Originally NC-17?

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So, a little history: When Raimi was in the process of releasing Evil Dead 2 he of course wanted the film to be rated, when the time came for Evil Dead 2 to be rated the MPAA slapped it with an X (old version of NC-17), even though most of the violence was in a comedic and unrealistic way (there isn't that much red blood in the film, especially compared to the first film). Raimi wasn't pleased with this rating and decided to release the film unrated with a warning, this pissed the MPAA off. Fast forward to Army of Darkness, the sequel to Evil Dead 2, a film that Raimi was making with a PG-13 in mind, the time comes to submit the film for the MPAA rating, it needs one this time as this is made by a big budget company (Universal), MPAA decides to punish Raimi with his choice of Evil Dead 2 and slap the film with an NC-17 (because of a scene involving a decapitated head), to say everyone in the production was befuddled was an understatement, this rating lead to several more submissions with new reedited versions (some were without Raimi's involvement) and they could only get it down to an R, they soon realized that there was no fighting it, the MPAA were not going to give them their desired rating, the film was going to have to be the undeserved R rating they got.

This isn't the first time the MPAA has miss-rated films for silly reasons, The Frighteners was also aiming for a PG-13, and when they submitted it the MPAA slapped it with an R, and kept giving them ridiculous reasons, one of which is that, and I'm not joking, a girl shoots the door too many times. Jackson was furious that he toned himself down for nothing and decided to make one of the deaths in the film way more graphic then originally planned (original: shot in the chest, replaced with: headshot that makes the entire head explode).