‘Five Nights At Freddy’s’ Director Defends Film's PG-13 Rating

TV & Film

Oct 30

If there’s one thing that makes horror fans uneasy, it’s a PG-13 rating. Usually, such a rating indicates that a film has been neutered to the point where it loses all of its impact, the filmmakers aren’t taking any risks, or, worst of all, the studio just wants a nice, bland film that the high schoolers can go see by themselves. If the movie is rated R, the thirteen to sixteen-year-olds can’t go see it without an adult, and that means less money.

The Prom Night remake was a perfect example of why that kind of thing is a disaster. As such, it’s no surprise that people were a little annoyed when it became known that the long-awaited film adaptation of the mega-hit horror video game franchise Five Nights at Freddy’s was going to get that dreaded PG-13 rating.

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Of course, there are several great PG-13 horror films (offerings such as A Quiet Place, The Sixth Sense, 1408 and The Others prove that) but they aren’t as common. However, director Emma Tammi has assured the public that there will be no future R-rated version of the film, saying,

“We knew that some of the fan base would want an R-rated version of this film. On the one level, we wanted to be inclusive of the younger audiences and knew we were going to hit the PG-13 rating, but for the audience that also wanted that level of violence, if you will, or at least insinuation of violence, we really wanted to still include elements that felt dark. Of course, there are a lot of dark elements to see in the lore, but in terms of some of the kills and everything, it was just all execution dependent,” she continued. “I would say not to expect an R-rated version on this one. We’re really happy with how the PG-13 tone landed; it felt like the right fit for this particular film. We’re sticking by it.”

Whether or not that works remains to be seen, but so far things look promising. While blasted by critics, the movie has a high audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, so she may have gotten her wish. Either way, we’re not getting a more graphic version of Freddy and friends.

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