[Photo: Getty Images]

If you're wondering why all the hardware stores in LA were sold out of electrical tape, it's because much of it was stuck to the nipples of the models at the Captivity premiere party last night. That's right, I was lucky enough to be on the list for this little shindig at Privilege, and I was curious if After Dark CEO Courtney Solomon could deliver on his New York Times promise to throw the most outrageous bash ever. So did he? In a word, no. The whole thing gave off a distinctly opening-credits-of-Mindfreak vibe, with plenty of leather and piercing to go around. But it came off as silly and forced, not dark and scary. Consider these ghastly delights:

* One girl was chained to a spinning table while another girl pretended to whip her. Shocking!

* Suicide Girls roamed the party wearing little besides the aforementioned electrical tape. My delicate sensibilities!

* Greased-up Bikini clad ladies wrestled each other. Oh, the horror!

* A "needle play" booth, where some guy stuck pointed quills into the backs of willing victims. Mildly disturbing!

* Dave Navarro wearing a tight tanktop. Okay, that actually was scary.

The best part of the evening was watching all the open-collared agent/producer types try to hit on the Goth chicks. I've never seen so many Bluetooth headsets and leather corsets in one place.

However, the most-asked question of the night: Where were the celebs? The biggest star there was the fat guy from Borat. You know things aren't going well when the Bai Lings and Traci Binghams of the world don't show up to your party. Elisha Cuthbert couldn't even be bothered to attend, and she's the freakin' star of the movie!

But so what if the Captivity party wasn't the Grand Guignol display everyone had hoped for? There was still an open bar and girls with electrical tape on their boobies. I, for one, will take what I can get.

• Previously: 'Captivity': The Predictably Outrageous Premiere Party [Defamer]

For starters, Mr. Solomon has ordered up what he calls the three "most outlandish" SuicideGirls available from the punk porn service, even if they're as frisky as the ones he is told once set a Portland, Ore., restaurant on fire. Some lucky fans will get to take the women as dates for party night, July 10, on two conditions: "People take the date at their own risk, and everybody on the Internet gets to watch."

Cage fighting too is likely. Mr. Solomon's planners are angling for Kimbo Slice, the bare-knuckle bruiser whose vicious backyard brawls are a Web favorite and who made his Mixed Martial Arts debut on Saturday.

But the warren of live torture rooms is a must. As Mr. Solomon envisions it, individuals in torture gear will wander through the West Hollywood club Privilege grabbing partygoers. All of which is a prelude to an undisclosed main event that, he warned last week over slices of pizza a few doors from his company's new offices on the Sunset Strip, is "probably not legal."

"The women's groups definitely will love it," Mr. Solomon hinted. "I call it my personal little tribute to them."

It seems that Solomon is finally abandoning his strenuously insincere (though hilarious!) claims that Captivity is actually an uplifting, Lifetime-worthy story of female empowerment; finished with this outrage-deflecting charade, he's now free to carry through on his vision for a semilegal NOW "tribute" dungeon for his party, in which leather-clad, ball-gagged strippers playing the part of protesting "women's groups" are forced to watch a loop of the movie's most shamelessly exploitative scenes while Solomon paddles them with picket signs.

• Already Under Fire, a Producer Is Going Further [NY Times]
• Previously: More 'Captivity' Ad Fun: Elisha Cuthbert Vs. The Grizzly Bears [Defamer]

[Special thanks to the Defamer reader who somehow caught this as it flashed by during a commercial that ran on Li'l Bush last night.]

• Previously: Offensive BillboardWatch: Captivity's Secret Victims 7 [Defamer]

Palen defends his work in two ways: in terms of context and execution. The poster of a naked Phillips holding her severed head in her hands, he says, "is completely inappropriate to be on a billboard on the street or even in the lobby of our offices." But he says it is suitable for theaters in foreign markets — where people are far less concerned about sexual images — and for hard-core horror fans.

"It's for the boys in the backpacks at these comic conventions, waiting in line for hours to get the posters signed," says Palen.

Palen insists his images are considerably different from the ones that appeared on billboards for "Captivity," whose graphic portrayal of the kidnapping and torture of a woman caused such a furor that they were quickly taken down earlier this year. (The movie, made by After Dark Films, is distributed by Lionsgate, but the company claims it never saw or approved the advertising materials.) Palen says those images were "vulgar" because of the way they were designed and photographed.

But what about his severed-head poster? Why isn't it vulgar too? "There's a way for Bijou to hold her head in her hand and do it elegantly instead of gratuitously," he says. "It's the flourish and technique brought to it that makes all the difference."

