CENSORS GIVE NEW LIFE TO FORGOTTEN FLOP

Censor a movie, restrict it from being shown in certain markets, or ban it altogether, and it’s almost certain to turn up on a pirate website. Such is apparently the case with Maniac, starring Elijah Wood, a slasher flick that opened last month in the U.S. in 12 theaters, where it grossed just $26,826 (it reportedly cost $6 million to produce), apparently shelled out by moviegoers wanting to see Frodo Baggins as a serial killer. It quickly went to DVD, and likely no one would have heard anything about it again if New Zealand’s Office of Film and Literature Classification hadn’t decided to ban it on the grounds that it is potentially “injurious to the public good.” TorrentFreak.com, which monitors BitTorrent usage, examined the number of downloads of the film and found that they shot up in New Zealand. The website concluded that the ban “encouraged lots of Kiwis to obtain this now-forbidden fruit in any way they can.” Moreover, it said, “with no legitimate way for them to grab a copy, numbers are only going to increase.”