What gives this an 18 rating?
With a few small tweaks to make it less graphic, I think this film could pass for something off the Disney channel. Which parts were meant to be scary? I really didn't get it.
shareYeah I agree. It also only had 1 f bomb. I guess thoae boobs pushed it lol
shareLol... I was gonna say that. Boobs usually get the R or 18 Rating. It's a whole 10 minutes in too!
shareFrom my viewpoint here in the States where it's rated R, I couldn't agree more -- it's really perplexing! I've honestly seen many PG movies with more gore and violence than this [for some random examples from the '80's RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, BEETLEJUICE, heck even THE PRINCESS BRIDE].
The shot with breasts lasts literally less than 1 second, and I can think of 2 other movies from the '80's off the top of my head rated PG that had longer breast scenes -- AIRPLANE (1980) and SIXTEEN CANDLES (1984) -- and MONSTER IN THE CLOSET (1986) was PG-13. FRIGHT NIGHT has PG-13 written all over it.
Hardly any profanity, and the sexual content is non-existent and certainly nothing to put it over PG-13 - just some mild sensuality with Amy's scenes being hypnotized -- even DIRTY DANCING and GHOST -- both PG-13 -- had much stronger SENSUAL content than FRIGHT NIGHT, ditto for GHOSTBUSTERS which was PG (like remember with possessed Dana?).
The final act of FRIGHT NIGHT is where it obviously becomes a full-on horror movie, but it has minimal gore with just a tense atmosphere with creepiness and suspense, certainly fine for teenagers. I first watched this at age 14 and thought it was great and definitely didn't feel at all overwhelmed or traumatized or have any nightmares over this.
So yeah, the R rating feels really over-the-top, especially since, as the OP pointed out, most of the movie -- until that final act -- feels like a Disney Channel movie with a definite vibe of innocence and lightheartedness. So strange.
"Happy? No, no, no, no, no. You think I'm happy I got a call saying I had to come bail you out prison for stealing hot dog buns?"