When fans think of horror movies, they want something to scare them. No holds barred within the confines of the MPAA rating guidelines. So, this usually means rated-R, restricted, no one under 17 allowed without a parent or a guardian.
But for years, the PG-13 rating has been used to gain more teenagers to view horror movies without a chaperon to generate more revenue. Avid fans of horror films feel that they have been cheated because the product has been “watered down” removed from the blood, guts, violence and language of true horror films. Can a film achieve true horrors status without a rated R rating? This question has been debated for quite sometime.
Updated July 22, 2020 by Zach Gass: Just because it comes with an R rating doesn’t mean it’s always a good scary movie. On the contrary, there are plenty of horror flicks that get away with great scares without resorting to gratuitous amounts of guts and gore to get their reactions. Sometimes the subtler scares are more effective than the splattery mess one might find in any R-rated horror feature. There has been a sort of boom with PG-13 films in the genre, as well as other forgotten features brought back by cult status.
Here are the 15 best PG-13 horror movies, ranked:
15 The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)
When movie lovers hear exorcism, they immediately think of one of the best horror films of all-time, William Friedkin’s The Exorcist. So, horror fans expected that The Exorcism of Emily Rose would live up to some measure of Friedkin’s masterpiece. But its PG-13 rating caused a lot of skepticism. After its release, any reservations were quickly put to rest.
The film is based on the real-life of Annelise Michel who was diagnosed with Epilepsy due to a series of visions and episodes. The family was not successful in the attempts to cure her, so they turned to the church for an exorcism that ended her life.
14 Devil (2010)
In 2010, a small film inspired by a story from M. Night Shyamalan scared and intrigued audience members with its name alone, Devil.
A group of people is trapped in an elevator and unknowing to them, the devil is one of them. During intense moments and terrifying events, viewers have to guess who in the group is the devil. It is a very interesting concept that inspires audience participation.
This was intended to be the first of three installments of Shyamalan’s “The Night Chronicles”, a brand consistent in tones and themes. But it never came to fruition.
13 Lights Out (2016)
Two years before David F. Sandberg directed the hit superhero movie, Shazam!, he directed Lights Out.
Martin (Gabriel Bateman) tells his sister, Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) that their mother talks to a strange woman at night. The mysterious ghost of a woman named Diane (Alicia Vela-Bailey), who his mother (Maria Bello) befriended as a child in a mental institution and was killed by the hospital staff during an experimental surgery.
The stunning visual effects of only seeing this creature at night were both ingenious and wild to watch, making viewers fear things that go bump or kill in the night.
12 The Grudge (2004)
Because of the success of the American remake of The Ring, Sony saw an opportunity with another Japanese film to be made for an American audience. It is a remake of Takashi Shimizu’s Japanese horror film that was done two years earlier, Ju-On: The Grudge.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Sarah Michelle Gellar stars in Sam Raimi’s The Grudge. Gellar plays a nurse who, while working and living in Tokyo is tormented by a supernatural curse. It happens when a person dies the grip of extreme rage or sorrow. Eventually, the person dies, and the curse is reborn time and again, passing from one victim to another.
The movie was an instant success that sparked two other installments and a remake in 2020.
11 Insidious (2010)
Famed director James Wan, who kept moviegoers guessing until the last scene in Saw, directed this horror movie that its popularity had audiences raving for more spiriting a franchise that consisted of three additional films in the series.
A child in a comatose state called The Further invites evil spirits that his family must fight and destroy. Patrick Wilson, who plays Ed Warren in The Conjuring films, and Rose Byrne are excellent as the afraid but determined parents of their haunted son, Dalton (Ty Simpkins).
With the suspense and the attention to minuscule details, that builds intensity, this movie has the feel of a rated-R classic. The family believes that the house is haunted that is causing this evil, but as the psychic Elaine Rainier (Lin Shaye) states, “it’s not your house that is haunted, it is your son.”
10 Cloverfield (2008)
Who doesn’t love a disaster movie produced by J. J. Abrams about a mysterious creature destroying New York City viewed from the first-person point of view?
Lizzie Caplan stars in the amusement park ride of horror movies where she and a group of friends try to get out of New York before it is destroyed by a monster of gigantic proportions.
Even though there is no resolution of what is happening or why it is happening, viewers enjoy every minute of this thrill ride of mayhem and destruction. Surprisingly, it is not rated-R, but the language is subdued, and the violence comes close to the restricted line but never crosses it.
9 A Quiet Place (2018)
To sit in a theater in total silence is what most moviegoers relish. But to sit in total silence when the movie is low on dialogue is an unusual and uncomfortable feeling. But that awkward feeling was the desired intention of the film.
