Poltergeists PG rating was a crime against kids of the 80s – Polygon

I havent seen a horror film since I was nine years old. Thats when Steven Spielberg and Jack Valenti scarred me for life.

Spielberg was responsible for 1982s Poltergeist; Valenti was responsible for the Motion Picture Association of America. And both are responsible for turning Poltergeist, a haunted-house horror masterpiece (Ill grant it that) from a unanimously-rated R to a PG on appeal.

This was before PG-13 ratings, a period well documented in pop culture. Except very little of it mentions Poltergeist. Films like Red Dawn (the first PG-13), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Gremlins are more considered the ratings spiritual ancestors. But Poltergeist made it necessary.

In Connie Brucks 2001 profile of Valenti in The New Yorker, Spielberg, after haranguing the MPAA over Poltergeists rating, is said to have promised Richard Heffner, chairman of the ratings board to get that for you. He meant the creation of PG-13, or some rating between PG and R. To me, thats evidence enough that Spielberg knew Poltergeist was no PG movie which in 1982 was basically taken as a G without animation or the Disney logo.

But Spielberg, Valenti and Poltergeist distributor MGM still browbeat Heffner into re-screening the movie for the ratings board. And, lo and behold, a panel that had been 24-0 in favor of R was now 20-4 for PG. The fix was in, Heffner said later, meaning Valenti got to the jurors. MGM and Spielberg needed that kid-tested-mother-approved PG rating if it was going to make any money, and Valenti was gonna do them a solid.

I saw Poltergeist on HBO in 1983, toward the end of my fourth-grade year. I dont think I slept for a month. When I tried, I reverted to a fetal posture; less surface area for the evil tree to grab. It doesnt help that, at this time, I also used my closet light as a nightlight. The glowing bedroom closet was a big part of Poltergeist. That was where The Beast lived, right? I cant really remember for sure because, you know, I only watched the thing once.

Heres the part where you guess I saw the movie by myself or at a friends house, given the broad license to watch anything PG. Heres where youre wrong. The only thing my parents ever forbade me and my brother from watching was The Dukes of Hazzard, probably because my dads name is Roscoe.

And as for Poltergeist, I found out the rating didnt matter.

Dad, did you know Poltergeist was originally rated R? I said, after reading The New Yorker profile.

No, he said. So what?

So, you told me and Brendan to watch it when I was nine, I guess because it was PG, I said.

No, I saw that the year before. I thought you and your brother would like it.

You what?! I demanded. You actually recommended that? After seeing it? What were you thinking?!

Dad dug in and went Red Forman on me. I was thinking, what the fuck, kids like being scared, Dad said. Quit being a [wimp].

Like being scared? Like this was a ride at Carowinds? My ass! This film is not a boo! followed by giggles and squeals. This movie is an evil tree plunging through the bedroom window, dragging your ass outside.

Its got body horror, in the form of a guy pulling his own face clean off in the bathroom. My acne phase sure was fun after this, Dad!

Its got an evil clown doll, for Gods sake. Valenti was said to have unofficial rules (usually sex or swear words) that automatically got you an R. The evil clown is such a below-the-belt punch for kids, how is that not one of them?

And, of course, the coup de grace: the skeletons in the pool! These are supposedly ACTUAL HUMAN REMAINS being used as props, mind you, and no one told JoBeth Williams they were in the pool. Of course! We want her to be totally fucking terrified! People like being scared!

Twenty-four MPAA ratings reviewers saw all this and said, Yep, thats an R! Who could argue? Spielberg, thats who. According to Brucks profile, he insisted that the film was PG because it was all threat and fantasy, no reality.

To which I say, fuck you, mister! This movie is jam-packed with stuff to specifically and intentionally terrify children. Its not limited to the clown, the tree (Spielberg is said to have taken inspiration from one that creeped him out as a child), and the bedroom closet. The evil is in the TV! Theres one in every room to take you straight to hell! Youre not safe inside your own home, especially at night (which is always strobe-lit by lightning). Are there monsters buried under your house? No? Yes? How do you know? Do you like swimming in a swimming pool? No sharks in a swimming pool, right? Just your disinterred neighbors.

No, Spielberg, MGM, and good pal Valenti wanted a PG on this because it was a summer movie that needed a wide audience, the kind you get with a drop-the-kids-off-and-go-shopping PG. MGM had bought United Artists the year before and the deal wasnt going so well. The company needed a hit, and Valenti needed MGM to keep paying its MPAA dues. Poltergeist was indeed the first box office hit of the MGM/UA period, but it hardly mattered. MGMs business would be reorganized and sold repeatedly over the rest of the decade.

After the betrayal, of Spielberg to his audience, Valenti to his ratings board, the ratings board to the rest of us, and, of course, Dad to me and my brother, I adopted a hard no scary movies policy that remains in effect to this day.

Not at parties when I was a teenager, not on a date, not in a boat, not with a goat. My high school friends were into shit like Hellraiser and Phantasm, and watching The Exorcist and Rosemarys Baby on VHS. Good for them, I was into having a good nights sleep. My rationale, then as now, is that if Poltergeist is a PG by the way, it still is then the shit thats R is probably 100 times more terrifying. I know my own imagination. I know the hell my mind will inflict on me when Im all alone. I get freaked out just reading the Wikipedia entry for The Amityville Horror.

So, since Poltergeist, 37 years ago, the scariest thing Ive seen is the scene where that lady gives birth to the lizard baby on V: The Final Battle. And how that got onto network TV is almost as mind-boggling as Poltergeists PG.

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Poltergeists PG rating was a crime against kids of the 80s - Polygon