Horror & the 15 certificate

[vipco]

Originally Posted by vincenzo

I thought Extinction was the best of the otherwise disappointing Resident Evil films. The 15 rating seemed fine to me.

I was surprised it got an 18 in Ireland . I thought they'd relaxed they're censorship down there.
The last batch of horror 15's I watched was in the Ferman days so the content of R E Extinction was quite a shock at that rating, especially in hi def.

I agree Vince , it was the best of the 3 films, 2 being a close 2nd imo, but the ending was a bit disappointing i thought.

[nekromantik]

Originally Posted by Daemonia

The Wicker Man remake was not only the worst remake ever, but possibly one of the worst films ever made. It's appallingly bad - not even so-bad-it's-good bad. When Nic Cage utters the line 'Step away from the bicycle' I just couldn't believe what I was seeing/hearing. Then there's Ellen Burstyn's HUUUUGE book with 'Witchcraft' (or something along those lines) in BIG letters on it, which is kind of a giveaway. But poor, blind Cage doesn't notice this massive clue. I bought it and had to give it away as fast as I could. Even having the DVD in the house made me feel uncomfortable.

I aint even wasted hard disk space in downloading it.
the script writers..I would be so embarrassed if I was one of them...

[Rob Strange]

Originally Posted by nekromantik

I aint even wasted hard disk space in downloading it.
the script writers..I would be so embarrassed if I was one of them...

I've only watched *cough* "highlights" on YouTube, and though obviously terrible, it did seem very funny: a cracking (unintentional) comedy.

But it's still sacrilege!

[Inspector Tanzi]

Originally Posted by Angel

Black Christmas is only an 18 due to the use of the C-word.

And you get c*nt in 15 nowadays too.

[pedromonkey]

don't get me started on the whole 15 certificate horror film, im of the thinking that if it's a 15 its a supernatural thriller, if it's an 18 its a horror, for a film to be a real horror flick it must have the following...blood, guts,gore, swearing and scenes of an intense nature. Look at the films like The Ring, it's not a horror film it's a ghost story, a supernatural thriller. It has scenes that are eerie but it's not enough to warrant the label HORROR, now the SAW films are horror films because they contains horrible scenes. they pull no punches, it's all there up on the screen. If was released as a 15, gone would be the amount of gore, that would all happen off screen and everyone would look like they came from The O.C or One Tree Hill type shows. so unless the film has an 18 certificate it is not a horror film...

[iluvdvds@Cult Labs]

Oooh very interesting Pedro.

I take it your just talking about modern horror as a lot of older ones, obviously, have gone down in the certificate scale. But what about modern films such as Paranormal Activity, Land Of The Dead, Resident Evil, House Of Wax and Jeepers Creepers for instance. All of them are very different and I guess your 'supernatural thriller' 'ghost story' label would work perfectly for PA (even if it is a demon, but hey it's close enough ) but isn't a ghost story a sub-genre of horror? And stuff like RE LOTD are incredibly gory, just perhaps not as much as Saw, Martyrs (which I wouldn't class as a horror) etc. Then the [B]HOW[/B remake, as crappy as it is, is your typical slasher film which is a sub-genre of horror too. Would you call them horror mate?

Personally speaking I'd say a horror film is a horror film regardless of it's certificate. Ofcourse there's films like Se7en and the awesome Signs which blur the lines of genre evenmore.

I'd say 18 rated horrors are the big boys of the genre (not included unrated films), 15 rated horrors are still horror films, but just less explict - which does not necessarily mean more disturbing, scary or horrifying.

[dis]

hi all,not sure if this belong on this thread,but why are some horrors being re released as 15s?
have noticed a few films here and there as 15s but when they came out years ago they were 18s? and what exactly does unrated mean as i own a few? cheers

[vipco]

Unrated means a film thats not been rated by a censorship board like the MPAA.
In the US you can release Rated and/or Unratted versions of a film but Unrated films cant be displayed in stores and alot of mainstream stores wont stock them.

