10 Insanely Intense Scenes In PG-13 Movies

The PG-13 rating classification was introduced in the US in order to bridge the gap between the PG and R ratings. In the early 1980s, films like Temple of Doom and Gremlins were clearly aimed at a young audience but contained violence and horror that was unprecedented in usual family flicks.

This gave film classification boards a bit of headache. These films were for a PG market, and giving them an R rating would lose production companies a lot of money both at the box office and in merchandise revenue. Ultimately, the MPAA did what the producers wanted and both of these films were given PG ratings in the US, but it was clear that a change in the ratings system had to occur (Gremlins was actually not so lucky in the UK, with the BBFC giving it a ‘15’ rating).

in 1984 the PG-13 came to be: “Parents Strongly Cautioned - Some Material May Be Inappropriate for Children Under 13”. You’ll find this rating on the majority of blockbusters, rom-coms, superhero films, fantasy epics, action-adventurers - anything that has a broad, populist appeal. Films that are designed to bring in people of all ages and make a lot of money.

This list looks at PG-13 films that contain scenes that stray into R territory due to violence, horror, or the sheer amount of nail-biting and brow-wiping that they induce. These scenes survived the snip-snip of the censors’ scissors and remain to give children (and their parents) sleepless nights.

Kicking off the list is a staple of every child’s formative movie watching from the master of the rollocking family adventure: Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park.

Just as Spielberg uses Elliot in E.T. to capture a child’s wonder at discovering an alien, Jurassic Park’s true protagonists are the two children. It’s through trials and tribulations of the kids that a young audience identifies with the awe and terror of the dinosaurs.

And Jurassic Park has its fair share of scary moments. Severed arms, acid in the eyes, lawyers being eaten alive whilst cowering on a toilet.

But the scene that’s most nerve-shredding is when the two children hide from the park’s most vicious creatures - the raptors. As huge and intimidating as the T-rex was, those sneaky raptors that were just as terrifying.

The children crawl for cover in the kitchen, trying to keep hidden, as the raptors stalk the room. Screams of terror from the children are echoed by the screams of the blood-thirsty raptors, and Spielberg twice makes us think that the children are goners. The moment Lex (Ariana Richards) appears trapped in the cupboard as the raptor races towards her is pure horror, until the raptor crashes head-first into the metal having charged into a reflection. See, these children are clever. And so is Spielberg.