Ever since the Motion Picture Association of America started providing descriptions for their film ratings, it's been kind of funny to read why films are given the labels that they've been bestowed. Though in the case of films like the two-part adaptation of Stephen King's IT, it also helps give us a clue as to just how brutal the film might be. And sure enough, with the film's confirmed R rating being handed down today, the description aligns with almost everything you'd expect to see in an IT movie. So why is IT rated R? It's for the following aspects:
Violence/horror, bloody images, and for language.
For those of you who were still somehow worried that New Line and Warner Bros. would chicken out and deliver a PG-13 to the IT remake, you can be assured that's not happening any time soon. In fact, based on IT's description above, the Andres Muschetti film sounds like it'll stay in line with a lot of the more dark and gruesome aspects that Stephen King included in his original book. Though seeing as even the film's producers have been hyping up an R rating from the script level, it's not too much of a surprise.
Of course, fans who are well versed in the content of IT's literary version are probably thinking about one particular scene that could have easily caused the film's R-rating. That scene is, of course, the infamous group sex scene between the members of The Losers Club, in which they all lose their virginity together to strengthen the magical bond of their group. Suffice it to say, seeing as there's no descriptor for "scenes of implied teenage sexuality, with multiple parties," it's all but confirmed that the moment in question has been nixed.
Still, with Box Office Mojo's rundown of the content that will be coming our way in IT, the film sounds like it's going to be the jarring and frightening experience that the 1986 novel has delivered to fans for 31 years now. You can even see it in the film's trailers, as the quick flashes of the evils ahead are still pretty freaky in a "safe for nighttime cable" context. Just look at the clip that was run during the MTV Movie Awards, and take comfort in the fact that there are some R-rated depths we still haven't seen in this modern take on a horror legend.
IT strikes fear into the hearts of moviegoers with its first installment on September 8.
