BBFC decisions you agree/disagree with...

[ghoul-star]

Originally Posted by caib2003

Jigsaw absolutely counts as a big mainstream horror for the 2010s, Receptions got nothing to do with it. But you're right about that and Halloween 2018 being the only major 18-rated horror releases most people remember from the 2010s, alongside Ready or Not.

I guess what I mean is that it feels like after Halloween 2018 we started to get decent 18 rated horror movies again, which were severely lacking in that decade

[caib2003]

Originally Posted by doomgen

Scream 2 hasn’t been rated since 1999 and 3 hasn’t been rated since 2001 so I’d imagine they’d be solid 15s now. the first one I think isn’t quite as cut-and-dry, primarily due to the opening sequence. even with the slight comedic aspect of the anonymous killer asking his soon-to-be victim horror movie trivia, it’s a prolonged setpiece that fuses strong sadistic threat (the way he asks questions like “do you want to know what your insides look like” and forcing her to see her boyfriend being eviscerated evinces a clear enjoyment by the perpetrator of the terrorisation being inflicted) with bloody violence and gore, juxtaposed with the helplessness of her parents in being able to save her, and ending with both of them witnessing her hanged and eviscerated corpse.

even though afterwards the film takes a dive into schlockier territory in its sense of threat and violence, that beginning scene is still mean and nasty stuff. I don’t think a film being a comedy-horror necessarily mitigates everything in it as suitable at the 15 category, like Freaky has some truly brutal murders that linger in detail and aren’t even played for comedic beats yet that passed at 15 and Last Night in Soho didn’t.

Personally I didn't think it was too much for the 15 category, yes it's very sadistic but like you said much worse personalised and sadistic violence slips in at 15 like with Freaky and also the

[Show spoiler]BMX gutting

scene in Turbo Kid. Both of which I'd agree should be 18s. The rest of Scream isn't schlocky (but that's down to opinion I suppose) but it is very goofy and distant from reality and not too gory, and would be perfectly passable at 15. That first scene is pretty nasty but it's just about containable at the higher end of the 15 rating in my opinion due to lack of detail.

[caib2003]

Originally Posted by ghoul-star

I guess what I mean is that it feels like after Halloween 2018 we started to get decent 18 rated horror movies again, which were severely lacking in that decade

I found tons of DTV/Lower Budget horrors from the 2010s that were great in my opinion, but it's definitely true that the amount of mainstream 18 rated horror was miniscule that decade and honestly that's sad. Many 15 rated movies from that time period should've been given 18 ratings imo.

[doomgen]

Originally Posted by caib2003

Personally I didn't think it was too much for the 15 category, yes it's very sadistic but like you said much worse personalised and sadistic violence slips in at 15 like with Freaky and also the

[Show spoiler]BMX gutting

scene in Turbo Kid. Both of which I'd agree should be 18s. The rest of Scream isn't schlocky (but that's down to opinion I suppose) but it is very goofy and distant from reality and not too gory, and would be perfectly passable at 15. That first scene is pretty nasty but it's just about containable at the higher end of the 15 rating in my opinion due to lack of detail.

it would hardly be the strongest thing passed at 15 if it did get downgraded, so I think films like it are what a hypothetical '16' category (or the existent one in Ireland) is made for. it kind of exists in a space where I don't disagree with it still being an 18, but if it got downgraded to a 15 I'd also think "that makes sense, today's teens are familiar with similar and worse in horror".

Haneke's Funny Games (either version) is interesting classification-wise as visually it's a straightforward 15 given nearly all the violence is offscreen, but the sustained terrorisation, including of a child, means an 18 is more understandable. Ireland giving the remake a 16 in 2007 seemed lenient at the time, but nowadays not even

[Show spoiler]a 12-year-old graphically chewing on a knife which gets gorily forced upward through his lip and gum as an older boy tries to wrestle it away from him, and the same child chewing on a table until his teeth break before tearing a massive strip of flesh from his own arm

in Bring Her Back are seen as worthy of an 18 by the IFCO.

[Azizi23]

What's an 18 rated film today that would've been a 15 back in the 2010s? I feel like Weapons and Kinds of Kindness definitely fit in that criteria.

[doomgen]

Originally Posted by Azizi23

What's an 18 rated film today that would've been a 15 back in the 2010s? I feel like Weapons and Kinds of Kindness definitely fit in that criteria.

I mean, you don't know what's in Weapons yet, it could be pretty extreme at points given that seems to be the trend with 2020s studio horror (I mean take Smile 2 for instance). I think there's a chance of Kinds of Kindness getting an 18 if it came out in the 2010s, but less because of the sexual violence and more because their hang-ups about portrayals of group sex weren't nonexistent back then.

[CavebobSpongeman]

Just read the Insight for Weapons, I don't think I've ever seen so much red on a BBFC page before, holy shit.

