His presidential campaign said Thursday that Bush played no role in Silver Screen Management Co.'s decision to finance HBO's horror-suspense film, "The Hitcher," which one reviewer in 1986 described as a "massacre about every 15 minutes" and another called "gizzard-slitting depravity."

"Governor Bush did not have any knowledge or participation in deciding to finance that movie," campaign spokesman Dan Bartlett said.

Like Vice President Al Gore's ties to Hollywood, Bush's role at Silver Screen Management is coming under renewed scrutiny as both presidential nominees try to force the entertainment industry to stop marketing violence to children.

Bush joined the board of directors of Silver Screen Management -- run by New York businessman Roland Betts, a one-time Yale fraternity brother -- in 1983 and served as a director until 1993, about the time he emerged as a candidate for Texas governor. During those 10 years, he earned just over $100,000 in directors' fees and periodic bonuses, Bartlett said.

The firm raised money from tens of thousands of investors and helped finance many successful movies in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including the R-rated hits "Good Morning, Vietnam" and "Pretty Woman" and the PG-rated "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and "Dead Poets Society."

Silver Screen also financed Walt Disney's first R-rated film, "Down and Out in Beverly Hills," as well as two of Disney's most successful G-rated movies, "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Little Mermaid."

R-rated movies require any moviegoer under age 17 to be accompanied by a parent or adult guardian.

"The Hitcher" was the lone horror-suspense movie Silver Screen Management financed during Bush's tenure. In it, a diner finds a human finger in his hamburger. In addition, a young woman is torn apart after being tied between a truck and a pole, carnage that occurs off-screen.

Daily Variety called the movie "a highly unimaginative slasher film that keeps the tension going with a massacre about every 15 minutes."

Newsweek said the movie was "as tightly wound as a garrote and as beautifully designed as a guillotine," adding that it is a "grail of gore" for "all fans of real evil, real lip-licking, gizzard-slitting depravity."

Bartlett said Bush's role on the Silver Screen Management board "was not to determine which movies to finance" but rather to focus "more about the operation of the business."

He also drew a distinction between R-rated films and the current campaign debate. "Right now the issue is adult movies geared toward children," Bartlett said, adding that he doesn't believe "The Hitcher" was "marketed or geared toward children."

With the Federal Trade Commission -- and members of the Senate -- threatening to crack down on Hollywood violence, Bush and Gore have been pressing the issue on the stump.

Gore has promised new federal legislation or regulation against the industry within six months if it doesn't stop marketing violent and sexual products to young people.

Republicans have questioned the vice president's commitment, noting he's raised millions from the industry and had a close association with movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, responsible for the controversial NC-17 rated "Kids." His company, Miramax, has released violent films like "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction." No one under age 17 can be admitted to a movie rated NC-17.

Bush urged parents to be part of the solution. "There needs to be a kind of sense of urgency in our society about the pervasiveness of violence," he said this week. "I think it starts with reminding moms and dads that they've got to be mindful of the games and movies and music that their children are listening to."

EDITOR'S NOTE -- AP Business Writer Marcy Gordon in Washington contributed to this story.