Child's Play

The film Alien Prey features a bloodstained vampire who feasts on a dead woman's entrails through a hole in her stomach. Make Them Die Slowly proudly proclaims 24 SCENES OF BARBARIC TORTURE, including a scene in which a man slices a woman in half. Flesh Feast reveals "body maggots" that consume live human beings, pulling the skin off their faces before working their way down.

Every day, all across the country, children under the age of 17 walk into their neighborhood video stores and rent movies that they would not be able to see in a theater. Sometimes the youthful customers are content with somewhat less grisly fare, like the immensely successful Friday the 13th series. The ease with which minors can rent and watch such nightmarish visions has alarmed parent organizations around the country. These groups contend that while sexually provocative movies usually carry at least an R rating, "slasher" films containing explicit violence are often unrated and available to youngsters.

Most of these groups urge restrictions that would prevent shops from renting excessively violent films to minors. Some also advocate a new Motion Picture Association of America rating for violent films, as well as regulations requiring stores to display the ratings that have already been given to videocassettes. Jenny Pomeroy, president of the Junior League of Bronxville, N.Y., which has mounted a campaign against these films, advocates an R-V rating for violence, similar to the PG-13 designation advising parents that a film may contain material inappropriate for children under 13.

Tennessee and Maryland already require video stores to display M.P.A.A. ratings, while New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts are considering similar laws. The M.P.A.A., however, strongly resists the creation of a separate R-V code. The association contends that it already considers a film's violence in its rating. The M.P.A.A. usually evaluates only those films that are released in theaters, not those that are made exclusively for videocassette. Nevertheless, producers of films shown in theaters can get around the system. If the M.P.A.A. decides that a film deserves an X, the producer can elect to release his film unrated. In the case of other films, additional scenes of bloody gore are inserted after they have been shown in theaters but before they are put out on videocassette.

Yet many store owners argue that they do everything they can to keep young customers from renting violent videos. Some keep offensive titles in a separate room, while others insist that parents specify on membership cards which films their children are allowed to take home. "It's really the parents' job to police what their kids watch," says Mark Hooper, video manager of a Sound Warehouse outlet in Memphis. "About all we can do is not stock titles that we know are going to cause trouble."

One possible compromise is being studied by Massachusetts State Representative Barbara Gray. After proposing a flat prohibition against the sale or rental of all films without ratings, she discovered that some very popular productions, like Jane Fonda's Workout, do not have ratings. Now Gray is considering submitting a bill modeled on ordinances that keep porn magazines out of the reach of children by putting the magazines out of sight or on higher shelves. Then, she says, the "children would have to ask for the films, and the merchants would be able to refuse them."