R43 - Horror, Genre & Age Ratings + The Woman in Black

On Thursday 11th of February, we went to Picture House in Stratford where we had a small half an hour presentation by the BBFC's Heidi Renton, on the horror genre and age ratings of a film. She spoke about the history of ratings for horror films and how it previously used to be rated as 'x' as opposed to 18, and how over time, certificates have changes due to what is acceptable to society. 

For example, in Dracula, it was originally rated an X in 1958, however it was re-released on video in 1997, which a different certificate than before. It then was re released again by the BFI, however as a 12A as opposed to an x rated film.




She then went on to talking about The Woman in Black, and how they wanted to release it as a 12A. But in order to do so, the producers had to make six seconds of cuts in order for the BBFC to change the rating. The problems were that they had jump scares, blood and specific scenes not suitable for a 12A, therefore they cut out action parts of visibly seeing gruesome parts.