TORONTO (Hollywood Reporter) - “L.A. Zombie,” a Canadian indie film described by the Melbourne International Film Festival as “gay zombie porn,” has been denied an Australian festival berth by local censors.

The Australian Film Classification Board concluded that implied sex with corpses by an alien zombie in Los Angeles, breached local taste standards.

“L.A. Zombie” will receive a world premiere at the Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland on August 5, before its North American bow at the Toronto festival in September, according to the film’s producers. It was to have screened in Melbourne on August 7 and 8.

Director Bruce LaBruce said the censors viewed only the softcore version of his film, “which features no explicit anally penetrative sex.”

LaBruce has built a directorial career shooting hardcore pornography that aims to produce a return for financiers, along with a second softcore version with auteur touches that can screen on the festival circuit to critical acclaim.

The hardcore version of “L.A. Zombie” will be released separately on Halloween after the softcore version plays the international festival circuit.

“Although apparently the Australian Classification Board has no problem passing all manner of mainstream torture porn movies which feature, amongst other things, the rape and dismemberment of women, it’s interesting that they have no stomach for a movie that reaffirms life,” LaBruce said in a statement.