20 Movies That Should Never Have Been Rated PG
By NoelGRSr
Image: YouTube/Eurekaentertainment
It must be tough deciding a suitable age range for a movie release. Some, however, with their graphic violence or sexual overtones, are no-brainers – or so you would think. The following 20 movies were all, for some reason, placed into the PG category by the ratings board at the Motion Picture Association of America. Some of these decisions will have you scratching your head.
Image: YouTube/Movieclips Trailer
If you don’t want your child asking awkward questions about sex, best avoid the 1980 comedyAirplane! Aside from some hilarious but very questionable – and downright unsavory – conversations is a scene that essentially simulates oral sex. On a blow-up pilot.
Image: YouTube/Movieclips
The year 1975 must have seen many a kid scarred by Jaws, the story of a shark with a ravenous taste for human flesh, not to mention gore. We’ll never know how many grown-ups are still afraid of the sea because they saw Steven Spielberg’s movie when they were a little too young.
Image: YouTube/80s
The DVD for 1988’s Beetlejuice cut the scene where the titular character grabs his nether regions and shouts an obscenity. But plenty of kids saw it at the cinema, which no doubt led to plenty of inappropriate mimicry.
Image: YouTube/Thesessionclubmix Tvshow
1984’s Gremlins starts out with the insanely cute mogwai Gizmo, but things soon turn very dark and very violent. If your kid isn’t terrified by the murderous green monsters or their various gruesome demises, they just might be a gremlin themselves. Best not feed them after midnight.
Image: YouTube/Movieclips Trailer Vault
Director Steven Spielberg successfully appealed for Poltergeist to get a PG rating after it was (quite rightly, we reckon) originally rated R. The spirit-based horror was unleashed in 1982 to provide nightmare fuel and mental scarring to countless little girls and boys. Unsurprisingly, its rating has since been revised.
Image: YouTube/Film Trailers in HD and HQ
Sometimes, it seems as though Steven Spielberg is intent on warping the minds of children. In 1984, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom brought its occult-based action adventure to screens to terrify kids with the idea of child slavery and literally heart-wrenching scenes of blood and horror.
Image: YouTube/Video Detective
1981’s Mommie Dearest is definitely not family material, unless it’s the Addams Family we’re talking about. The biopic features some highly distressing scenes of domestic abuse – including a girl being beaten with a wire coat hanger. Nasty.
Image: YouTube/Movieclips
Released in 2009, Coraline is enough to make most children (and their parents) hide behind the sofa. The titular Coraline stumbles on an alternate dimension and family… the mother of which is actually a soul-stealing spider made of needles who wants to sew buttons onto Coraline’s eyes so she’ll stay forever. Cute.
Image: YouTube/The TrailerGal
Two words: the Wheelers. Any kids who saw 1985’s Return to Oz will tell you how horrifying these abominations are. And on top of that there’s Dorothy’s electric-shock treatment in an insane asylum and the living headless witch. But mostly: the Wheelers.
Image: YouTube/MrAris67
What part of an Alfred Hitchcock movie featuring birds pecking people to death sounds like it should be labelled PG? The Birds was released in 1963, ruffling a few feathers as its unsuspecting younger audience were given ornithological nightmares for years to come.
Image: YouTube/TrailersPlaygroundHD
Released in 1984, Ghostbusters has all the ingredients for giving children the willies about ghosts – demonic possession, evil devil dogs and, perhaps the scariest of all, the old ghost woman in the library. It’s hard enough getting children into the library without them seeing that.
Image: YouTube/Thesessionclubmix Tvshow
Let’s put aside the fact that Willy Wonka’s name is dangerously close to British slang for masturbation. 1971’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’s candy mill is a slightly sadistic den of dark cautionary tales for children, as the factory’s young offenders are taught life lessons in the harshest possible ways.
Image: YouTube/Paramount Movies
Image: YouTube/Eurekaentertainment
Now this would be an awkward one for a kid to watch with mom and dad. Wizards – released in 1977 – may be a cartoon animation, but this post-apocalyptic fantasy was created by Ralph Bakshi (known for X-rated cartoons) and features constantly prominent nipples, Nazi imagery, and violent, bloody war scenes.
