http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/08/18/the-10-essential-rules-to-making- a-good-horror-remake/
Does anyone agree with these?
You killed Captain Clown, YOU KILLED CAPTAIN CLOWN-The Joker on Batman TAS
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No I don't. A horror movie doesn't fail or succeed based on how many boobs or how much blood is shown, it succeeds or fails based on things like directing or acting. Most horror movies suck, and most horror movies now are pg-13; there's not necessarily a correlation.
Oh and it's only rated R because PG-13 wasn't developed for another four years.
If it were released today or if PG-13 had been developed earlier, this would SO have been PG-13, along with many other classic horror movies that people try to use to prove "see? PG-13 sux!" like "Alien," "Halloween," "Poltergeist," etc.
All those movies? Rated R. Guess what, they were all before PG-13. If they were released today, they would be PG-13 along with the original "The Fog." Would you say they suck then because of the rating?
Poltergeist was famously rated PG...NOT R. That is why it is generally agreed upon that it was the REASON for the PG-13 rating. Because parents were PISSED that such a movie was rated PG and it was all because Spielberg's name was attached. After the outrage, the MPAA decided they needed something in between.
shareI didn't know all of this. Interesting.
For my birthday (12th? 13th? I can't remember what year it came out), a bunch of friends and I went to see Poltergeist. OMG was it a mistake for me. After the face falling off scene I ran into the bathroom and checked myself out in the mirror, making sure my face was still intact. It's so outdated now, and looks extremely unrealistic, but back then it was the shít!
This was before PG-13 as you mentioned, and I had no idea why it wasnt rated R. The commercials for it made it seem so innocent and cool; good for young kids to see. Oh no, not on your life.
I do no harm, I keep to myself; there's nothing wrong with my state of mental health.
Actually, I never really heard any complaints about Poltergeist and kids, because Poltergeist was marketed as a horror movie. So most intelligent parents, wouldn't have taken little kids.
The PG-13 fiasco happened because of Gremlins & Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. And Gremlins was being marketed a kid friendly movie, Spielberg's name was tossed around all the time, and E.T. had come out two years earlier.
The scenes in Gremlins that got parents heated, was the kitchen scene, the decapitated Gremlin in the fireplace and the killing of Mrs. Deagle (old peple being killed). Man, if they had actually filmed the original script, it was a little more terrifying.
Not to mention...There is NO WAY Alien or Halloween would be PG-13 even today. Alien had way too many gory scenes, plus they said the F word 5 times according to the IMDb, and generally, you get 1 or 2 for PG-13. Halloween had the violence, plus two nude scenes, although one was brief.
Granted, it is possible that they would have MADE it PG-13 by editing it a bit more to get it approved for PG-13 whereas originally, they knew that they couldn't possibly edit it enough to achieve a PG, so they didn't even try. But the movie as it stands would definitely still be an R.
While you are right that many movies that were rated R would likely be PG-13 today (Caddyshack comes to mind), your examples are awful, since one was PG back then, and the others would still be R today.
Poltergeist is a good example of the opposite of what you are trying to say. Along with Gremlins and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, it is an example of a movie that WAS PG but would be PG-13 today.
You DO realize that many, many movies that were rated R prior to 1984 would be rated PG-13 today, right? A movie that was just adult enough to not be PG would be rated R since there was no PG-13.
It is simple...with very few exceptions, PG-13 movies sell FAR more tickets than R movies. Granted, this movie didn't do all that well anyway, but the vast majority of the top grossing movies in any given year are PG-13. ESPECIALLY popcorn flicks that are expecting to be big. Very low budget movies are the ones most likely to be R since they don't have to make as much to break even, nor are they expected to bring in $200 million.
Chances are, the financial backers demanded that the final edit be a PG-13 rating or it would never have greenlit the project.