Drag Me to Hell Rated PG-13; Fanboys Commit Hari-Kari

Sam Raimi's eagerly anticipated return to horror, Drag Me to Hell, has been slapped with the dreaded PG-13 rating. Dreaded, that is, for horror movie fans who associate the rating with tween-targeted "horror lite" fare like Prom Night and The Haunting of Molly Hartley and not with a director who began his career with the bloody splatter-fests that were the first two Evil Dead movies. That said, the rating isn't a complete shock, given the third Evil Dead film, Army of Darkness, was rated PG-13 and had a distinctly more family-friendly vibe -- not to mention the fact that Raimi's been busy with the Spider-Man movies over the past few years. The rating is "for sequences of horror violence, terror, disturbing images and language," which sounds good to me, PG-13 or not. You have to remember that:

1. Raimi is still a good director.
2. There have been quite a few enjoyable PG-13 horror movies (The Ring, The Others, The Sixth Sense, etc.).
3. The trailer still looks fun.

Not to rub salt in Raimi fans' wounds, but last week, the upcoming "evil kid" movie Orphan was rated R, as was the Edgar Allan Poe adaptation Tell-Tale and the Spanish zombie flick Rec (upon which Quarantine was based) -- meaning that it may soon see release here in the US. That's good news...right?

Source: The Hollywood Reporter