Films that were deemed 18 cert 10 or 20 years ago , if resubmitted to the BBFC today are looked at with todays guidelines in mind , so films like NOTLD get downgraded from 18 to 15 as what was extreme and deemed Adults Only 30 years ago are sometimes usually tame by todays standards hence the downgrade to the 15 cert from the 18 cert .

Contamination, once banned is now rated 15 uncut by todays BBFC.
Hope that clears it up for you.

For what its worth , I generally wouldn't give a 15 BBFC rated Horror film a second look unless its a classic or film I knew. I would never blind buy a new release 15 rated Horror film.

[nekromantik]

Originally Posted by iluvdvds

Oooh very interesting Pedro.

I take it your just talking about modern horror as a lot of older ones, obviously, have gone down in the certificate scale. But what about modern films such as Paranormal Activity, Land Of The Dead, Resident Evil, House Of Wax and Jeepers Creepers for instance. All of them are very different and I guess your 'supernatural thriller' 'ghost story' label would work perfectly for PA (even if it is a demon, but hey it's close enough ) but isn't a ghost story a sub-genre of horror? And stuff like RE LOTD are incredibly gory, just perhaps not as much as Saw, Martyrs (which I wouldn't class as a horror) etc. Then the [B]HOW[/B remake, as crappy as it is, is your typical slasher film which is a sub-genre of horror too. Would you call them horror mate?

Personally speaking I'd say a horror film is a horror film regardless of it's certificate. Ofcourse there's films like Se7en and the awesome Signs which blur the lines of genre evenmore.

I'd say 18 rated horrors are the big boys of the genre (not included unrated films), 15 rated horrors are still horror films, but just less explict - which does not necessarily mean more disturbing, scary or horrifying.

spot on kyle.
IMO there are 2 main types of Horror movie. Psychological and what I like to call "In your face" . 15 rated movies are normally meant to to be creepy, scary and mess with your head. Perfect example is Session 9, its deffo a horror because of the subject matter but its not the type that needs blood and sex. Just because a film is 15 dont make it any less of a horror movie. Some movies that mess with your head can be 18 if they use graphic images.

Paranormal Activity is deffo a horror movie. In the US its rated R like many 15 cert movies over here. So sorry Pedro I disagree completely.

[pedromonkey]

i see your point Kyle, but with films such as LOTD and RESi, i seem them more as action film that just so happen to some sort of monster in them. Jeepers Creepers is as i said a supernatural thriller, because it's thrilling and deals with the supernatural. Paranormal Activity was a clever film but again wasn't a horror because the scene were not horrific, they were made to freak People out, for me horror films are not there to scare me but to entertain me. When i think of horror films i think of Re-Animator, Night of The living Dead, Halloween, The Evil Dead, i know im going old skool with them but to me they're horror films.

Se7en is a crime thriller dressed up as horror film, but it doesn't fool me, it's like starsky and hutch but you actually see the crime scene.

Thank god another person thinks Signs is awesome, i though i was the only one, but it's a sci-fi film not a horror. It concerns aliens, not zombies, werewolves or vampires.

The only film that freaks me out is the Shining, that's right, im not afraid to say it, the shining freaks the shit out of me. This is due to three reasons, 1. the atmosphere 2. kubricks demented genius and 3. Nicholson's Performance. The Shining is a Horror film because of the horrific images it presents to the audience.

Don't get me wrong, i own a lot of 15 rated "horror" and i enjoy them, but for me it has to be about horrific scenes for me to actually acknowlage that it's a horror film.

But then again like you said kyle, there are different sub-genre's of horror and i may be able to live with them being labled as that genre....

@ the blob: i know what you mean about the downgrading of certificates, i was in HMV a few weeks back and found the optimum release of Evil Dead 2 and low and behold the case had a 15 cert on it. The times they are a changing.......