[Chris J]

Violence and injury detail appear to have been what pushed it into the 18 category - everything else is 15 level except for alcohol/smoking which is 12 level.

[PurpleDynamite2]

Originally Posted by Azizi23

What's an 18 rated film today that would've been a 15 back in the 2010s? I feel like Weapons and Kinds of Kindness definitely fit in that criteria.

We can’t know if Weapons deserves its rating if it hasn’t even come out yet…

[ghoul-star]

Originally Posted by Azizi23

What's an 18 rated film today that would've been a 15 back in the 2010s? I feel like Weapons and Kinds of Kindness definitely fit in that criteria.

It probably still could've been an 18 under the guidelines of the 2010s, but it wouldn't have surprised me too much if 'The Assessment' got a 15 in the 2000s. The BBFC were pretty bad at picking up on sexual violence during that time, and I think that the fact that the scene in question

[Show spoiler]involves the sexual violence being committed by a woman on a man that heavily revolves around coercion and power dynamics

is something that the BBFC might've just included under "contains sex" descriptor, since the movie has other standard 15-level sex scenes in it anyway

[Jill Valentine]

Originally Posted by caib2003

I find it strange considering the first 3 Scream films are much tamer yet still 18 rated even upon resubmission. First 3 are solid 15 material, 4 was a borderline case imo but I can't decide whether it leans more towards hard 15 or light 18, I'll have to watch it again.

I could see Scream 2 and 3 being 15s, though i can see why they were rated 18 at the time, the school shootings might of made it more strict with 3. But i still think Scream 4 was a lighter 18 rather than 15. The kills were brutal

[ghoul-star]

The missing The Last of Us Season 2 episode has just been rated, and I was right about it being the episode that opens with

[Show spoiler]torture scene

. However, I was entirely wrong when I repeatedly said I was certain that it would get an 18 rating, as it has actually just been given a 15 rating (with quite a lot of content descriptors too, those being "strong language, threat, violence, injury detail, sex, nudity"). I remember originally stating that I predict Andor: Season 2 to get a 15 and The Last of Us Season 2 and Daredevil: Born Again to both get 18s. I still stand on my predictions for Andor S2 and Daredevil but I guess I was overly strict about my prediction for The Last of Us S2. I guess it isn't super shocking though

[CavebobSpongeman]

Princess Mononoke has been upgraded to a 12A. I'm surprised it's taken this long tbh.
https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/princ...jpwwc0zmdu5mtq

[CatSword]

Originally Posted by CavebobSpongeman

Princess Mononoke has been upgraded to a 12A. I'm surprised it's taken this long tbh.
https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/princ...jpwwc0zmdu5mtq

Are off-hand references to brothels really 12A-level now? It wasn't flagged in the advice and was put under "additional issues" for the PG 2014 submission, suggesting it was considered U-level then.

[dominicmgm]

Originally Posted by cavebobspongeman

princess mononoke has been upgraded to a 12a. I'm surprised it's taken this long tbh.
https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/princ...jpwwc0zmdu5mtq

let's goooooooooo

[JamsterYT]

Originally Posted by CatSword

Are off-hand references to brothels really 12A-level now? It wasn't flagged in the advice and was put under "additional issues" for the PG 2014 submission, suggesting it was considered U-level then.

Is it down to manner of phrasing in sub/dub? I notice there are two entries, one of which does not contain the "sex references" advisory.

[Withnail74]

PoCA cuts to a Japanese erotic thriller from 1971 that was submitted by 88 Films:

https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/sex-r...pwwc0xmdi4ndg4

[KernowKnight]

It seems they really came down hard on the POCA stuff in just the last 2 or 3 years. Tin Drum was uncut in 2020 despite all the sexual content with children present. You would imagine it would surely be heavily cut if resubmitted again now.

It could be they mentioned changes to their approach to POCA in their 2021/22 annual reports and I simply don't recall it.

[NuXiaolin]

Originally Posted by KernowKnight

It seems they really came down hard on the POCA stuff in just the last 2 or 3 years. Tin Drum was uncut in 2020 despite all the sexual content with children present. You would imagine it would surely be heavily cut if resubmitted again now.

It could be they mentioned changes to their approach to POCA in their 2021/22 annual reports and I simply don't recall it.

There was a scene in the recent release of SHAOLIN BOXERS that I thought might have been affected, but that was passed uncut. I haven't seen TIM DRUM or the Japanese title so can't comment on those.

[NuXiaolin]

On the subject of POCA, it hasn't been seen by the BBFC yet, but does anyone know if UK Customs has issues with the US Kino BD of CHILD BRIDE, which is part of their Forbidden Fruit collection of 30s/40s exploitation titles. It's the only one in the range I don't have, as I don't fancy getting a call from the Dibble over it!