Zombie Sex-tacular! presents "L.A. Zombie-- Banned gay porn?"

Zombie Thursdays is a weekly feature with guest blogger, Miranda. You can read more about her here.

Another Thursday is upon us, and here I am sitting in a Starbucks to use their free internet since I still do not have internet of my own. Thank you to everyone who responded to last week's inquiry as to what three items you would bring with you during a zombie attack! Many of your answers were alike, which shows there may be some common thread to what we all hold as the most important things in life... Very interesting!

This week we jump back to the 'Zombie Sex-tacular!' Again, as a general warning, the subject matter covered in the Sex-tacular is inherently rated 18+ and could possibly offend readers. So, please proceed with caution.

Although I don't have internet yet (if ever), I still have my trusty Blackberry which keeps me up-to-date with all the most important goings-on in the world. Namely, zombie news! But for this week's installment, I didn't even need the interwebz. As I was headed to work a few days ago at 4am, I picked up a free copy of the Chicago Red Eye, a publication put out by the Chicago Tribune. It contains mostly dribble and nothing too newsworthy (most articles talk about celebrities and the best Chicago bars and nightclubs to go to), but every now and then a gem of information appears. This week they published a small tidbit talking about a film that has been banned in Australia-- a zombie gay porn, to be exact. No sooner had I read this in the paper, the Chicago based Horror Society also "broke" the story.

At first glance the paper made it seem fairly straight forward-- Australia had banned a gay porn film featuring zombie sex. But when I dug a little deeper into the truth, it isn't quite so simple. Apparently, the film was not banned, not in the strictest sense, anyway. Like America, Australia has a ratings system. From what I gathered, the film, L.A. Zombie (by director Bruce LaBruce), was petitioned to be exempt from the ratings system and then was to be screened (without a rating classification) at the Melbourne International Film Festival. Upon review, the film (according to the Australian Classification Board) was NOT banned, it simply was denied exemption from being rated, based on the content of graphic sex, necrophilia, and violence. But as such, the festival could not screen it and pulled it from the line up.

Many critics of the decision are upset because they feel the decision wasn't made based on the sex, violence, or horror aspect; they argue it is a homophobic reaction since a similarly themed (heterosexual) pornographic horror film was allowed to be screened.

Having not seen the film, and not knowing all the circumstances surrounding it's "ban," I'm not sure how to comment. But what is clear is that this film is probably getting more publicity then it ever would have from just being quietly screened. And it just goes to show that there still is some weird niche for zombie pornography! The film centers around a homeless man (played by international porn star Francois Sagat) who believes he is a zombie, and that through having sex with the dead, he can bring them back to life. An interesting necromantic theory, to say the least! This film is the second to feature a zombie theme from La Bruce (whose credits include many other highly controversial films).

So is the world afraid of zombie sex? Or is the world only afraid of gay zombie sex? Fear of either would be a tragedy, in my opinion. Below is the trailer for L.A. Zombie. There really isn't anything very graphic in the trailer, and it really makes the film look pretty boring, to be honest. So don't be afraid to watch! And note the weird aquamarine-green skin his "zombie" self has...