Horror fans have learned to be wary of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), who issue ratings for movies and have been historically strict about the kind of violence that’s inherent to the genre. So when it was announced that the new remake of Bob Clark’s Black Christmas was going to be PG-13, audiences were understandably concerned that the movie might have been cut down from an R-rating to get a more audience-friendly rating.
But according to Sophia Takal, the director of the new Black Christmas, the real story is a lot simpler than the conspiracy theories that ran through many a horror fan’s head. Bloody-Disgusting spoke to her on the phone and got the real scoop.
“Okay, the truth behind was that as we were writing the script we were talking the rating, and were unsure what the MPAA would end up coming down on,” Sophia Takal explains. “Not because of the violence or anything like that, but because of the topic and how I had at least heard that the MPAA is pretty conservative about what they allow in a PG-13 movie when it comes to female sexuality, and because sexual assault is a big part of the plot. We just weren’t sure where they would land.”
The concerns make sense: the plot of the new Black Christmas follows a sexual assault survivor and her sorority friends when they are targeted by a cult of misogynist murderers, and the film deals frankly with the real-life horrors involved in the story. Cutting those elements out of the film would be nearly impossible.
“So the idea was always let’s try to make a PG-13 movie if we can because we want people to see the movie, because they’re young and excited and we want to open up the genre and these stories to young people,” Takal says. “But we should be prepared, if the MPAA won’t give it a PG-13 rating, to make a great R movie too.”
“The MPAA was, in the end, open, [and] ended up giving us a PG-13 with all the stuff about the sexual assault, and that was the stuff that I was like, I really don’t want to soften that,” Takal continues. “I don’t want to soften any of that stuff. So if they come back and say it has to be R, we’ll be prepared to make it R, but because they came back and made it PG-13 with all the sexual assault stuff in it, we were able to make the PG-13 version of the movie.”
So the goal was always to make a PG-13 film, but to embrace the R-rating if that’s what the MPAA told them Black Christmas had to be because of its subject matter. But that doesn’t mean Sophia Takal’s film was going to hold back on the kills. Takal says her film stays true to the level to violence from the original horror classic.
“The thing that was really interesting to me about everyone’s reaction to [the rating] on the internet was that the original movie is not particularly gory, and the kills are so artful, and the intercutting they have between a woman getting killed and the Christmas carolers, all of that stuff,” Takal recalls. “What makes it so scary is what you’re not seeing on screen and what your imagination is doing.”
“In these movies, one of the things we talked a lot about was your imagination is always going to make something seem grosser than whatever practical or special effects you’re going to put on this movie. So that was something that we always talked about,” Takal continues.
“Yeah, it was just an interesting process. We kind of were preparing for either scenario but my intention always was to try to make a PG-13 version of the movie that’s scary and has these dark scenes but again, because of the nature of the original one and one of the things that I loved so much about it, which is its lack of explicit gore, I was comfortable with kills that were maybe a little bit more creative and less disgusting, if you will,” Takal says.
You’ll see for yourself just how hard-edged the new Black Christmas gets soon, if you haven’t already. It’s in theaters now, and you can read our review right here.