Image: YouTube/indebioscoop
Though the underlying message is a noble one, the heart-wrenching Plague Dogs should be kept as far away from children as possible, thanks to its scenes of animal experimentation and graphic violence. Making its debut in 1982, the story follows laboratory test animals that escape and are hunted down as possible plague carriers.
Image: YouTube/Skully1200
A first-time watching of 1982’s The Secret of NIMH goes something like this: “Aww, an uplifting film about cute, cuddly rodents, let’s all sit down and watch it together… OH GOD WHY ARE THEY ALL DYING?” Save your children owl-based nightmares and don’t show them this movie.
Image: YouTube/Movieclips Trailer Vault
Anyone who remembers the stickers will know what to expect from 1987’s The Garbage Pail Kids Movie. There is no part of this film that isn’t offensive: the absolutely hideous puppets, a crocodile that eats fingers and toes, and an unhealthy relationship between a child and an older woman. Yuck.
Image: YouTube/ytvodtest0
The Little Monsters movie released in 1989 is supposed to feature the monsters under your bed, and they should probably stay there if you have children around. Youngster-unfriendly scenes include child abduction by the monsters, melting faces and a child’s head being torn off his shoulders.
Image: YouTube/Jake Rutigliano
1993 saw the release of Hocus Pocus, a movie about three soul-stealing witches who take the lives of children in order to stay young. Exactly what part of that isn’t terrifying to youngsters we’ll never know, but anything involving infanticide should probably be avoided when it comes to family-friendly entertainment.
Image: YouTube/Umbrella Entertainment
At first glance, 1978’s Watership Down might seem like an uplifting tale of cartoon fluffy bunnies, but this brutal story is more like a post-apocalyptic rabbit survival film with violent, bloody fight scenes and death. It’s also renowned for making grown men cry like babies.
It must be tough deciding a suitable age range for a movie release. Some, however, with their graphic violence or sexual overtones, are no-brainers – or so you would think. The following 20 movies were all, for some reason, placed into the PG category by the ratings board at the Motion Picture Association of America. Some of these decisions will have you scratching your head.
Image: YouTube/Movieclips Trailer20. Airplane! (1980)
If you don’t want your child asking awkward questions about sex, best avoid the 1980 comedyAirplane! Aside from some hilarious but very questionable – and downright unsavory – conversations is a scene that essentially simulates oral sex. On a blow-up pilot.
Image: YouTube/Movieclips19. Jaws (1975)
The year 1975 must have seen many a kid scarred by Jaws, the story of a shark with a ravenous taste for human flesh, not to mention gore. We’ll never know how many grown-ups are still afraid of the sea because they saw Steven Spielberg’s movie when they were a little too young.
Image: YouTube/80s
18. Beetlejuice (1988)
The DVD for 1988’s Beetlejuice cut the scene where the titular character grabs his nether regions and shouts an obscenity. But plenty of kids saw it at the cinema, which no doubt led to plenty of inappropriate mimicry.
Image: YouTube/Thesessionclubmix Tvshow17. Gremlins (1984)
1984’s Gremlins starts out with the insanely cute mogwai Gizmo, but things soon turn very dark and very violent. If your kid isn’t terrified by the murderous green monsters or their various gruesome demises, they just might be a gremlin themselves. Best not feed them after midnight.
Image: YouTube/Movieclips Trailer Vault16. Poltergeist (1982)
Director Steven Spielberg successfully appealed for Poltergeist to get a PG rating after it was (quite rightly, we reckon) originally rated R. The spirit-based horror was unleashed in 1982 to provide nightmare fuel and mental scarring to countless little girls and boys. Unsurprisingly, its rating has since been revised.
Image: YouTube/Film Trailers in HD and HQ
15. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
Sometimes, it seems as though Steven Spielberg is intent on warping the minds of children. In 1984, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom brought its occult-based action adventure to screens to terrify kids with the idea of child slavery and literally heart-wrenching scenes of blood and horror.
