NC-17 by today standards

One of the older horror movies is THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, and it has been remade fairly recently, but was missing much of the feeling of the original. When the original was released on DVD, it included a commentary section that talked about how there was NO complete original cut/print of the movie, so what is on the DVD was actually pieced together from multiple prints. It also stated that *some* of the original footage apparently no longer exists, and so it is not in the DVD.

I am old enough to have seen the original LHOTL in the theater, but it **may** have been a "cut" print... I do remember a few short bits from the theater that I didn't see in the DVD, but they did a pretty good job. BTW, the theater had a posted sign "NO REFUNDS WILL BE GIVEN!" I actually started to leave during the movie, but abruptly remembered the sign, and stayed. For what it is worth, before the "group" arrives at the family's house, there is some material that *was* very sadistic and disturbing... With all the pure "slasher films" now, the original has been diluted in the effects, and the plot, by comparison.
It still had the *message* that if you disobey your parents, do drugs, or otherwise do things you shouldn't, you will die in a horror movie! The more modern horror movies, (like the HALLOWEEN's and FRIDAY 13TH's for instance), include having sex as one of the things that will lead to your death in a horror movie.

The LHOTL movie also featured the "righteous revenge" of the parents as the basis for the (horrible) things they did to the group as they killed them off...
Psychologists have done research, and that is the most likely reason that someone would imitate, or consider imitating such violence... "righteous revenge". Without that as an element of a movie, the movie is much less likely to inspire its viewers to violence.




BTW, NC-17 more or less replaced the old "X" rating, (even leaning into the "XXX" of porn movies), and has been shown to include some amount of what formerly was considered **hard core pornography**. Another commenter mentioned contemporary movies like THE BROWN BUNNY, SHORT BUS, 9 SONGS (used condoms). Add to those an older movie, IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES which was banned in most countries (the Criterion versions NC-17 (4/28/2009) include some footage including young boys, lots of various penetrations, and some violent abnormal/risky sex, plus the ending), (according to IMDB, it was rated "X", released April 1, 1977).

There is another "class" of movies that are variously marked as "Not Rated" and "Unrated", and whatever agency sets the TV ratings, like TVPG, TV14, etc..
It has been my observation that family oriented movies, and made-for-TV movies typically use the "Not Rated" designation, while the "Unrated" movies would likely have deserved the "NC-17" for violence and/or sexual, drug, language, sadistic violence, extreme violence, or any combination of those elements. Movie makers are aware the NC-17 will dramaticly reduce the (American) audiences, so if their movie will receive that rating, they choose to *sell* it as "Unrated" instead.


As far as the "older days", have you ever heard of Billy Bob Thornton and his movie reviews? His typical method of rating movies depended on counting certain parts of women's anatomies shown on screen to develop his score... different times!

Listen to the commentary on this movie. The director and writers cheerfully agree that this movie WOULD get an NC-17 today for the frequent topless female nudity. The funny thing is they tried to get some male nudity in (during the last segment they come REAL close) but were told "no" because that would have gotten them an X rating immediately!