Director James Wan has two films for moviegoers to look forward to this year. First, there’s Insidious: Chapter 2, the follow up to his extremely successful 2010 film. Then, he also has his “true life” haunted house film The Conjuring. It will follow the Perrons family, who enlist the help of paranormal investigators after they start to experience “strange phenomena in their home.” Ron Livingston, Vera Farming, Patrick Wilson and Lili Taylor will star and so far, buzz is pretty positive.
Having seen Insidious, we know that Wan can conjure (sorry, we had to) up the scares even with a PG-13 rating, which is why we didn’t mind when we heard that his newest film probably wasn’t going to be rated R.
Unfortunately for Wan though, the MPAA is looking to give The Conjuring a Restricted rating. The funny part is that the R isn’t because of blood, violence or anything like that. It’s because the film is too scary.
Speaking to PeliBlog, producer Walter Hamada had this to say:
“When we sent it [to MPAA], they gave us the R-rating. When we asked them why, they basically said, ‘It’s just so scary. [There are] no specific scenes or tone you could take out to get it PG-13.’”
For now, Warner Bros. will keep the July release date and not make any cuts. Wan confirmed this with the following comment:
“[Is] a testament to the studio for not f*cking with the film. It works and they are sticking to it and I’m very thankful for that.“
Honestly, I’m happy that they are sticking with the R. Besides, marketing the film as “too scary for a PG-13” could work out well. Early test screenings have been extremely positive, with many calling it the most terrifying film that they’ve seen in years. Having loved Insidious, I can’t wait for The Conjuring. It looks like it will be similar in that it uses old-fashioned scare tactics to instill fear in the audience, rather than relying on blood, gore, CGI, etc.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a film being rated R simply for being too scary either and it’s yet another reason why we should all be eagerly anticipating James Wan’s next effort.
What do you think? Is the hype real? Is The Conjuring going to be that scary?
