Mortal Kombat film director says violence is pushed "right to the limit"

Gore and brutality? In Mortal Kombat? Are you sure?

The upcoming Mortal Kombat movie apparently goes "right to the limit" of what it can get away with in terms of violence.

That's according to director Simon McQuoid, who told SFX Magazine – as reported by GamesRadar – that it takes its R rating seriously. Apparently, there's stuff like someone ripping a foe's heart out. You know, normal, cool stuff.

"We wanted to push the [blood, gore and fatalities] right to the limit," McQuoid said.

He continued: "Obviously, there’s a point where the film becomes unreleasable if you push it too far, and that would be a very unwise return on investment for the studio. But from day one it’s been, ‘Okay, we’re doing this and we’re going to do it properly.’"

From the get-go, this Mortal Kombat adaptation has been targeting an R rating with the team behind the film saying it would feature the series' iconic Fatality finishing moves.

After disappearing for a little while, Warner Bros said that the film would be launching in cinemas the same time as its HBO Max streaming service. Shortly after, it revealed that the film would be released on April 16, which is much sooner than folks expected.

We were given a peek at franchise icons Scorpion and Sub Zero in January before the movie's first trailer was rolled out the following month. Many of the series' big names are appearing, but Johnny Cage is not one of them.