After Mary Poppins, these 5 films may get an updated age rating 

One of the most popular Disney classics of all time, Mary Poppins, has recently found itself in controversy after British film censors announced the change in age classification for the movie. Once recognized as Universally Suitable (U), Mary Poppins’ rating has been updated to PG due to what has been described as discriminatory language.

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) referred to the use of the term ‘Hottentots’ as the reason behind the change. The term is associated with nomadic people who used to exist in Southern Africa. As a result, Mary Poppins has been brought up decades after its release, bringing forth a debate on a range of other movies from the past that might face a similar fate.

Here, we look at five movies that might also get a rating change, like 1964’s Mary Poppins. While fans may argue that Mary Poppins did not even deserve a PG-13 rating, we look at movies that may have a PG rating but deserve an R (restricted) rating instead.

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5 Movies that deserve a rating update, like Mary Poppins

5) Drag Me To Hell

Sam Raimi has created several horror and edgy masterpieces, such as Mr. Robot. However, unlike most of his other projects, Drag Me to Hell boasts a PG-13 rating despite the graphic imagery apparent right from the start.

Dealing with a range of mature themes, nudity, and bodily harm, the movie, in hindsight, is not suitable for children and might do well with a rating change, much like Mary Poppins.

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4) Split

Another movie that attempts to delve into the supernatural but ends up delivering straight horror, M. Night Shyamalan’s Split, also has a PG rating. The story's concept revolves around the portrayal of trauma as a trigger for superhuman abilities, leading to a range of utterly chilling scenes that are bound to scare even adults.

Moreover, the concept of the movie, which effectively claims that trauma may lead to superhuman abilities, is also utterly impressionable, especially for kids, making a rating change all the more plausible.

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3) The Ring

The Ring is another horror offering that somehow escaped with just a PG-13 rating. The movie depicts graphic images of suicide and has a washed-down version, which still proves to be a bit too much.

The 2002 project took inspiration from Hideo Nakata's 1998 film Ring and effectively showed the same kind of gore that was apparent throughout the source material. The Ring is another movie that deserves an R rating and should undergo a change, just like Mary Poppins!

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2) Poltergeist

Another horror classic that easily surpasses the family-friendly threshold, 1982’s Poltergeist is surely a project that escaped adult rating due to the era in which it was created. The movie heads made use of actual skeletons and put child actors in actual dangerous situations to complete their filming.

The movie revolved around the much-used troupe of children being taken over by ghosts who want to hurt them and is still regarded as one of the scariest movies of the past century. That in itself means that Poltergeist does not deserve merely a PG-13 rating.

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1) Beowulf

While most movies in the list are horror flicks that have seemingly made use of the era they were produced in to escape R-ratings, Beowulf escaped it because of its medium being animation. The 2007 project featured graphic violence and had plenty of sexual themes, even depicting nudity in multiple scenes.

Beowulf contains plenty of good old gory violence but only has a PG-13 rating. Hence, it is the final movie we believe deserves an R-rating and should undergo a change, just like Mary Poppins.