The original 1974 Black Christmas and Black Christmas 2006 were rated R, but Black Christmas 2019 went the opposite route, toning down to a PG-13. By and large, horror movies are targeted at adults, and rated R. This has been true ever since the MPAA ratings system came into existence. There's also always been some horror aimed at kids or families too, but this type of content was usually easy to spot, and tended to be rated PG. In recent years though, more and more horror movies are going the PG-13 route.
It's no mystery why Hollywood likes the PG-13 rating, and prefers it to R. An R rating, assuming it's enforced properly at theaters, ensures that no moviegoers under the age of 17 can buy a ticket to a screening, unless of course they're accompanied by a parent or guardian. This effectively rules out the lucrative teen market, since teens don't generally love having to be chaperoned to the movies by their parents. At the same time, the PG-13 makes it clear that a film isn't for little kids either, because the teen crowd doesn't want to be treated like babies.
There's no blanket rule that says PG-13 horror movies have to or will be bad. In fact, some PG-13 horror movies are quite good, such as The Ring, and Happy Death Day. However, it never fails that a horror movie earning a PG-13 draws fire from horror diehards, and that was certainly the case for Blumhouse's new Black Christmas, since both prior Black Christmas movies were rated R.
When it was confirmed in November that Black Christmas 2019 would be rated PG-13, the news sparked the usual level of outrage among the horror community. On some level, the negative reaction was understandable, since Black Christmas is a slasher property, and slashers are the horror sub-genre most reliant on gory kills to succeed. Soon after the rating was revealed, Black Christmas co-writer April Wolfe took to social media to explain that she and director Sophia Takal had penned the remake's script with an R-rating in mind, but test screenings led to it becoming PG-13.
According to Wolfe, it became "clear that this movie needed to be available to a younger female audience because the subject matter is timely." She also expressed a desire to get younger girls indoctrinated into the world of horror fandom, and more horror fans are never a bad thing for the genre. That said, as anyone who's seen Black Christmas in theaters knows, the PG-13 rating did seem to hurt the movie. Every kill is mostly bloodless, and either goes by super quick or is done offscreen. It deflates a lot of the film's tension, and makes the stakes feel lower, as it almost feels like characters are just disappearing rather than being killed. What's worse is that the rating made no difference, as Black Christmas bombed big time at the box office, to the point it's hard to imagine an R-rating leading to any worse a result.
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