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Gory film artist tests obscenity law
National Post
By Dario Ayala/Postmedia News
October 29, 2010
MONTREAL – Rémy Couture’s imagination is a twisted place, where serial killers mutilate and rape corpses and a child is fed a severed arm. But the special-effects artist does not think the horror films he created depicting that world should make him a criminal.
Mr. Couture, 33, will be in Quebec Court on Monday to learn his trial date for what will be a closely watched test of Canadian obscenity law. He faces three charges under the Criminal Code of producing, distributing and possessing obscene material after police arrested him and raided his east-end Montreal apartment and studio.
“Some might find it in bad taste, but it is still artistic, and freedom of expression should not be criminalized,” Mr. Couture’s lawyer, Dominic Bouchard, said in an interview.
What had been a fantasy world for Mr. Couture came crashing into reality last October when an undercover police officer posing as a potential client handcuffed him and placed him under arrest on suspicion of “corrupting morals.” Police say they acted on a tip that came through Interpol after someone in Germany became concerned that the films on Mr. Couture’s web site depicted actual violence.
Police turned his apartment upside down – they were likely intrigued by the full-size coffin that serves as living-room furniture -- but they found no evidence he had caused anyone physical harm. Instead the Crown will try to prove that his work, with its blend of sex and sadistic violence, is so disturbing that it could provoke anti-social behaviour among people who view it.
Interviewed this week in his basement studio, littered with the severed limbs, fetuses and disfigured faces he has sculpted, Mr. Couture said his 10-minute films are no more grotesque than such mainstream horror films as Saw and Hostel. Titled Inner Depravity I and II, they feature Mr. Couture in the role of a serial killer who hacksaws off limbs and is understood to be performing sex acts on his victims.
“I wanted to recreate this universe, which is truly disturbing, and make it as realistic as possible,” he said. “What caused a lot of the problem with my site were the sexual connotations, but 98% of serial killers are driven by a sexual perversion.”
Police also appear to have been alarmed by the fact that one film contains photos of a brutally murdered child while the other features a child as an apprentice to the killer. Mr. Couture stressed that the child, portrayed in both cases by the 10-year-old son of one of his friends, is fully clothed and never present during scenes with sexual content. “He had a lot of fun making these photos,” Mr. Couture said. “He never saw nudity and didn’t see the final result. We’re not crazy.”
Richard Jochelson, associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Winnipeg and co-author of a forthcoming book on Canadian obscenity law, said the Couture case will be an important legal test. In a 2005 ruling declaring swingers’ clubs legal, the Supreme Court of Canada essentially changed the definition of obscenity. “The major change was that the Crown now has to demonstrate evidence that there was some sort of harm as result of the speech,” Mr. Jochelson said. “There has not really been a high-level case that has looked at this requirement for the Crown to demonstrate a harmful effect.”
Since the participants in Mr. Couture’s films were not hurt, the prosecutor will try to show the material can lead viewers to imitate what they see. “It is hard for the Crown to somehow prove that viewing this material makes it more likely that you’re going to hold anti-social attitudes and then act on them. That’s basically the standard,” Mr. Jochelson said. But he noted that Canadian courts tend to be hardest on material combining sex and violence. “In Canada, we have a history of really being worried about the risk of these sorts of images,” he said.
Court documents show that the prosecutor has called on forensic psychiatrist Peter Collins to analyze the 5,000 photos and 179 videos found on Mr. Couture’s computer. Dr. Collins testified in a 2008 Ontario obscenity trial that led to the conviction of Donald Smith for making films depicting the murders of naked women.
Mr. Couture has drawn support from members of Quebec’s artistic community, who have accused police of practising state censorship. Ian Lafrenière, a spokesman for the Montreal police, said the content on Mr. Couture’s site was so sickening that it demanded intervention.
“Honestly, is this for a really weird type of people? It’s glorifying a kid being beaten up. It’s glorifying necrophilia,” he said. The court is expected to schedule the jury trial for next spring.
Rémy Couture’s violent videos are dumb, but that’s not illegal
Globe and Mail
Oct. 21, 2010
By Russell Smith
A court date has been set for the start of the latest challenge to Canada’s obscenity laws: This one concerns the work of one Rémy Couture, a Montreal-based special-effects artist, photographer and maker of short horror films. He has been charged under section 163 of the Criminal Code, which is the section that deals with child pornography.