We find it hard to disagree; Palen's haunting images are so aesthetically superior to the heavy-handed Captivity snuff work that if he decided to silkscreen one of his creations onto a promotional condom rolled over the biggest building on the Sunset Strip, there would be no outrage about a crass stunt, only profound appreciation of the flourish and technique that went into his loving rendering of Eli Roth's bloated, veiny junk.

• 'Hostel' ads test the squirm factor [LAT]
• Previously: The Uncut Eli Roth [Defamer]

Mark Damon, who produced Captivity, says nervously that he hopes the MPAA will keep in mind that the ones who will suffer for After Dark's transgressions (which he believes to be inadvertent) are the innocents involved in making the film.

"We had nothing to do with what happened," he says. He adds that Captivity is a deeper work than Saw or Hostel. "Does it have exploitation elements? Yes, it does, but it's a different kind of movie," he says. "Saw and Hostel are all about new forms of torture. Here the torture is as much mental as anything else.

If the blameless independent producers of the aspirational exploitation film hope to escape further suffering, they might want to talk After Dark down from its planned, escalated retaliation against the MPAA oppressors trying to cripple the project by withholding a rating: replacing its toned-down "Captivity Was Here" billboards with photographs of adorable dogs underneath the threat, "For every day we don't get our R, we kill a puppy. Your move, MPAA."

[Photo; CineFile Video]

• Mental Torture [Slate]
• Previously: After Dark's 'Captivity' Invites MPAA's Billboard-Induced Wrath [Defamer]

"The sanctions in this case are severe because this was an unacceptable and flagrant violation of MPAA rules and procedures," Gordon said in a statement.

Public reaction to the billboards was strong, as MPAA switchboards lit up with complaints as well as questions about what to do, an org official said. When MPAA ordered After Dark to remove the ads, the company responded slowly, eventually complying but replacing the original ads with a sign reading "Captivity was here," as if to have the last word. Ads at bus shelters in L.A. were still displayed Thursday.

Sanction comes in response to After Dark's "prominent display in both Los Angeles and New York of advertising that the MPAA had explicitly disapproved as inappropriate for general public viewing," the org said Thursday in a statement.

"MPAA reviews tens of thousands of promotional materials each year," Gordon said. "The good news is that — as disturbing as this case has been — it marks a rare instance where a company has acted in such a clear and direct violation of our rules. The overwhelming majority of companies and filmmakers understand, support and abide by MPAA rules and procedures. It is now up to After Dark Films to restore good faith with the MPAA."

It seems that the MPAA, touchy about the uproar started by the naughty, publicity-craving little studio, won't even put up with the mildly cheeky "Captivity was here" replacement ads; their hardline stance will probably force After Dark to scrap the even more ambitious promotional campaign they've been testing out in Minnesota, where they've rigged open manholes to play back Cuthbert's anguished screams seconds before potential ticket-buying passers-by are doused by gallons of fake blood blasted upward through the pavement.

• Lights out for After Dark ads [Variety]

Inspired by the above story of two teenage Saw fans whose mischief is bringing a fresh wave of attention to the hugely successful horror franchise, always-innovative AfterDark CEO Courtney Solomon is scrambling to organize Captivity "phone teams" to call middle-aged women in poor health in key markets, hoping that mysterious messages that their daughters have been kidnapped and tortured by a maniac might induce the same kind of publicity-attracting cerebrovascular episodes that might raise awareness for his little abduction flick.

• Saw (the movie) prank causes stroke [YouTube]
Previously: AfterDark Films Already Enjoying Free Advertising For Upcoming Suicide Comedy [Defamer]

But Courtney Solomon, co-owner of After Dark Films, said the posters will be displayed as traffic-style stop or yield signs with a bar and circle over the illustrations, along with hearts to reference the film's romantic story line. He said the campaign may change before its mid-July rollout.

"The movie takes place in purgatory, and its message is that love is better than suicide," Solomon said, adding that the film may even help prevent suicide.

"Our job is to get people into the theater in a way that's accessible to them. There are many different ways to skin a cat. God forbid someone was considering committing suicide. This film may change their opinion."

