areseven t1_j9yauya wrote on February 25, 2023 at 1:27 PM

Reply to comment by flippythemaster in TIL Poltergeist, which came out in 1982, was rated PG. This is despite not just the movie fitting perfectly into the horror genre, but also many adult themes including the smoking of marijuana and a deep dive into the occult. by duganaok

Yeah, this is exactly it. At that time, G was seen as just for kids, and R was seen as just for adults. So PG was the standard. I’m not sure why the author of the article is so confused about how it got a PG rating. I guess you had to be there to understand!

Also worth mentioning that it’s funny now to think that The Sound Of Music was rated G in spite of largely being about the rise of Nazis. It just simply meant “this film is fine for everyone”. But they were still trusting that people would actually know what kind of movie it was and what it was about. Clearly a mistake!