Sometime in the last year or so, motion picture studios have made the bold step of explaining what caused the MPAA to give the films the ratings they did. Underneath an average "R" Rating, you may see such creative reasons as "Western Violence" or "Explicit Situations." And, while "Pervasive Drug Use" may be enough to keep away the CAP crowd, it would stand to reason that it has the (possibly) unexpected side effect of drawing in all those who want to know exactly how much drug use has to be portrayed in a film for it to be considered "pervasive."
So it was really only a matter of time before one of the studios realized that by playing up all the non-family friendly aspects of their film, as determined by a fair and non-biased (chortle) orgnization like the MPAA (smirk), they could get some extra street cred among their audience.
One of the TV spots for the upcoming William Castle remake Thirteen Ghosts does just that. Instead of the voice over guy reading something like "In a land where houses were made of glass and scary monsters...," he simply reads the disclaimer, informing people that the MPAA has determined that Thirteen Ghosts contains Horror Violence and Gore, Nudity, and "Some Language" (The rest of the film, we presume, is naught but screaming) If there are words besides Gore, Violence, and Nudity that draw horror fans to the movie theatres, I don't know what they are.
Rating: A (It's About Time)
Reviewed by Padgett Arango