MovieChat Forums > The Evil (1978) Discussion > Rated R?

Rated R?

posted 15 years ago by tepista
14 replies | jump to latest

No nudity or foul language and very little graphic violence? Why the R rating?

[–] ttsinger 15 years ago

Any graphic violence is enough for an R rating. Passion Of The Christ was rated R for graphic violence and Suspiria had very little graphic violence and was also R. So that maybe why.

[–] tepista 15 years ago

Suspiria was extremely violent! The opening scene where the girl gets her head pushed through a window and her sister gets hung is one of the most violent scenes I'd ever seen, at the time. A guy gets his throat ripped out by a dog, another girl slides through a room of razor wire, etc.

I accept your answer, but not your example! :)

[–] ttsinger 15 years ago

Whoa! Calm down please! Take a chill pill why don't you? I watched Suspiria late one night on Turner Classic Movies. What I meant to say about Suspiria was that it did have strong violence,but the violence was so brief and at times obscured to where it wasn't excessive. The Evil has strong violence,but also lacks excessiveness when it comes to that type of violence. Also neither film contains any nudity,so by todays standards at the most both films would be PG-13 which didn't exist back in the 1970s.

[–] tepista 15 years ago

I didn't mean for that to come across as an attack. Sorry buddy. I appreciate your response.

I remember when I was a kid and Suspiria was unavailable in the states, I had to mail order a bootleg VHS, because the fanzines I read said how extremely gory it was.

[–] titanosaurusfan 14 years ago

You're insane to think "The Evil" or especially "Suspiria" would get a PG-13.

If you are a 100% fan of Judas Priest, proudly copy this and make it your signature!

[–] Kabumpo 14 years ago

Suspiria shows the stabbing of a beating heart. You really think that's PG-13 material?

[–] ruandyt 14 years ago

If you saw Suspiria on TCM then it was no doubt edited.See it on dvd in the R rated or better yet unrated version and I think that you will change your mind as to Suspiria being PG-13. Director Dario Argento is well known for his violent movies oftentimes with some very sadistic elements.For example is Suspiria the blind pianist is mauled by his own guide dog.In Terror at the Opera the opera singer is forced to watch the killer kill people because she had razor blades strapped under her eyes.If she closes her eye she loses them. As for the Evil anytime you have severed limbs or heads it almost automatically gets you an R rating.

[–] brianr73 11 years ago

yeah, that was a pretty stupid comeback. Any movie on TCM is edited and they can take any movie and make it tame. VERY bad example. I think you took too may chill pills yourself when you wrote your example! DUH!

[–] thegalaxybeing 15 years ago

Sometimes the Length of time someone suffers in a scene can effect the rating. The scenes where people were electrocuted were fairly intense because the deaths were somewhat slow. also, the hand sawing was probably enough to get the "R" rating. As was pointed out earlier, there was no rating between "PG" and "R" If it was a little too strong for PG, then an "R" had to be given.

If the movie had been a decade older, it might have gotten an "M" rating. "M" was between "G" & "R", however, because "M" stood for Mature Audiences, some people incorrectly assumed "M" movies were MORE intense then "R" ones. This is at least partly why "M" was dropped.

Original rating system in 1968: "G", "M", "R", & "X"

"M" (Mature) sounded too intense so in 1970 it became "GP" (General, Parental guidance suggested). That sounded too permissive (many just referred to it "General Public") and so in 1972 it became "PG" (Parental Guidance suggested).

In 1983 PG-13 was added and finally in 1990 "X" became NC-17.

"G" and "R" basically remained unchanged since the system began in 1968.

[–] WarpedRecord 13 years ago

Yes, I think the hand-sawing was what earned this film an R. I'm sure it would be PG-13 today because it's a very soft R.

[–] dalldorfw 10 years ago

"Yes, I think the hand-sawing was what earned this film an R. I'm sure it would be PG-13 today because it's a very soft R."

I do agree that the hand-sawing must have been what got it it's R rating. That being said, I don't think I'd be a PG-anything today. Remember, the MPAA was much looser back then than it is now.

[–] utahman1971 8 years ago

Exactly, and example of loosely is "Grease" was PG and now is PG-13. Now a days the ratings are a step higher, not lower. Also, anything rated X back then is now NC-17 today or Unrated.

I am a gore watching freak!!!

If it don't have it, it isn't worth the watch.

[–] dalldorfw 8 years ago

Generally, that's the way it works (one exception is '100 Rifles', it was rated R in 1969 because of the implied interracial sex between Raquel Welch and Jim Brown. It was changed to a PG when released on DVD, although with all the violence in the movie a PG-13 would have made more sense). Today's generation is under the impression that the past (or really anytime before they were born) was a more innocent time for pop-culture and they get shocked when they see gore in a movie or hear profanity in a song that was made before they were as they didn't think that was permitted yet. Some can remain surprised no matter how many times they encounter it. It was the same way when I was in high-school. I'm actually only 30 now, so I didn't grow up in those time periods either (I think we're mainly talking about the 70's and 80's here), so I don't know if I just watched more movie from past decades or if I just saw more of them uncut (maybe everyone else just saw them on TV with all the "taboo" stuff cut out) or if I was just the only one to pay attention to ratings (all the other kids assuming that something like 'BeastMaster' was an R whereas I know it was PG)

Hardcore porn still carries an X, but that gets kind of confusing since a movie like 'Realm Of The Senses' is now NC-17 because if people actually fornicating on screen which one might think would have it qualify for porn. Many have said that it gets an NC-17 because it's more of an art-film that happens to have hardcore sex in it, but then one thinks, "Isn't something like 'The Devil In Miss Jones' an art-film as well? And that's still in the adult section of Videostation (a video store that we thankfully still have here in Colo.) and still has a big ol' X slapped on the DVD cover. Is it just because ROTS is Japanese?"

[–] arkay 8 years ago

It was also considered a video nasty in the UK.