A reasonable enough argument given the film's love-triumphs-over-all story, to be sure—had Solomon not already played the, "Sure, the ads are a tacky, obvious publicity grab meant to drum up outrage and free media attention, but our film has an ultimately positive message!" card by trying to sell low-budget Cuthbertsploitation flick Captivity as an inspirational film about female-empowerment. As much as we might want to agree with him about the Wristcutters situation, we're put in the position of suspecting that the next phase of the campaign involves advertising a fake suicide hotline whose only life-saving advice involves sending callers with persistent suicidal ideation to their closest theater for some immediate independent movie therapy.

• Suicide comedy ad campaign painful for groups [Reuters/THR]
• Previously: Offensive BillboardWatch: Coming Ad-Removal Attractions Edition [Defamer]

The suicide comedy "Wristcutters: A Love Story" will be released in August, with a marketing campaign featuring cardboard cutouts of characters jumping off a bridge, electrocuting and hanging themselves.

The signage will be placed on telephone poles and trees in major markets beginning next month.

We just hope they don't cause too many accidents," said Courtney Solomon, a partner in AfterDark Films, which acquired North American rights to rookie Croatian director Goran Dukic's dark romantic comedy and will release the film through indie distributor Lionsgate.

Since we secretly admire Solomon for delivering the line about Captivity's female-empowerment message with a straight enough face to get THR to print it, we'll supply him with his next no-fault explanation about how his upcoming, sure to be controversial ad campaign escaped into the wild: "I have no idea how those cardboard cut-outs of the guy hanging himself wound up in the trees outside the suicide prevention center. I specifically told the marketing people that while that would be a hilarious place to put them, it would be in poor taste and might draw unwanted attention to our movie. Besides, I thought that everyone was too busy throwing dummies wearing Wristcutters t-shirts into convertibles driving underneath that bridge over the 101 to have time to follow through on the tree thing."

• Suicide comedy "Wristcutters" leaps into theaters [Reuters/THR]

· Was driving up Fairfax tonight around 8 PM and those billboards (which were supposed to be taken down around 2 this afternoon) are still being displayed for all to see. The offending ads I saw were at Wilshire and Fairfax and the three-way intersection of Fairfax, Olympic, and San Vicente. There were also a ton of bus shelter ads (too many to count). Guess AfterDark is really living up to their end of the bargain on this one.

· [03/21, 7:44 a.m.] The Billboard on san vicente and fairfax is still up!

We sincerely hope that any stragglers are taken down by the close of business today, lest After Dark and Lionsgate's sensitive story (in theaters May 18th!) about a woman's self-empowering triumph over a misogynist tormentor suffers further damage from the sensationalistic, attention-drawing advertisements that misrepresent its noble message. We'll keep you updated on their progress in this matter as new information comes in.

[Photo; CineFile Video]

• Offensive BillboardWatch: Deadline To Removal Rapidly Approaching! [Defamer]

[Photo: Getty Images via THR Much clearer image via CineFile Video ]

• Curtain falls quickly on 'Captivity' ad campaign [THR]
• Previously: Annals Of Ill-Conceived Outdoor Movie Advertising: The 'Captivity' Billboards [Defamer]

The message is that this is what you do with women," Cain said. "You kidnap then, you confine them, you torture them and you kill them."

Peter Wilkes, a Lionsgate executive, told me the studio had nothing to do with the ads that bear its name. Lionsgate partnered with After Dark Films. So I talked to Courtney Solomon, who runs After Dark. He said the billboards were a mistake. That ad was one of 50 or 60 concepts under consideration, he said, and before any were approved, this one ended up at a printing plant and up on billboards in L.A., as well as on New York taxicabs.

"To be honest with you, I don't know where the confusion happened and who's responsible," Solomon said. [...]

The billboards should all be down by Tuesday, Solomon said, carping a bit about how much it would cost him to have the ads removed. He apologized to those who were offended and said he hoped people don't get the wrong idea about "Captivity." It's not a slasher movie, he said. "It's about something that happens to 850,000 people in this country a year."

It's a simple enough misunderstanding, we're sure: leave those mischievous printers alone with a series of disturbing mock-ups clearly labeled, "TOO SCARY. PLS DO NOT USE. FOR YOUR FUN ONLY!" and the next thing you know, an entire city is being terrorized by fifty-foot images of Elisha Cuthbert being snuffed out. We hope that After Dark's internal investigation proves the printing plant's culpability, saving the studio the expense of replacing the billboards that more accurately express Captivity's sensitive exploration of the criminally overlooked plight of the hundreds of thousands of American kidnapping victims who are imprisoned and then imaginatively tortured by psychopaths each and every year.

• Billboard's 'Captivity' audience disgusted [LAT]
• Captivity Official Site [CaptivityTheMovie.com]