James Cullen Bressack’s second feature was set to be the first release in a new joint VoD venture between Nerdly and TheHorrorShow.TV.

Hate Crime has been banned in the UK by the BBFC.

James Cullen Bressack’s second feature has already been released in the US and was set to be the first release under the new Nerdly Presents banner, a joint venture between Nerdly.co.uk and TheHorrorShow.TV. The film centres on a Jewish family whose home is invaded by neo-Nazi lunatics during their youngest son’s birthday celebrations.

The BBFC’s official statement read: “It is the Board’s carefully considered conclusion that the unremitting manner in which Hate Crime focuses on physical and sexual abuse, aggravated by racist invective, means that to issue a classification too this work, even if confined to adults, would be inconsistent with the Board’s Guidelines, would risk potential harm, and would be unacceptable to broad public opinion.”

Bressack commented: “I find it unbelievable that a film that shows little to no on screen violence and no nudity was actually banned. It just shows the power of what is implied and peoples’ imagination, and is a testament to the fact that the same crimes that happen in the world are truly horrifying.”

Hate Crime is the fourth horror film to be refused classification by the BBFC since 2009 along with Grotesque, The Bunny Game and The Human Centipede 2, the latter eventually released with nearly three minutes of cuts.

“Although it may surprise some people, TheHorrorShow.TV supports classification over censorship, as we would hate for any of our growing number of films to be viewed by an inappropriate audience,” added TheHorrorShow.TV’s Jack Bowyer. “It appears that the BBFC has deemed the content inappropriate for people of any age, even adults, and regrettably we will be unable to bring the film to the UK as part of our very exciting collaboration with Nerdly.”

Nerdly.co.uk’s Phil Wheat said: “Hate Crime was always going to be a contentious title to submit to the BBFC, especially given recent racial tensions. But as part of Nerdly Presents’ remit to uncover great underground movies it was worth taking the gamble on James Cullen Bressack’s movie. After all, horror is often about pushing boundaries and making your audience uncomfortable.”

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