Movies
Jennifer Lynch On Why She Doesn’t Get the NC-17 Rating For ‘Chained’
Just a day or so ago we reported that The Classification and Rating Appeals Board upheld the NC-17 rating given to the movie Chained. The Classification and Rating Administration (CARA) had assigned the movie the NC-17 rating for “some explicit violence.” This decision was made despite several appeals. The Appeals Board heard statements on behalf of Chained from Kevin Carney, Executive Director of Marketing at Anchor Bay, and Jennifer Lynch, the Director of the film. The scene in question is an image of a throat being cut.
But Jennifer Lynch still (politely) disagrees. Speaking to The LA Times she says, “The one thing they [the appeals board] kept citing was context, that violence in a lot of other films doesn’t feel as intense. I have a lot of compassion for what [the MPAA] does. And they were all very nice and warm in the room. But it doesn’t seem fair to me. I feel like we are being punished because the film was done the way it was set out to be done, which was authentically.”
She will cut the film, but hopes that the unrated version will be available in come capacity as well. But she doesn’t see the scene as being particularly shocking. “Horror fans will see it and be stunned at the NC-17. They’ve seen much worse.” Kevin Carney adds, “There were horrific scenes in ‘Hostel 3’ that I can’t get out of my head, but what the MPAA kept saying is that it was context, which seems arbitrary. Compare our movie to ‘Sweeney Todd,’ where 13 or 14 people get their throat slit. There’s an equal amount of graphic-ness. It’s just a different style.”
Head inside for the film’s sales trailer to see what all of the commotion is (or isn’t) about.
Movies
‘Abigail’ on Track for a Better Opening Weekend Than Universal’s Previous Two Vampire Attempts
In the wake of Leigh Whannell’s Invisible Man back in 2020, Universal has been struggling to achieve further box office success with their Universal Monsters brand. Even in the early days of the pandemic, Invisible Man scared up $144 million at the worldwide box office, while last year’s Universal Monsters: Dracula movies The Last Voyage of the Demeter and Renfield didn’t even approach that number when you COMBINE their individual box office hauls.
The horror-comedy Renfield came along first in April 2023, ending its run with just $26 million. The period piece Last Voyage of the Demeter ended its own run with a mere $21 million.
But Universal is trying again with their ballerina vampire movie Abigail this weekend, the latest bloodbath directed by the filmmakers known as Radio Silence (Ready or Not, Scream).
Unlike Demeter and Renfield, the early reviews for Abigail are incredibly strong, with our own Meagan Navarro calling the film “savagely inventive in terms of its vampiric gore,” ultimately “offering a thrill ride with sharp, pointy teeth.” Read her full review here.
That early buzz – coupled with some excellent trailers – should drive Abigail to moderate box office success, the film already scaring up $1 million in Thursday previews last night. Variety notes that Abigail is currently on track to enjoy a $12 million – $15 million opening weekend, which would smash Renfield ($8 million) and Demeter’s ($6 million) opening weekends.
Working to Abigail‘s advantage is the film’s reported $28 million production budget, making it a more affordable box office bet for Universal than the two aforementioned movies.
Stay tuned for more box office reporting in the coming days.
In Abigail, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
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