Jason Blum on which films will be rated R or edited down to PG-13

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Let me say this outright that I am not against PG-13 horror. Sure I'll roll my eyes at the rating here and there, but after Sam Raimi's DRAG ME TO HELL, I don't write off PG-13 as inherently a bad thing.

Case in point, Blumhouse's HAPPY DEATH DAY and INSIDIOUS. Both are quality fright flicks that are either scary as shit or fun as hell, and both sport PG-13 ratings. No biggie.

But have you ever wondered how and why Jason Blum picks which flicks are rated R and which go with the PG-13? Well, if you have then today's your lucky day as Blum recently spoke about just that with Cinema Blend and here is what he had to say.

Jason Blum:

If someone gave me a great scary movie all about high school kids, and they said it was R-rated, we wouldn't make it. PG-13, we'd make it… You can't make a movie about kids, and then tell those kids they can't go see it without their parents. It doesn't work – although people have tried.

He continues:

We did it once. It was a big, big mistake. The Gallows. The Gallows is a movie about high school kids, R-rated. And the movie didn't work. And the movie was quite good. The movie tested well. It was a playable movie. And I think mostly it had to do with the R-rating that we allowed. We should have cut it back, and gotten it to the PG-13, but I didn't.

Yeah, the R-rating is why THE GALLOWS failed. Truth be told if you asked me before reading this what that film was rated I don't know if I would have said R. I don't remember anything overly gory/graphic in it. Maybe they said "fuck" a few times. Ooohhh…

What's your favorite PG-13 horror movie? Let us know in the comments below or on social media!

HAPPY DEATH DAY synopsis:

Tree Gelbman is a blissfully self-centered collegian who wakes up on her birthday in the bed of a student named Carter. As the morning goes on, Tree gets the eerie feeling that she's experienced the events of this day before. When a masked killer suddenly takes her life in a brutal attack, she once again magically wakes up in Carter's dorm room unharmed. Now, the frightened young woman must relive the same day over and over until she figures out who murdered her.

HAPPY DEATH DAY was directed by Christopher Landon from a screenplay he wrote with Scott Lobdell. The film stars Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Ruby Modine, Charles Aitken, and Rachel Matthews.

Buy HAPPY DEATH DAY on Blur-ay right HERE.