Film rating analysis

To decide the rating of our film we looked at films in the same genre with similar narratives and the British board of film classification guidelines.

What might I see in a 15 rated film?

Any of the following:

•   strong violence
•  frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***').
•   portrayals of sexual activity
•   strong verbal references to sex
•   sexual nudity
•   brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
•   discriminatory language or behaviour
•   drug taking

15's should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury, the strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. At 15 there can be strong threat and horror as long as there is no sustained focus on sadistic or sexualised threat. 

What sort of issues might I find in an 18 film?

18 works are for adults and can contain strong issues such as:

•   very strong violence
•   frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***') and / or very strong language (e.g. ‘c***’)
•   strong portrayals of sexual activity
•   scenes of sexual violence
•   strong horror
•   strong blood and gore
•   real sex (in some circumstances)
•   discriminatory language and behaviour

18's can portray violence in strong detail. There may even be dwelling on the infliction of pain or injury, or scenes of strong sadistic or sexual violence.The strongest gory images are permitted at this category. At 18, horror films may contain very strong horror, gore or sustained threat.

 

Red Dragon, Copycat and Zodiac have serial killers in their narrative and they are of the psychological thriller genre. Copycat is an 18 Red Dragon is a 15 and Zodiac is a 15. We thought that the best rating for our film would be a 15 as there is not use of sadistic violence or any sexual threat.