Fear of the dark: regulating the cinematic experience

Film and video releases in the UK are amongst the most tightly regulated in the Western
World, and are subject to greater censorship than any other artistic medium. Given the
popularity of film-viewing within the UK, this routine exercise of regulatory power
affects almost all of us. However, following in the footsteps of Michel Foucault, I want
to move beyond what Annette Kuhn might call a ‘prohibitive model’ of censorship and
suggest that this power has been highly productive in its effects. In particular, what I
want to demonstrate is that the wider discourses of censorship (which includes scientific
studies and popular debate as well as the ‘official’ stance of the BBFC) actively
constitute a particular form of contemporary spectatorship. That is, within the discourses
of regulation and censorship, particularly those concerning issues of sex and violence on
the screen, the body of the spectator becomes a central term around which these
discourses revolve. As such, the discourses of censorship not only constitute a theoretical
form of ‘corporeal spectatorship’, but actively shape the experience of watching certain
kinds of ‘controversial’ films.