You may have heard of this story because of the demonstration of “zombies” – young people in a lot of makeup – that occurred last week outside a Montreal courthouse in sympathy for Couture. The filmmaker has pleaded not guilty and plans to make his case about freedom of speech and the horror-film industry generally.
Couture’s life as an alleged criminal began when someone in Germany viewed his violent and bloody video clips on the Internet – probably on his site, innerdepravity.com – and thought they depicted real acts. Couture works with latex and fake blood on horror films and can create, especially with grainy, low-light video, the most astoundingly, horrifically real-looking mutilation. The upsetting videos depict a serial killer in the standard terrifying mask (it looks as if he’s played by Couture himself, who has your standard tattooed-mohawk-industrial-goth look) who is torturing young women and injecting drugs into himself. They are very graphic.
The fact that he fooled his audience is something he can use on his résumé. But he probably didn’t want it to go this far. The German viewer contacted police, who contacted Interpol, who found Couture in Montreal and notified the police there. They viewed the videos and determined that they were obscene, and arrested him outside his studio. His video website was also temporarily shut down. The videos are gone from it, but you can see photos of his at various other places, including his site remyfx.com, and photo sites artirritant and deviantart.
Couture seems surprised and genuinely indignant that his freedom of expression has been infringed. In interviews, he has pointed out that his imagery is no different from that in many mainstream horror films, and that if you shut him down, you’re going to have to shut down the whole industry.
He’s going to have a vigorous defence, for sure – probably one that will include screening some footage from Saw and Hostel and other blockbuster gore-fests – but it’s not going to be a simple case. The videos in question are difficult to watch, even, I would guess, for an objective expert. Couture has chosen a trial by jury. A jury is going to have normal human reactions to these films – that is to say, emotional rather than legal ones. It is hard to find sympathy, no matter what the legal argument, for a guy clearly so obsessed with the torture and dismemberment of women that he represents these over and over again. It’s possible that a jury might think “to hell with the niceties of the law – who needs this stuff?” Or even, “And if I could ban Saw and Hostel too, I would!”
And then there’s the child-porn aspect. There is certainly a sexual aspect to the assaults represented, and nudity. Couture is going to have to prove not only that all the actors he used were over the age of 18, but also that not one of them depicts anyone under that age. (It is worth noting, though, that not one of his actors has complained that she was harmed or coerced in any way.)
The prosecutors are probably going to have to talk about who was harmed by these films – and if they can’t prove it was the actors, then they are going to have to argue it’s the viewers, which is something notoriously difficult to prove. Also too bad for them is the genie-out-of-the-bottle problem: Sure, you can shut down a Canadian website, but the films are already viewable in several other places that they don’t control. These are the problems of censorship in the digital age.
Personally, I will be sad if the censorship is successful. Rémy Couture’s films’ greatest offence is that they are dull: They are repetitive, predictable, clichéd, lacking in story or characterization or any subtlety or insight of any kind. They’re just really dumb. A lot of art is dumb. But that’s not illegal yet.
Quebec man faces obscenity charge over gruesome horror films
By Marianne White
Montreal Gazette (Postmedia News)
October 15, 2010
Is making a gory, sexually explicit and very realistic horror movie about a serial killer preying on women a crime?
That's the unusual question a Quebec court will have to answer in the coming months after a special-effects artist was charged with production and distribution of obscene material for his hardcore works.
Montrealer Remy Couture pleaded not guilty to the charge, laid under Section 163 of the Criminal Code, this week and requested a jury trial.
The controversial material at issue includes two short films entitled "Inner Depravity" posted on a website of the same name alongside dozens of photos taken on the set.
The work of Couture, who uses the artist name RemyFX, is not for the faint-hearted. Described as hardcore horror, the videos are ripe with violence, nudity and sexual domination.
Couture says they are meant to depict the life of a psychopathic serial killer — assisted by a 10-year old apprentice — who, among other things, has sex with his dead female victims.
One Exorcist-inspired sequence shows a woman bleeding after a crucifix was shoved down her throat. Another graphic scene shows a character carving out a victim's organs.
Couture acknowledges the images can be shocking, but insists his work is totally fictitious and that the sexual scenes were simulated.
"Horror is my passion, but that doesn't make me a pervert or a nutcase," he said in an interview.
