four
scenes that to pick it but here’s also five scenes that are about the
suspense movie. And there’s a whole half an hour thriller.
However, what strikes the biggest chord is sure. It is going to be
that the most intense vicious moment of violence.

And if that is surrounded and immersed in a world of torture, yes,
by offering it out there. I'm asking for that label.

Ted Balaker: And if we can just touch on the censorship thing a bit more. There
are certain things that in a TV trailer you can show and you cannot
show.

Marcus Dunstan: Yes, however and then you go online, online all of the sudden you
can create or you can even in the theaters create red band trailer
that you can log in the age. And you're content, once content is just
you know, easily, it’s just less restricted it can be, it can hit, it can
be read, it can be it can have nudity. But will only then in certain
degrees. You can’t go all the way over the top but you can at least
have a bit more freedom and I think not a lot of films you know,
not a lot of people get to see a lot of films a year if they're you
know, ones they clear high school or college they're probably
locked into a job that makes them, maybe they want to do
something else with their night and catch one movie a week or
something.

You’ve got five trailers before that movie maybe. If you're, you
know, early enough to see them however, online every Tuesday
you can go appletrailers.com and see them all. And pick which
movie you might want to see. And so there wow, now all of the
sudden your content could be exactly what you want it to deliver if
you're willing to have an age gate do a red band, be submitted for
that way. And that’s been refreshing that that’s nice.

Where a young man named David Carlic make a blood band
trailer. When our red band trailer for the Collector was did not red
enough, but the fans from the in and cool new site we thought back
with a blood band trailer which was like “Here it is. First shot
boobs, second shot blood, third shot violence there's an explosion,
ha, comes in a movie.”

And it’s even worked out okay, so I think you know the World
Wide Web is it's thank goodness it’s a wild frontier.