The latest offering by renowned gay filmmaker (aka. art-pornographer) Bruce LaBruce, L.A. Zombie, has recently been banned from showing at the Melbourne International Film Festival this year. This is the first time that a film has been banned at the Festival since Ken Park in 2003.

Although the film has been considered a part of an un-marketable sub-genre (“gay-zombie-porn”), homoeroticism in the horror film genre has a long and colourful history. The book Monsters in the closet, available on the shelves in the Arts Reading Room, covers much of this history, including such delights as James Whale’s impossibly camp gem, The Bride of Frankenstein, and the less than subtle undertones in A nightmare on Elm Street 2 – Freddy’s revenge.

For a deeper understanding of the history of controversial film cuts and exhibitions this side of the globe, Film censorship in Australia, available on the shelves in the La Trobe Reading Room, will give you a run-down of the decisions that led to the formation of much of the contemporary film classification code here, including the exemption that is (usually) applied to all films shown at festivals such as MIFF.

If you wish to focus squarely on attitudes towards depictions of sex and sexuality in film and literature in Australia, Snatched, available on the shelves in the Redmond Barry Reading Room, uncovers the many peculiarities of the film classification code, and the reasons (or, in some cases, lack thereof) that preceded their application.

Finally, a look at some of the most famously controversial films of all time in Forbidden films, available on the shelves in the Arts Reading Room. This will give you plenty to muse over as we once again ponder the things that we are told should not be seen.