The makeup artist said his only crime is to be so good at what he does that his fake blood, latex and silicone effects are too realistic-looking.
But Montreal police — who arrested Couture in October 2009 — don't see it that way.
They began investigating Couture after Interpol, the international policing agency, forwarded them complaints about the gruesome content.
Montreal police said the plaintiffs thought the depicted events were real and showed a child being molested and killed. Couture said the performer is in fact a teenager and he stressed there are no scenes of rape.
Nonetheless, the sexual nature of the films is one of the elements that led to the obscenity charge — a rare indictment in connection with works from the horror genre.
Law professor Richard Moon said the case taps into the delicate question of freedom of expression, and is bound to be complicated.
He said the court will have to determine if exposure to Couture's work can be harmful.
"This is difficult and problematic. We don't have nice, simple, clear, empirical evidence about the impact of obscene imagery or violent imagery on viewers and there's a good reason for that: we are talking about humans who view it with whatever history they have, whatever set of values they have," said Moon, who teaches law at the University of Windsor.
Couture says the criminal charge is a violation of his freedom of expression as an artist and he doesn't understand why he was targeted.
"This is absurd," the 33-year-old said. "If they charge me, are they going to charge every other horror moviemaker out there?"
Horror fans have thrown their support behind Couture by signing an online petition. Several Quebec artists, including filmmaker Robert Morin, have written open letters to protest what they see as censorship and express their fear of repercussions the case could have on other artists.
Couture's website has been shut down by police.
He is due back in court on Nov. 1 to set a date for trial.
Gory film artist pleads not guilty to obscenity
'It's very graphic, but you have to know it's fictive': Rémy Couture
October 15, 2010
CBC News
Montreal filmmaker Rémy Couture defended his craft of making gory films after pleading not guilty earlier this week to moral corruption and distributing obscene material online.
The court case is the latest to pit artistic freedom against Canada's obscenity laws.
Couture, a special effects artist for horror films, said in an interview with CBC News on Friday that such laws shouldn't apply to the movies.
His video in question shows a muscular, tattooed man in a mask, appearing to eat a victim's intestines. In another, a barely dressed, blood-drenched woman is strapped to a bed with a large crucifix lying across her.
The images are so realistic that an internet user in Germany alerted authorities.
"It's very graphic, but you have to know it's fictive. When we talk about sexual act, sexual connotations, everything is fake. There is no penetration," he said two days after his court appearance, where he also requested a jury trial.
Couture pointed out that scenes regularly appear on movie screens across Montreal that are just as shocking as the ones he has produced.
He said Montreal police posed as potential clients to lure him out of his apartment and arrest him.
"When I went on the street, a guy and a woman appear, and when I say, 'Yes, I am,' they just took my arms and said, 'You're under arrest for corruption of morals...," he said.
Police and Crown prosecutors say Couture has crossed the line in creating such graphic material.
Site shut down
Under the Criminal Code, it is illegal to publish or distribute materials that combine sex with horror, cruelty or violence. His website has been shut down.
Montreal police spokesman Ian Lafrenière said "we're talking in some scenes a mix of porn ... and what could be described as violence."
Couture's supporters say his right to freedom of expression is being violated.
A half-dozen men and women demonstrated outside the courtroom dressed as zombies and dripping in fake blood to protest the charges.
They say Couture's work is art and should be protected by freedom of expression.
Similar cases have tested Canada's obscenity legislation against the Charter of Rights and Freedoms at the Supreme Court level.
In one landmark case almost 20 years ago, the court decided Canada's obscenity laws were an infringement of the charter but a reasonable one.
Couture returns to court on Nov. 1.
With files from CBC reporter Justin Hayward
'Hardcore horror' artist faces charges
By BRIAN DALY
QMI Agency
October 8, 2010
MONTREAL - Several Quebec artists are throwing their support behind special-effects creator Remy Couture, who faces criminal charges for graphic short films featured on his website remyfx.com.
The "hardcore horror" shorts are ripe with nudity and depict actors playing out nightmarish scenarios of children being killed and people interacting with mutilated corpses. His site also has still images showing actors made up to appear as though they are in various states of dismemberment.
One man is doused in blood and appears to be cutting off his own lip with a knife. Another image show a dismembered body nailed to a cross, while another depicts a bloodied fetus being held in the hand of a person wearing a rubber glove.
