Violence in Rifftrax

[Tarantulas]

Halloween is so tame compared to what they show on TV now-a-days.

It's MPAA rating is still an R.

What would you rate it based on the entertainment you see on TV and movies today?  I'd say its a PG13.

[SmilinJackRoss]

Onscreen stabbings, full frontal nudity = R

[Joe Don Faker]

Onscreen nudity, full frontal stabbings = still R

[RandyMistie]

Halloween is so tame compared to what they show on TV now-a-days.

It's MPAA rating is still an R.

What would you rate it based on the entertainment you see on TV and movies today?  I'd say its a PG13.

I would agree with you except for the nudity, that's it, though.  Definitely PG13 if they cut the brief nudity.  It's actually fairly bloodless, which I thought was the real genius about it.  You just imagine the gore.

"Psycho" arguably the grandaddy of slasher pics was reviewed as being horribly gory at the time, and there was only a weak little dribble of blood stream in some water.  So, yeah I get where you are coming from.  Times they are a-changing...

[Tarantulas]

Is a nipple shot enough to make something R?

I thought that PG13 could include some brief nudity...

[RandyMistie]

Is a nipple shot enough to make something R?

I thought that PG13 could include some brief nudity...

You know you're right.  When those other guys were talking about "full frontal", and I hadn't seen the movie in years, I thought there WAS full frontal in it... um guys "full frontal" includes bush, and I don't mean W.

Yeah, there were some nice boobies in the beginning, and then that was it.  PG13.

[mrbasehart]

I'm actually surprised that it's an 18 certificate over here.  Especially with the recent "upgrade" in violence in horror movies.  Halloween seems positively tame compared to Saw or Hostel.

[kodiakthejuggler]

Keep in mind that the MPAA gave the classic holiday comedy Planes, Trains, and Automobiles an R rating simply because of one scene in which Steve Martin goes on an angry rant and drops the f-bomb about 15 times...

Other than that, it didn't deserve its rating. PG-13 would have more than covered its suggestive content.


But even with the offscreen violence, I wouldn't rate Halloween as strongly. Even for 1978.

Along the suspense and frightening lines, Halloween was pretty tame, compared to other horror films of its day. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre came out 4 years before Halloween and is a much more brutal film. Aside from its rediculous "family dinner" scene towards the end, it was extremely scary and disgusting. Halloween was mostly a suspense film that very slowly built up to the climax. I had no idea just how slowly until Mike and Kevin showed me!   

[SmilinJackRoss]

We gotta keep in mind that there was no PG13 rating when this came out in 1978.  It was PG or R.  The movie is not rated R because of the violence.  Just look at Jaws, which is rated PG...there is TONS of blood in that movie, much more than Halloween.  So Halloween got the R rating because of the nudity, which is at the very beginning, and at the scene when the girl gets strangled with the phone cord.

And the movie would still be R today, the MPAA abhors nudity.

[starfighter]

    AMC showed Halloween last night and plans a whole marathon of the series on the 31st.  I see the rating given is PG-14 but I would imagine that's with nipples either cropped out or pixelled out. Anybody got any idea what's edited out of the violence. The stabbings aren't in the shots, but does the phone cord strangling get shortened?
    It really does seem tame by today's standards. You see more gore in a regular episode of CSI. I feel like I've seen enough corpses on those shows that I was critical of the autopsy done on the cheerleader on Heroes. Lucky she was able to pull herself together!
 

[MrTorso]

We gotta keep in mind that there was no PG13 rating when this came out in 1978.  It was PG or R.  The movie is not rated R because of the violence.  Just look at Jaws, which is rated PG...there is TONS of blood in that movie, much more than Halloween.  So Halloween got the R rating because of the nudity, which is at the very beginning, and at the scene when the girl gets strangled with the phone cord.

And the movie would still be R today, the MPAA abhors nudity.

Also don't forget the long standing bias the MPAA has towards indie films. They always get the short end of the stick VS their major studio counterparts.

[Tarantulas]

Classic example of how the violence was hidden in "Halloween"....

The kill of the movie shows the sister shifting around but nothing really shows what is going on, then the camea pans to the right, and we see the knife moving up and down.

Clearly his sister got up, walked to the right about 4 feet, got stabbed some more, and then went back and sat down just in time to die.

Right?

Watch it again, and you will see what I mean.

Also the nudity in the movie totals less than 30 seconds.

[RandyMistie]

They were some nice boobies, though.  You gotta give me a shout out for that.  Am I right guys?  Am I right?

I'm pathetic...

edit: just noticed I spelled it "bobbies" originally, that's a whole 'nuther issue, cuz then it's like English cops and then it get's scary...  NOW, I'm gonna have nightmares...

[gammer]

They were some nice bobbies, though.  You gotta give me a shout out for that.  Am I right guys?  Am I right?

I'm pathetic...

I think its a prerequisite that a horror movies has 'tats' in it. If not, then I dont think it can "officially" be labled as a horror movie!...

[Cap'n UKRiffer]

They were some nice boobies, though.  You gotta give me a shout out for that.  Am I right guys?  Am I right?

This line explains why your name is Randy...