The Abyss | The BBFC defends (again) its decision not to classify the film

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Disney tried to re-release The Abyss in UK cinemas it’s effectively been confirmed, but pulled the plan due to a lack of BBFC certificate. The long wait for James Cameron’s The Abyss to get a 4K remaster and fresh physical media release finally ended around a year ago – but not if you’re in the ... The Abyss | The BBFC defends (again) its decision not to classify the film

Disney tried to re-release The Abyss in UK cinemas it’s effectively been confirmed, but pulled the plan due to a lack of BBFC certificate.

The long wait for James Cameron’s The Abyss to get a 4K remaster and fresh physical media release finally ended around a year ago – but not if you’re in the UK. The 1989 movie is now widely available again on physical media and video on demand services around the world, but a UK re-release is caught in limbo.

In one corner, there’s the British Board Of Film Classification (BBFC), which continues to object to a particular sequence in the movie. In the other, James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment, which refuses to release the film without that scene intact.

The latest annual report from the BBFC has brought the issue back up, with the reveal that the board received 15 complaints about the movie’s lack of classification.

As the BBFC notes, “When The Abyss was originally submitted for classification in 1989, we sought and received expert advice regarding a scene in which a man submerges a live rat in liquid. The advice stated that this scene constituted the cruel infliction of terror on an animal, and therefore contravened the Cinematograph Films (Animals) Act 1937. This Act makes it a criminal offence to exhibit in the UK any film sequence that has been ‘organised or directed in such a way as to involve the cruel infliction of pain or terror on any animal or the cruel goading of any animal to fury.’ Accordingly, the scene involving the rat has been re-edited in all versions of the film classified by us.”

Famously/infamously (both apply), Channel 4 screened the uncut version accidentally on UK television. But that aside, the scene of the live rat underwater has never been officially classified for UK exhibition.

The BBFC’s report now confirms that fresh advice was sought again in 2023 from the film’s distributor – it’s Disney these days – given that it was planning to put The Abyss out in UK cinemas again.

The BBFC explained that it didn’t just reissue its old decision, it went off and got more advice. “We again sought expert veterinary advice which confirmed that the position originally set out in 1989 had not changed. As such we advised the distributor that should The Abyss be formally submitted, changes would again be required to the scene involving the rat before the film could be legally exhibited in the UK.”

Disney presumably relayed this back to Lightstorm, Lightstorm by the sounds of it wouldn’t have sent a long reply back.

In regards to the specific complaints that the BBFC subsequently received, it acknowledged that they were “in relation to internet rumours that the proposed 4K release of the film had been cancelled due to this advice”. Yet classification is where its jurisdiction ends, and release plans and strategies are in Disney’s court.

Thankfully, it’s not tricky to import the 4K disc of The Abyss should you so wish. But as it stands, it’s not legal to show the full version of the movie in a UK cinema. It doesn’t sound like anything’s going to be changing there anytime soon.