Charity Changing Faces has written to the chief content officers at a range of streamers and broadcasters such as Netflix U.K., Amazon Prime Video, BBC and Apple TV urging them to include a disclaimer on their horror films featuring villains with visible differences.
Changing Faces CEO Heather Blake wrote: “Every year, Halloween becomes a particularly stressful time for some of those with visible differences, where villainous film characters with scars, marks, burns or conditions are often recreated as costumes, as well as becoming terms of abuse in everyday life.”
She adds that the charity is not asking for the streaming platforms to remove horror films featuring villains with visible differences but to include a note in the film’s description and add a disclaimer on screen that such characters “reinforce negative stereotypes.”
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“It’s so important that the film industry talks about the impact of harmful tropes of films of the past while making way for new and exciting stories that normalize those with visible differences on screen as real people with real stories to tell.”
The Omen: Impact
Starring Gregory Peck and Lee Remick, The Omen, directed by Richard Donner and penned by David Seltzer, was a blockbuster, and one of the scariest horror flicks of the 1970s.
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“Horror films such as ‘The Omen’ undoubtedly reinforce associations between visible differences and wrongdoing or tragic unfulfillment,” Chris said.
“Similarly, other Changing Faces campaigners and ambassadors have reported being mockingly compared to characters such as Joker or Freddie Krueger.”
