BBFC case studies- Hot Fuzz

Concerns

• The repeated use of strong language immediately leads to a '15' classification. There are some 15 uses of variants of ‘fuck’. More unusual at '15' are two uses of very strong language, ‘c***’, which normally only feature in '18' -rated films. The BBFC accepts that this word can be highly offensive to members of the public, so careful consideration was given to the context in which this language appeared.
• In this film, the first use occurs in a scene at the police station where we see a swear box, accompanied by a list of all the swear words that warrant a fine to be placed in the box. The word is seen briefly as part of this list.
• The second use occurs where police officer Nick listens to his sergeant describing a man's selling drugs to students. Nick's response of, ‘What a c***!’ is an expression of his disapproval of trading in drugs, rather than aggressive swearing directed straight at the offending drug dealer. Because of the context, and the fact that the film is comic throughout, examiners felt that there was no need to raise the classification to '18' on account of the language.
• The fact that the film is a spoof of various familiar genre films - the cop movie, the action movie, the horror movie, the mystery thriller - means that the violence and horror merited a different treatment from violence and horror occurring as part of a serious film. Comedy will usually, but not always, lessen the impact of bloody violence in film. Examiners felt that this was the case in Hot Fuzz. The most striking example in the film occurs as reporter Tim waits beneath the church tower, and the murderous axe-man above dislodges the spire, which falls, demolishes Tim's head and lodges itself neatly in Tim's neck cavity, with very bloody effect. While BBFC Guidelines for violence at '15' state that 'violence may be strong but may not dwell on the infliction of pain and injury", and the horror Guidelines remind us that 'the strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable', the image of Tim with the spire where his head should be is so exaggerated and absurd that examiners could not treat it the same as violence / horror images from, for instance,  Hostel, classified at '18'.