Image: YouTube/Video Detective14. Mommie Dearest (1981)
1981’s Mommie Dearest is definitely not family material, unless it’s the Addams Family we’re talking about. The biopic features some highly distressing scenes of domestic abuse – including a girl being beaten with a wire coat hanger. Nasty.
Image: YouTube/Movieclips13. Coraline (2009)
Released in 2009, Coraline is enough to make most children (and their parents) hide behind the sofa. The titular Coraline stumbles on an alternate dimension and family… the mother of which is actually a soul-stealing spider made of needles who wants to sew buttons onto Coraline’s eyes so she’ll stay forever. Cute.
Image: YouTube/The TrailerGal12. Return to Oz (1985)
Two words: the Wheelers. Any kids who saw 1985’s Return to Oz will tell you how horrifying these abominations are. And on top of that there’s Dorothy’s electric-shock treatment in an insane asylum and the living headless witch. But mostly: the Wheelers.
Image: YouTube/MrAris6711. The Birds (1963)
What part of an Alfred Hitchcock movie featuring birds pecking people to death sounds like it should be labelled PG? The Birds was released in 1963, ruffling a few feathers as its unsuspecting younger audience were given ornithological nightmares for years to come.
Image: YouTube/TrailersPlaygroundHD10. Ghostbusters (1984)
Released in 1984, Ghostbusters has all the ingredients for giving children the willies about ghosts – demonic possession, evil devil dogs and, perhaps the scariest of all, the old ghost woman in the library. It’s hard enough getting children into the library without them seeing that.
Image: YouTube/Thesessionclubmix Tvshow9. Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)
Let’s put aside the fact that Willy Wonka’s name is dangerously close to British slang for masturbation. 1971’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’s candy mill is a slightly sadistic den of dark cautionary tales for children, as the factory’s young offenders are taught life lessons in the harshest possible ways.
Image: YouTube/Paramount Movies
Image: YouTube/Eurekaentertainment7. Wizards (1977)
Now this would be an awkward one for a kid to watch with mom and dad. Wizards – released in 1977 – may be a cartoon animation, but this post-apocalyptic fantasy was created by Ralph Bakshi (known for X-rated cartoons) and features constantly prominent nipples, Nazi imagery, and violent, bloody war scenes.
Image: YouTube/indebioscoop6. The Plague Dogs (1982)
Though the underlying message is a noble one, the heart-wrenching Plague Dogs should be kept as far away from children as possible, thanks to its scenes of animal experimentation and graphic violence. Making its debut in 1982, the story follows laboratory test animals that escape and are hunted down as possible plague carriers.
Image: YouTube/Skully12005. The Secret of NIMH (1982)
A first-time watching of 1982’s The Secret of NIMH goes something like this: “Aww, an uplifting film about cute, cuddly rodents, let’s all sit down and watch it together… OH GOD WHY ARE THEY ALL DYING?” Save your children owl-based nightmares and don’t show them this movie.
Image: YouTube/Movieclips Trailer Vault4. The Garbage Pail Kids Movie (1987)
Anyone who remembers the stickers will know what to expect from 1987’s The Garbage Pail Kids Movie. There is no part of this film that isn’t offensive: the absolutely hideous puppets, a crocodile that eats fingers and toes, and an unhealthy relationship between a child and an older woman. Yuck.
Image: YouTube/ytvodtest03. Little Monsters (1989)
The Little Monsters movie released in 1989 is supposed to feature the monsters under your bed, and they should probably stay there if you have children around. Youngster-unfriendly scenes include child abduction by the monsters, melting faces and a child’s head being torn off his shoulders.
Image: YouTube/Jake Rutigliano2. Hocus Pocus (1993)
1993 saw the release of Hocus Pocus, a movie about three soul-stealing witches who take the lives of children in order to stay young. Exactly what part of that isn’t terrifying to youngsters we’ll never know, but anything involving infanticide should probably be avoided when it comes to family-friendly entertainment.
Image: YouTube/Umbrella Entertainment1. Watership Down (1978)
At first glance, 1978’s Watership Down might seem like an uplifting tale of cartoon fluffy bunnies, but this brutal story is more like a post-apocalyptic rabbit survival film with violent, bloody fight scenes and death. It’s also renowned for making grown men cry like babies.