‘M3GAN’ just received its content rating, and horror lovers are ready to throw in the towel

When it comes to horror, most fans know what they want. They want to be scared out of their skin, be it psychological terror, gore and blood, jump scares, or slow burns that mess with your mind. What they don’t want is something “safe” and with the much-anticipated horror movie, M3GAN‘s recent rating, some are already beginning to lose interest.

Rating systems work so theaters and viewers are aware of what kind of content there might be in a film that may be unsuitable for others, mainly young children. If a film is full of graphic violence, swearing, graphic physical intimacy, nudity, or is just deeply disturbing, it will most likely get an R rating (restricted) or even a NC-17 (adults only). This is what a lot of people want from their horror films.

Most of the biggest horror movies have this type of rating. The Conjuring franchise is all rated R for its “disturbing violence and terror,” the Saw franchise is equally rated R (with the original cut of the first film rated NC-17) thanks to its brutal and gory sequences, another doll based horror franchise starring the evil Chucky is also R rated. So seeing M3GAN earn a PG-13 (parents strongly cautioned) has many already doubting whether it will actually be able to scare them at all.

The film follows a young girl, Cady (Jenna Davis), who moves in with her aunt, Gemma (Allison Williams), following the tragic death of her parents. Seeing her niece lonely and isolated, Gemma decides to introduce her to the product she has been working on, an AI doll designed to make sure no child feels alone: model-3 generative android or M3GAN for short. Things start to go south quickly when M3GAN takes her role as Cady’s protector a little too seriously, even ignoring her programming to make Cady happy.

The film received a huge amount of hype when the trailer was released, with many commenting about it on Twitter and creating a whole host of new memes, but now fans are mixed on whether or not this will actually provide the thrills and spine-chills required of a horror movie.

Many feel like a killer doll movie rated a PG-13 will end up falling short of terrifying.

Many believe the rating is indicative of a terrible horror movie.

This user, like many others, couldn’t believe the rating after that bloody trailer.

Many fans even suggested that people should ignore the horror film for another creepy doll show instead.

Stating that the ginger doll’s reign of terror still stands undisputed.

On the other hand, many horror enthusiasts also pointed out that there are some great PG-13 horrors out there.

And this may indicate a high level of camp, which is what had so many interested when the trailer came out.

There are indeed many terrifying PG-13 movies out there: Insidious, A Quiet Place, The Ring, and The Sixth Sense are all great examples. Though it does mean we can expect fewer graphic gory scenes, there are still other ways the film can scare us senseless, or if some are to be believed make us laugh out loud at the camp nature of this film. Regardless, let’s see what the critics have to say, or better yet judge for ourselves when M3GAN comes out in theatres on Jan. 6.