A Quiet Place is about a family who is forced to live in silence because monsters with very sensitive hearing pick out their prey by sound.
The husband and wife team of John Krasinski and Emily Blunt are excellent as the struggling parents fighting for the survival of their children that makes it very authentic and relatable.
8 The Sixth Sense (1999)
The Sixth Sense is the film that made the line “I see dead people” part of cinematic lore and made M. Night Shyamalan an instant success.
Bruce Willis is a psychologist who helps a boy (Haley Joel Osment) who claims that he can communicate with ghosts walking around not knowing that they are dead.
It is a well-written film that doesn’t rely on special effects or jump scares; it makes audience members think and slowly builds suspense and anticipation, with a powerful ending. Enticing everyone to watch it again to see the hidden clues that were missed.
7 Drag Me to Hell (2009)
Spider-Man Director Sam Raimi brings a tense horror movie to the big screen in Drag Me to Hell, the winner of the Best Horror Film in 2009 at the Scream Awards. With the action of a Marvel movie and the suspense thrills of The Evil Dead, Drag Me to Hell is exactly what the name implies.
A loan officer of a bank (Allison Lohman), vying for the job of assistant manager, denies an elderly woman (Lorna Raver) a loan for her house causing her to be evicted. She is then cursed by the woman.
The film is a fiercely intense ride with the feel and looks of its R-rated cousins.
6 The Ring (2002)
Based on the Japanese film, Ringu, The Ring was an immediate success generating over $249 million in revenue worldwide. Arguably, it is the scariest PG-13 movie to date.
Director Gore Verbinski ‘s thriller had a compelling marketing campaign that consisted of a movie trailer that had a ghostly woman whose face is covered by her long dark hair and climbs out of a well in the middle of the woods. Wearing a dirty white dress, she slowly walks towards the screen and crawls out of the television set. Parts of the trailer are in black and white, grainy, cold and eye-catching. This was one of those movies that drove people to the theater for that scene alone.
The brilliant premise of viral death kept audiences on the edge of their seats with disturbing images that made them watch with intensity having the desire to pull away but cannot.
5 The Possession (2012)
Nowadays, demonic possession movies are a dime a dozen from Regan McNeil to Emily Rose. However, this take on the urban legend of the Dybbuk Box provides something a little more original. Instead of the traditional Christian/Catholic doctrine and traditions, The Possession uses a creature from Jewish traditions.
A tale of a child-eating demon with an attachment to a mysterious box results in a refreshing take on the possession genre. Granted, the scares are more skin-crawling and disgusting than bloody and visceral. But the results remain as disturbing as something out of a Cronenberg film. Plus, it’s not often a demon makes a full physical appearance in its film.
4 Arachnophobia (1990)
One of the most criminally underrated horror-comedies in existence has to be 1990’s Arachnophobia. There are definite notes of Joe Dante in this creepy-crawly creature feature. If the title wasn’t enough to give it away, this movie concerns a rather sinister spider species that overruns a sleepy little town.
When a deadly Amazon spider crossbreeds with a brown recluse, the spawn makes a town full of unsuspecting citizens their prey. Soon, there are more webs and nests than houses and it becomes a battle of the species. Good thing John Goodman arrives with a flamethrower to even the score.
3 Split (2017)
M. Night Shyamalan might have a bit of a reputation when it comes to his more recent work, but Split is definitely a film for the good books. A different breed of psychological horror film, Split‘s monster in question is a man suffering from a multiple-personality disorder played by the incomparable James McAvoy.
McAvoy’s performance absolutely sells the film. The way he’s able to seamlessly transition between his various personae, including the insidious Beast, is absolutely chilling. As fans soon recognize, it becomes more than just a get-out-and-escape scenario.
2 The Others (2001)
To put it bluntly, The Others is a film that will unashamedly mess with the viewer’s head. Disturbing, chilling, haunting, and frightening are all accurate descriptions of this movie, but not for the reasons one would imagine. The film takes the gothic haunted house scenario and completely turns it over on its head.
Without going into spoiler territory, while this film checks most boxes for standard ghost-related films, the ending alone will be enough to make anyone’s head spin. It’s one of those movies that just needs to be watched (and rewatched) to be understood.
1 Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark (2019)
Guillermo del Toro is the undisputed champion when it comes to modern monster movies, and there are few better entry-level horror movies than his adaptation of Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark. Based on the children’s’ books of the same name, the film takes more than just the monsters from the page, but the horrifying illustrations as well.
Think of this film as the bridge between mediums. Scarier than the books, but barely even spills a drop of blood. With that idea in mind, some of the film’s kills are worse than a bloody mess.
