Horror: Zombie- Film Certificate

Film Certificate

Most of the information gathered for this post is from the official BBFC website, therefore it is accurate and legitimate.

BBFC

BBFC stands for the British Board of Film Classification responsible for the classification. It gives a age limit to videos, DVDs and some video games. In order to protect children from unsuitable and even harmful content in films and videos, the BBFC examines and age rates films and videos before they are released.

Ratings

The U symbol stands for Universal. A U film should be suitable for all audiences aged four years and over. Very little or no violence, bad language or sexual content can be displayed in these type of films.
 PG stands for Parental Guidance. This means a film is suitable for general viewing, but some scenes may be unsuitable for younger children. A PG film should not disturb a child aged around eight or older.

These ratings are immediately out of the question due to the genre of our film, we must break the aspects that would make a film Universal or PG in order to have the genre of film we desire.

12A + 12

Films classified 12A and video works classified 12 contain material that is not generally suitable for children aged under 12. No one younger than 12 may see a 12A film in a cinema unless accompanied by an adult, this also goes along with a 12 rating, except not even an accompanying adult can allow access to viewing this film. The BBFC's Guidelines state that strong language (e.g. 'f***') may be passed at 12 or 12A. At this rating, moderate violence is allowed but it should not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood, but occasional gory moments may be permitted if they can be justified by their context. Also, Only very mild sexual content is allowed.

There are some horror films are passed at this category. Moderate physical and psychological threat is permitted at 12A or 12A as long as horror sequences are not too frequent or sustained and the overall tone is not disturbing, We cannot take the risk of applying this age rating to our film as we want to make it as scary and as violent as possible for the viewer and therefore a 12 rating would not be appropriate.

15

No-one under 15 is allowed to see a 15 film at the cinema or buy/rent a 15 rated video. 15 rated works are not suitable for children under 15 years of age. This rating offers some leeway and allows strong violence, language and moderate sexual content. with the violent aspects of the film it should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury, however, and the strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable, sadistic violence is also unacceptable There could potentially be a great deal of strong language. At 15 there is no upper limit on the number of uses of strong language . There may also be detailed verbal references to sexual violence and any representation of sexual scenes must be discreet.

I believe that this rating will be the most appropriate for our film as the ideas we have had so far do not exceed the boundaries set by the BBFC to be categorized as an 18 and therefore it fits under the guidelines of a 15. The violence and strong language that is used in our film is justified as it is in an apocalyptic environment and it is understandable for these to be common in scenes of desperation and fear.