Serial killer thriller banned in the UK is finally legal and free to watch after 33 years

Warning: This article contains discussion of child murder which some readers may find distressing.

A serial killer thriller which was illegal to watch in the UK can now be watched after a multi-decade wait.

There are a number of films that have been banned in the past, such as one horror so shocking that it caused police to raid a cinema attempting to screen it.

This serial killer film however was banned for even longer, becoming available to watch this year after 33 years.

As well as that, if you’re curious about what all the fuss is about, the movie is actually free to watch.

It focuses on a nine-year-old boy who is secretly a psychopathic serial killer, starring child actor Brian Bonsall.

Called Mikey, the serial killer thriller was banned by the BBFC after having previously allowed it to be released and was made legal to watch earlier this year after a re-application.

A major tragedy in the UK, a year after the film’s release, is what led to the ban.

What happened in the UK that led Mikey to be banned?

Bulger was just two when he was killed by two young boys (Channel 5)

The main reason the film was totally banned in the UK was actually something totally outside the control of the filmmakers.

The movie released in the US in 1992, the year before James Bulger was tragically murdered in Merseyside.

Bulger was just two years old when he was kidnapped by two ten-year-old boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables.

They tortured the young child before killing him and leaving his body on a railway line a few miles away.

The pair are the youngest convicted murderers in UK history and were released on permanent license at the age of 18, with Venables committing separate offences on multiple occasions since then.

What did the murder of James Bulger have to do with Mikey and where can you now watch it?

After Bulger's murder, the Daily Mail took notice of a film released the previous year, Mikey, which shared the similarities to the case due to its portrayal of a young child committing awful crimes and murder.

The film otherwise has no direct links to the James Bulger case both in terms of the crimes carried out by the children and the circumstances that led them to kill James.

Mikey was initially granted an 18 certificate by the BBFC but, after a public outcry following the Daily Mail’s article, the regulator took an unprecedented step.

Their director at the time James Ferman decided to rescind the film’s certificate, something which took multiple years before being made official in 1996.

Mikey was banned in the UK for 33 years (Imperial Entertainment)

This came after the BBFC took advice from ‘experts in child mental health’, one of whom said that the movie was ‘a very disturbing and potentially damaging film’.

33 years on however and the film is for the first time legal to watch, with the BBFC website confirming it was awarded a 15 certificate on 21 March this year.

It's now been uploaded to Tubi, the ‘free Netflix competitor’.

Mikey is available to watch now on Tubi.