It has been a growing, sad trend in horror movies for the last few years. “Horror” movies that soften themselves up so much to the point they lose their edge for the sake of getting a PG-13 rating so more kiddies can get into the movie theaters. The results have not been great (with some exceptions for certain).
When we heard that Sam Raimi was going to be putting together a horror film called “Drag Me To Hell“, we all just assumed it would be of the hard “R” variety. Well it’s not. It’s a PG-13. Our friends over at Cinematical give us this:
I stood in line for more than two hours to see Sam Rami’s “work in progress” screening of Drag Me to Hell at SXSW last month. Raimi was there in person to introduce the film at Austin’s Paramount Theatre, and the packed house tore the roof off with a loud, raucous reaction. But will horror fans in general want to see it now that it’s been given the dreaded PG-13 rating? At least two versions of the film have been test-screened, according to Shock Til You Drop, but the version we saw in Austin was more PG-13 than R. As I wrote at the time, “Does that mean that Raimi has softened or compromised his vision?
It’s a fair question for Cinematical to ask. But they do go on to say that the film doesn’t feel compromised to them, which is a good thing. Still… I can’t help but think a HORROR movie that is still presentable to 12 year olds can’t have too much too it. Can it? Maybe, we’ll have to wait and see.
