Movies

12 Great Sci-Fi Movies That Should Have Been Rated R

12 Great Sci-Fi Movies That Should Have Been Rated R
Image credit: Universal Pictures

The Motion Picture Association film rating system isn't as straightforward as it seems at first.

Some of the movies that were rated PG-13 ended up being so disturbing that they would definitely be better if they were R-rated and were able to reach the intended audience without making the viewers who weren't ready for whatever was depicted uncomfortable. This is especially true for these sci-fi works.

The movie becomes R-rated if it includes lots of profanity, violence, or depictions of sexual activities.

These movies tend to attract a smaller audience, so in order to reach more people, filmmakers try to tame them down and get a PG-13 rating for them, but sometimes the fact that all the formalities are met doesn't make the movie actually acceptable for the younger viewers.

And it rarely helps because the audience ends up getting a trimmed-down version of what would've been amazing as a full-blown R-rated work yet it was softened and lost some of the important, impactful things because of that.

These movies often only hint at the grittier parts, like Frequency or M3GAN, and never deliver the much-needed tension and gore that would've elevated the whole experience, which makes them bland.