Blip.TV has just brought a great examination of the rating online. Probably the most comprehensive examination of this rating ever made. It’s entitled WTF Happened to PG-13?, and you’re bound to learn something and be a little enraged at the same time.
For our money a horror film doesn’t have to be rated R to be good. Some of the most horrific films out there, including the original Texas Chain Saw Masscare, barely have a single bloody moment.
The Legend of Hell House, Jaws, Poltergeist… I can go on and on. You know when PG-13 fails? When the movie stops being about being a good movie and starts being about getting a particular rating. Filmmakers have a habit of letting the studios be so pushy that they end up gimping themselves. That’s not totally their fault either because unless you’re a Hollywood golden boy like Quentin Tarantino who can make his movies as violent and over-the-top as he wants, you’re pretty much crucified by the ratings board for every little thing.
Look at Kill Bill and Hatchet. Kill Bill is human-on-human violence featuring swords, guns, and anything else laying around. Rated R. Hatchet is a goofy little throwback movie about a friggin’ swamp ghost with a magic-powered belt sander that needed to be cut to shreds for an R rating. It doesn’t make any sense. Hell… it never made any sense.
Check out the video below, and voice your opinion.