Friday, May 31, 2013

GATEWAY TO HELL. M-Net plans to show The Hole at 09:30 in the morning on 21 June; watch it with you Chucky doll, kids.


M-Net plans to show The Hole, a horror movie with an age restriction of 13 and containing scenes of violence, "frightening images" and a monster dad amongst other things, at 09:30 in the morning on Friday 21 June.

In The Hole a pair of brothers stumble upon a mysterious hole in their basement which could be the gateway to hell and which leads to the darkest corridors of their fears and nightmares.

In The Hole a scary clown-puppet attacks a young boy, a boy describes how his dad used to get drunk and beat his family, a little girl died after falling off a rollercoaster, a boy is dragged underwater, someone's brains are seen through a cracked skull and M-Net deems it appropriate to show this movie early in the morning to its subscribers in South Africa.

I asked M-Net if the South African pay-TV broadcaster can please verify if this movie is indeed going to be shown at 09:30 on 21 June when I went through weekly TV channels' schedules.

"That is correct," M-Net tells me.

At the end of last year M-Net incurred a massive fine of R40 000 for showing completely inappropriate adult content during the daytime. Then M-Net told the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) that "the screening of inappropriate content on any of our channels before the watershed is an anomaly and serious offence within the company, which always necessitates immediate internal investigations."

M-Net said in November last year "we are doing our utmost to ensure that an incident like this is not repeated".