Whatever happened to R18 films?
Emma Stone’s sexual odyssey Poor Things could be the first adult-rated film since 2006 to win best picture at the Oscars. Is this the return of the risque, asks Blanca Schofield
What makes a film suitable for a certain audience? According to David Austin, the chief executive of the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC): “Expectations have changed.” The public has become more relaxed about consensual sex, gore and violence. “People have told us that we are able to classify stronger content at 15 than we were able to do in the past,” he says. “That’s led to an increase in 15s.”
The number of 18-rated films in the UK has plunged in the past 50 years, from almost half of films rated by the BBFC in 1974 to less than 6 per cent in 2022.
This makes Poor Things a curious case. Not just because Emma Stone plays a woman whose unborn baby’s brain has been transplanted into her skull, but also because it’s one of those beaming red, infrequently spotted beasts: an 18 certificate.
It has been almost 20 years since an 18 film won best picture at the Oscars — the last one was The Departed in 2006. Poor Things, with its 11 nominations, may change that. But its classification raises the question: where did the crimson circle go? And why?
Yes, Poor Things is graphic — some viewers even walked out. But is it more shocking than Saltburn?
Despite the semen-slurping and grave-humping, Emerald Fennell’s dark comedy is “a relatively straightforward 15”, Austin says.
“The satirical humour, blackly comic elements and lack of graphic detail” stop it being an 18.
Meanwhile, “prolonged visual sexual detail”, sexualised nudity, BDSM and frequent use of the c-word make Poor Things an 18. Because of the Protection of Children Act 1978, for the film to get a rating at all the BBFC had to advise the film-makers, who submitted the film for advice, to cut some shots — those in which two young boys were in the same frame as Stone’s character and their father having sex.
One reason for 18s becoming rarer is that there are more classification options. In 1970 X-rated changed from being for over-16s to over-18s, while AA was introduced for over-14s. Both were altered in 1982, with X changing to the 18 symbol and AA to
15. Then in 1989 another option appeared between PG and 15: the humble 12 (12A in cinemas from 2002).
Second, every four or five years the BBFC does a survey of more than 10,000 British people and adapts its guidelines accordingly. This started in 1999 and the proportion of 18s halved shortly after.
But while we have become more blase about consensual sex, since 2019 (post-#MeToo), Austin says “people wanted us to classify sexual violence even more strictly.
“What we’re doing is reflecting back the attitudes of society,” Austin continues. At times this leads to reclassifications, such as Alien and
The Godfather changing from 18 to 15 for new cinema releases in 2003 and 2009 respectively.
And while swearing in children’s films is a no-no (one reason Paddington is a PG is because of the use of the word “bloody”), the BBFC has become less strict in higher categories — one C-word is not necessarily going to equal an 18.
The BBFC does not have the same classifying process as other countries. “France classifies almost everything at U,” Austin says. For example, the third Fifty Shades of Grey is a U there and 18 here.
To classify a film here, at least two compliance officers watch it. If they disagree it can go to Austin. Filmmakers don’t have to wait to see whether their film has been stamped with an 18. Studios and distributors can submit an early cut, get feedback then make the edits needed to get the rating that they’re after.
“Obviously if you get a 12A or a 15 you’re going to get more people seeing the film,” Austin says. “Usually when a company asks for advice they think the film is between categories and are looking for the lower one.”
“There’s pressure on studios to deliver bigger and bigger financial results,” says Erich Schwartzel, the Hollywood reporter for the Wall Street Journal. The collapse of the DVD market in 2008 had an impact, as did the rise of streaming services.
Home runs at the box office became more important. The less restrictive the age rating, the bigger the audience.
Following the money has also led to a focus on the film market in China, which Schwartzel researched for his book Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy. Since China started screening Western films in the 90s, studios have woken up to the financial possibility of appealing to this new audience, which can generate up to US$400 million a film (of which the studio gets about 25 per cent). “But to access that new world they had to get past the gatekeepers, which are the censors in Beijing,” Schwartzel says. These censors “look askance at anything that could be considered 18 or above” as well as speaking out against the state or authority.
Phil Clapp, the chief executive of the UK Cinema Association, says “it’s no secret that the majority of cinemas in the UK are commercial businesses. So they will take the decision based primarily on the economics of the content they’re showing as well as the cultural and social value”.
In the IMDb list of the 1000 highest-grossing films, 18s make up just 5 per cent. Films rated 15 dominate Oscars nominations (six on the list this year). And, apart from Poor Things, in the past 10 years the only 18s in the running have been The Wolf of Wall Street and Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood.
All eyes on the Oscars . . . will Poor Things win and spark the return of the risque 18?