The NC-17 rating here in the States can either be a stamp of condemnation or a seal of indie-cred approval. More often than not though, it’s a burden on the shoulders of a filmmaker who must decide whether to cut a film down or keep his original film and risk failure at the hands of chains unwilling to show NC-17 movies. That's just an NC-17 rating. Now imagine if we still had an X-rating. You may as well release straight to DVD.
X marks the spot in Spain though, where THR says the Spanish Culture Ministry’s Film Institute, due to extreme violence, gave Saw VI an X-Rating (at least someone in the world hates violence more than boobies for once). Not only does this mean that Buena Vista will be barred from releasing the movie as widely as they hoped (300 screens), but it also means that it will only be permitted in pornographic theatres. In fact, it seems as though Saw VI is the first non-pornographic movie to ever get this rating in Spain.
While this may seem inconsequential considering the small number of screens that will be lost, it has to scare filmmakers a bit considering all of their movies have made about half of their revenue overseas. How will it affect the franchise to have more ratings like this? It’s not like the world needs more torture porn. Besides, sending full-length movies featuring a dude finding the best way to torture people over to our foreign friends doesn't exactly paint a great picture of America. So I say X-rate away.
