Bio Shock movie - Is Bio Shock actually horror? Would a PG 13 Bio Shock movie work?

[JeebTheGamerBoy]

Ken Levine (as stated http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/117110-BioShock-Film-May-Still-Happen) has said the movie isn't dead, just on the proverbial back burner.

In previous articles, you can read about how Ken Levine (game creator) and first attached director Gore Verbinski squabbled with studios over the budget and the R rating.

Which leads me to ask : Is Bio Shock actually horror? Or more importantly, if the movie were made more PG13 friendly - could it still be the same experience?

I would argue that System Shock 1&2 fit into the Survival Horror genre (and a few others genres) more snuggly. But unless you amp up the Game Difficulty, or only intend to play the first 2 levels - the Bio Shock survival 'thing' doesn't last long. It only took a few hours of gameplay before I was Thor/ Vulcan* incarnate. (*The volcano god not the green blood variety) Silent Hill with the main characters being the Fantastic Four, whilst maybe not a bad idea, is definitely isn't survival horror anymore.

As said on this very website (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/107783-Gore-Verbinski-Talks-BioShock-Film-Failure) battling for A) over a $100 million budget and B) an R Rating doesn't seem a marketable ploy at this stage.

So if you had a Bio Shock movie where the Splicers don't swear their heads off, the Adam and Even injections were alluded to (Drug content and PG movies don't mix well), the Big Daddy's impale only one or two people instead of 30, blood didn't spray across the room, rather the victim would just 'fall down,' to quote Johnny Cage - would you be happy?

Alternatively on say a $20 million R rated movie (think Daybreakers and Splice), would you enjoy a film with minimal locations, maybe one underwater set piece, only two or three Adam n Eve based CGI Effects. It's not like a leaky factory location is expensive (Eraserhead for one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU7OqGCIcak) and you would have all the meaty gibs you could ask for. Who they could afford for cast, is another topic entirely.

Somehow, restricting Andrew Ryan's dream and magnificent city, not only goes against his beliefs, but also what the Video Game was capable of offering, without compromising for budget and rating. Bioshock is a strong factor in the Games are better than Movies argument, if nothing else.

So whatever version of the film actually gets made, one cheesy question remains, would you so kindly go watch the film?

 

[sextus the crazy]

Not even a genetic programming phrase can force me to go see that movie. I watched the trailer and thought "this is nothing like the bioshock I love." Even if its good (which it prolly won't be) I wouldn't see it. Its like watching the movie version of your favorite book and having everything change.

OT: I would rather the movie be less gory than have rapture look like shit or not be around. Rapture is the most integral part of the Bioshock feel. Too me, Bioshock is creepy and somewhat frightening, but it's not a pure horror game. The movie should have Andrew Ryan and his philosophies be an important part of the movie just like in the games.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

You know, I hadn't heard of this before just now, but I'm already annoyed about it. Not because of any great love for the game (what I've played of it looks good, but it doesn't run all that well on my computer, so I haven't played much), but because I'm really sick of movie studios saying no to an R rating. R today is in the same spot NC-17 was when I was a kid; technically still around, but nothing with the rating ever gets made because nobody wants to make a movie for anything but the broadest possible audience. So many of my favorite movies are hard R's, most of which (think Blade Runner and The Terminator) just wouldn't work as a PG-13 film. Bioshock is probably in the same boat as those two; it would lose something without the violence.

Edit: In fact, I literally have a copy of the Director's Cut of Blade Runner sitting on my desk at the moment, because I watched it last night. Even it was censored a bit to get an R-rating. I've seen the international cut, which contains the 30 seconds or so of violence that was initially cut. It made the movie better by making the scenes where Deckard "retired" a replicant more disturbing, making you really sit and think "he just killed a living being, does it really matter if it's human or not?" I can't imagine if it had to be cut even further to make a PG-13 rating.

 

[TheFunPolice]

Believe it or not, I actually quite like the idea of a Bioshock film. Yeahh sure, it's unlikely that it will give off the same experience, but I'd really like to see where they'd go with it, because Bioshock's universe is quite unique, and it would be nice to see a film try to capture the setting....But guys, c'mon, at least it's not Michael Bay Directing it -_-

 

[Kahunaburger]

I could see a Bioshock without gore and cussing, but not a Bioshock without syringes.

 

[Grey Day for Elcia]

Bioshock isn't even remotely scary, let alone horrifying.

 

[Zhukov]

The game has its tense moments and some nicely executed jump scares, but it would be quite the stretch to call it horror.

I don't see why there needs to be a Bioshock movie at all.

 

[hazabaza1]

I'd call it more "Action thriller."
And The Hunger Games showed us what happens when you try and fit gore into a PG-13 movie.

 

[CAPTCHA]

I'd say that Bioshock's centeral themes are body horror, drug addiction and the corruption of power. All those these would require a film maker to include mature content and the first two could only be achieved through a rating that allows a certian amount of graphic depiction.

 

[paislyabmj]

I wouldn't say that bioshock is horror really because of the obvious difficulty problems ,but the games rather fantastic opening right to the moment were you inject the plasmid is the closest the game gets to real horror and that would be impossible to family friendlyify while keeping the full effect so count me out.