Montreal police arrested Couture and seized his computer last year after receiving complaints from people who thought the films depicted real events.
"People were sure that a child was molested and killed," said police spokesman Ian Lafreniere.
"In analyzing the file, we noted there were scenes of a sexual nature. It will be up to a judge to decide if this merits a (sentence)."
Couture, 33, was arrested in the fall of 2009 after a complaint was made to Interpol, the international crime-fighting organization. He's to appear in court in Montreal next Wednesday to face a charge of producing obscene material.
Couture says his work is all fake and that the charge is a violation of his freedom as an artist.
"All of the time they're spending on my file is time they're not spending on real crimes," Couture told QMI Agency. "It's shameful. They don't see the artistic merits. They say a psychologist concluded that it (my work) would harm society."
A group of artists from Quebec's film and special-effects industry wrote an open letter to media agencies in which they urged the Crown to drop the charges.
"This matter raises important questions about freedom of expression," the letter reads. "It discredits the justice system."
Couture plans to plead not-guilty, saying that his work is satisfying a demand for extreme images.
"There's a clientele for this type of horror (product), " he says. "I'm under stress for no good reason."
Horror films lead to obscenity charges
October 13, 2010
By Graham Hughes
Canadian Press
Andrew Chung,
Quebec Bureau
MONTREAL—Passersby could be forgiven for mistaking the zombie bride, the cadaver in a nun’s habit, and the butcher with a severed hand tucked in his bloody smock as part of a pre-Halloween stunt.
But in fact, this macabre cast stood in front of the Montreal courthouse along with a dozen others for a reason far more serious. Though little known outside the city, a criminal case is starting to take shape that touches directly and deeply on the idea of “art” and freedom of expression.
Last year, Montreal horror film makeup artist Rémy Couture was picked up by police, his house and computer searched, after Interpol levelled a complaint based on a couple of short films he made that can be classified, at the very least, as grotesque.
Entitled “Inner Depravity,” they attempt to show the mind of a heinous, drug-taking serial killer whose psychopathic tendencies lead him to also have sex with his dead female victims.
Art to some. Graphic obscenity to the Crown Prosecutors.
Couture made his first appearance in court Wednesday to face charges of producing and disseminating obscene material.
Police have previously alluded to the sexual nature of the films in choosing to lay charges.
Couture on Wednesday pled not guilty and chose to have his trial in front of a jury.
In an interview, he expressed disbelief that he was being pursued by the law, given all the “real crimes” going on.
“It’s absurd,” said Couture, dressed all in black, his Mohawk fashioned like a short rooster comb. “So many people spending so much time on my file and not on real violent crimes.”
As he spoke, his zombie supporters milled about behind him, carrying placards such as: “Real charges for fake blood!” and “To be a victim of his talent is completely ridiculous!”
Karine Fournier, a textile artist dressed as a zombie bride, felt compelled to support Couture. “To lose our freedom of expression,” she reasoned, “is death.”
Julie Delisle, who also works in the horror genre, said she was surprised by the charges and now feels like “we are being watched more closely.”
Couture, 33, intends to argue that there are many other gory films in circulation that haven’t been targeted as obscenity, and he wants to know why.
Couture’s lawyer Dominic Bouchard said the case could have repercussions on horror films generally. “We will expose other movies worse than this,” he promised.
Bouchard said it’s the first time obscenity charges have been laid in Canada related to works from the horror genre.
But obscenity charges are both controversial and complicated. The Supreme Court in 1992 recognized that demeaning and violent depictions of sex can do harm to society and especially women and established some tests in this regard.
Though the Montreal police said members of the public complained that the movies showed a child being molested and killed, Bouchard said they are in error; the films only depict an “adolescent” being killed, not sexually violated.
Couture pointed out that the sex in his film is all simulated, as opposed to pornography, in which the sex is real. “They know (my work) is all fiction,”
he added.
Whether simulated or real sex makes a difference is something Bouchard agreed the judge will have to weigh.
The 10-minute films were available on Couture’s website until his arrest.
They are still online on other sites. As if to cap the extraordinary violence of the first movie, these words appear on screen: “Mankind has become the master in the art of cruelty.”
No one is forced to watch, Couture explained through a smile. “It’s horror,”
he said, “not a cartoon.”
Couture returns to court Nov. 1.