Not hot.
We heard a giant collective sigh coming from horror fans when Sam Raimi’s new thriller, Drag Me to Hell, landed a PG-13 rating -normally a death blow in the genre. The vaunted director of The Evil Dead and Army of Darkness explained the decision and why fans shouldn’t get hung up on his new movie’s rating.
After all, it’s just a letter:
Fans of the Evil Dead movies might be put off by the PG-13 rating. Why didn’t you just shoot an R?
Because those are just letters that people have prejudices about. It’s not about the rating; it’s about the intent of the film. If people want to see a blood-and-guts picture, this will not satisfy them and they should see an R. In fact, why not an X-rated or unrated film? R is for wussies if you’re talking about blood and guts.
Did you cut anything to get the rating?
In one scene, Christine uses a stapler to defend herself. We had to cut out one of the staples she delivers to the old lady. Also, we had to cut down a scene where the woman bites Christine without her dentures. Why gumming would be R-rated, I don’t know.
Read the rest of the interview for further details including Alison Lohman’s tolerance of pain.
PG-13 horror movies are usually pretty lame. Normally aimed at audiences who do not need to have mommy and daddy purchase them their tickets, these movies are notoriously tame regarding fright. It’s not just the absence of “blood and guts” that make them terrible, but the placement of boundaries. With an R-rated feature, moviegoers know that anything can occur and the possibilities are nearly endless which adds a glorious and unpredictable element to the film. However in PG-13 scary-fare, we pretty much know what is NOT going to happen: raw thrills.
Drag Me to Hell stars Alison Lohman as Christine Brown, a loan officer who angers a hell-dwelling demon by refusing to grant an elderly woman a mortgage extension.
