The Attic is in fact Rated *R*

Yep, the original movie poster does boast an R rating. However, the VHS releases have a PG rating slapped on them... and a shorter running time is listed (one says 92, the other 94 - the DVD runs almost 101 mins). I don't have the tapes to compare, but my best guess is this is another case like "A Clockwork Orange," which was originally rated X. In the late '70s, the movie was edited and attained an R rating. However, the only version that's ever been issued on video is the original X-rated cut, which has been consistently packaged with an R rating. They probably recut "The Attic," got a PG, and it stuck. There are numerous other instances where DVD releases have the wrong rating attached.

Regardless, even with the masturbation scene, I'm shocked that it got an R rating in 1980... considering "Hair," which includes rampant drug use, profanity and glimpses of full-frontal male nudity, got a PG two years earlier. Plus the masturbation was REALLY tame compared to Dennis Christopher's uncomfortably overlong jerk-off sequence in the same year's horror flick "Fade to Black."