This is a hotly debated area amid both film and fiction horror communities, yet one that needs addressing. How do such ratings affect the genre?

It's important to lay some foundation to fully explore the topic. What precisely has the "R" ratings done for horror? We will use the latter half of the Twentieth Century as our initial field of study. Individuals, such as William Castle and Shirley Jackson, were pioneers in the horror industry by the 1960s. New effects were created, new intense storylines were written, and characters started becoming more three-dimensional.

Yet, this is also the period that nearly obliterated the horror genre. Books were quickly becoming more and more explicit in an attempt to compete with the fast-paced visuals of film. The cycle continued long after ingenuity became mere gratuity. Through the 1970s, horror films were increasingly rated, "R." Horror novels were increasingly cheap and offered less impact from any horror. Chapters of literary rubbish ate away at momentum and credibility of horror fiction.

The graphic content of film continually bled into the written word. Now, the concentration wasn't on horror as a genre at all. It's on what quaintly became known as "reaction." Horror was no longer horror. It was simply a reaction from a character. Yet, the film and literature lumped in to the reactive category was flawed. How many hard-core detective novels use reactive qualities? Nearly all of them. How many science fiction and fantasy materials used these same reactive elements? All of them.

Horror was no longer horror. It became a transparent and generic term for any film or movie, in any genre, that was simply explicit.

What happened as a result?

Horror became completely laughable. This was not in the good-natured entertainment sense. It was in an utterly abominable sense. The effects were mundane replications of a million others in a thousand similar movies. Dialogue became littered with flaws, inconsistencies, and clichés. Lastly, the storylines came to be regarded as second-rate in all instances.

The genre had, in fact, burned out. No longer was it attributed as a classic form of literature by such greats as Algernon Blackwood or Shirley Jackson. It was a mere diversion that adults watched for a few hours and forgot as soon as you left the theater.

This is an in-depth look into the typical criteria of an "R" rating often shows why fans have became jaded.

Graphic Gore- Gore is everywhere in the world. Senseless gore occurs on an everyday basis somewhere on the planet. After a few seconds of gratuitous gore in a movie, it's pathetically boring. The primary reason is the production team will often waste the majority of the budget attempting to pull-off "realistic" effects and the rest of the movie suffers. There's a lack of attention to the set, scriptwriting, and the editing processes.

Graphic Sex- The hallmark of sorry horror. Many hard-core horror fans simply laugh at the film producers' decision to use sex. It is in erotica. It is in romance, mysteries, and suspense. Why is this bad? Isn't it needed to show the character's human nature?

It should take a helluva lot more than sex to show your character is human. If they are so absorbed in their sexual "expressions," perhaps the genre should really be erotica. If this is the only way you can possibly make them realistic than you should look into a new profession, or at least another genre.

Despite the number of positions, circumstances, scenarios, and individuals involved, sex is sex. Period. There's only one way to do it regardless of how it starts or how it ends. The majority of people around the world already know how it is done. People, who want to watch a horror movie, want to watch a horror movie. If they want to see porn, they'll watch something from that genre. It is also commonly assumed that if extensive sex scenes are required, the story is shoddy and can't be moved along otherwise.

It isn't a matter of making your characters "adult." You want your characters to move past the hormonal imbalances of high school. You want grown up characters with real lives and real concerns. The majority of which are outside the bedroom. Unless you are specifically writing about teens, your character should reflect the psychological maturity of someone who has a driver's license. Maybe they even have a job, and perchance, a career.

Graphic Language- Explicit language is the ultimate method of killing good dialogue. Should your hero really be taking up five pages for your best Andrew Dice Clay impersonation? Shouldn't they be actually moving? Shouldn't they be taking action amid the struggles commonly found in horror? Of course some will inevitably enter your work. It isn't a problem until it becomes the focus and not merely an element.

Drug Use- Another equally boring and overused element in the film industry. Yes, people do drugs in real life. A general sentence or two here and there will suffice. We don't need to read an instruction manual just to see the character knows how to utilize drug pipes or other accessories. There's no real reason to explain how they cook their dope or discuss the pros and cons of disposable hypodermics unless those are distinctly and clearly involved in the overall plot.

Nudity- This adolescent element is hilariously overdone in every film/book genre. The only "place" for explicit nudity is in porn, erotica, and romance. I think every adult in the world has seen someone naked in their day. Excessive nudity makes the work trivial and petty. Your ghost may be in the middle of a Turkish bath or a nudist colony, but the haunting is what the audience is looking at. They couldn't care less if the hero has a bald or hairy chest, six-pack abs, or a beer gut. Move on.

Horror is the most spiritual genre in the world, yet the most hated amid professionals. Thanks to the lazy writers and filmmakers of previous years, professionals in horror today have it harder than ever. The majority of agents shun horror, publishers won't even look at it, and independent companies attempting to create good horror films are ridiculed for creating "B" movies.

We owe a monumentally biting and acidic "Thank You," to all who have made solid, legitimate horror a worldwide laughingstock. The desire for an "R" rating has left a bad taste in the mouth of all within the industry. What would the great horror minds of today be if the horror movies of their era were "R?" They would not have liked them as children, possibly never found interest in horror, and we would be without their work.

Now, we take a look at what the PG-13 movies have done for the industry.

Apparently, professionals in horror had became so lazy and stagnant in their creativity that this was a shock. Horror fans were actually watching horror. Where was the sex? The language? The shower scene didn't involve a bleach blond bimbo bouncing for no reason? The scene was actually used. for horror?

Movies like "Grudge," and, "The Ring," were only PG-13, but drew in audiences with staggering figures in comparison to earlier movies. What was this about? People were giving attention to horror.

The stream of PG-13 movies returned horror to being an actual genre in itself. New audiences were treated to horror with substance and backbone. The seemingly unique approach to horror, as a genre, and not a series of clichéd elements, woke up a new interest. The presence of Asian horror was introduced to a Western world and from what we can see, horror is back.

Why do these movies please so many? Is it because they are "tame?" The answer is a satisfying "not at all." Many contain imagery and effects that make the "R" movies appear even more comedic.

Horror movies that do not contain the aforementioned trivial and lesser elements must contain others. They must have the impact and storyline to go 90 minutes without the stereotypical non-horror elements (sex, nudity, gore, etc.) used to distract audiences from bad plots or effects.

The intensity of these movies picked the genre up from the depths of it's poor quality material and returned it to the rails. We can now enjoy horror that is suspenseful, speculative, and has the impact of a two hundred ton locomotive. PG-13 movies have been the genre's salvation.

Pay close attention to the rating if you are checking out a new movie. If the "R" is given for reasons other than terror, disturbing imagery, or horrific elements, use discretion before viewing!