After being granted a surprise unrated release in AMC theaters Hatchet II has been pulled from all of their screens after only playing for a few days. Director Adam Green released a statement that said “I woke up this morning and the movie was gone. I’m bewildered and confused.” He has tried as of late to raise awareness for unrated horrors films claiming that the system is unfair and slanted in favor of the studios who can release a torture porn film such as Hostel and have it be rated R while indie horror films are often slapped with the dreaded NC-17 rating. This has led an outburst from Green last week in which he referred to the MPAA as an “evil organization” and it is now believed that that possibly led to the pulling of his film.
In a statement released by AMC the company said “At AMC theaters, we review all films, in all of our theaters every week and then make our business decisions based on their performance.” Still to pull a film after only 3 days is highly unusual. Green disputes their claim and says “It’s an unrated cult movie that didn’t have commercials and all those other things, I don’t see them pulling a movie on Sunday because it doesn’t look like the box office is going to blow people away.”
Green has not yet given up hope on having his film find a home on other non-AMC screens but admits that its future truly lies in the DVD and video on demand market. Earlier this year he released Frozen a gruesome horror film about a group of kids who get trapped at the top of a ski lift and left for dead over a long weekend. It was given an R rating, played in AMC theaters and earned $246,000 in its release.
