Two focus groups were conducted in November 2002 with a total of 16 participants who had viewed three films in their own homes.  These participants were split fairly equally into Low, Moderate and High video renters. Despite the range of experience and interest in films and the range from conservative to liberal in attitudes to the regulation of film, there was a surprising degree of agreement about the films watched.

Irreversible was generally praised as interesting, clever and thoughtful, but also as an intense, demanding and poignant film with distressing violence. The sheer length of two violence scenes presented a problem for most, although most participants recognised that this was probably intentional and that the narrative might well justify these scenes. Most thought a video release should carry a warning.

My Sweet Satan was generally condemned as a badly made, pointless, amateurish, student project type of film. The brutal murder of the gang member was generally thought excessive, especially in such a short film and often described as ‘violence for the sake of violence’. Many found the crude stereotyping of heavy metal fans distasteful.

Overall, most participants appeared to recognise that Irreversible might need some cuts to be acceptable for ‘18’ video classification, but that it deserved release. However both My Sweet Satan and Love Camp 7 were such poor quality that it was a puzzle as to why they were ever made, that distributors would wish to release them, or that anyone would wish to watch them.

Those who recommended some cuts to the films appeared to do so from personal preference – not needing personally to ‘see so much’, preferring ‘something left to the imagination’. A minority argued for cuts to protect others. However all participants described scenes as justifiable or not in terms of the film’s narrative and the point which they believed the film was trying to make.