Seems like a good movie but I have to question the wussification of the movie rating system when "too scary" gets an R. lol. Still, I'm glad it worked out for The Conjuring in this case.
Is The Conjuring Too Scary?
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 On 10/25/2013 at 08:03 PM by daftman See More From This User » |
During the summer we had some friends visiting from out of town and one of the things we did while they were here was watch The Conjuring. I actually hadn’t heard of the movie before we saw it but I don’t really keep up with movies much (we see them so infrequently). So for anybody else who is unfamiliar, The Conjuring is a supernatural horror movie of the haunted house variety. Set in 1971, it chronicles the strange and terrifying events that occur to a man, his wife, and five daughters after they move into an old farmhouse in need of repair in Rhode Island and the paranormal investigators that come to help them.
The fascinating thing about the movie itself is that, like director James Wan’s 2011 film Insidious, The Conjuring was written and filmed with the intention of getting the box office-friendly PG-13 rating. But the MPAA sent it back with an R. When asked why they replied, “It’s just so scary. [There are] no specific scenes or tone you could take out to get it PG-13.” There is no nudity or sex, little violence, a negligible amount of blood, and two or maybe three swear words in the whole movie. Nothing that would break the PG-13 threshold, certainly…except that subjective quality of fear.
Now some of you are much more horror-savvy than I am and maybe you pride yourself on not getting scared. For my part, no matter how scary something is, I never have any physical reactions other than goosebumps. Not bragging, that’s just the way I am. But I audibly gasped at one of the jump scares in The Conjuring. Wan is a master of tying your insides in knots and filling you with dread. His approach to horror is very old fashioned and he can do amazing things with darkness or an empty room. It really is quite incredible.
The MPAA is kind of notorious for being arbitrary. (Personally, I’ve been suspicious of them ever since they let the nudity in Titanic get by with a PG-13.) But an R rating can really hurt a film at the box office…unless it’s a horror movie that is “too scary for PG-13.” Wouldn’t that be the holy grail for underage teen horror fans? And not just them, it would seem. The Conjuring took the top spot on its opening weekend, earning $41.5 million, which is the best opening weekend for any R-rated horror movie ever. So yeah, I’d say that, if anything, the aggressive rating helped it. Does it deserve that rating? That’s up for debate but one thing is certain. The Conjuring is quite the scary movie.
P.S. The Conjuring hit Blu-ray and DVD this week, so if you haven’t seen it yet and want to, now’s a great time. Also, if you do plan to watch it, do yourself a favor and skip the trailers. They always ruin a few good scares and you’ll want the full experience from this one.
Additional Reading
Facts and figures came from these articles:
Did The Conjuring Really Deserve an 'R' Rating Just for Being Scary?
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