The BBFC and Thriller Genre

The BBFC and thriller genre

The BBFC short for British Board of Film Classification was set up in 1912 and is a non-governmental body which classifies films therefore giving them an age rating before they are released. The BBFC is classed as a regulatory body which regulates and monitors the age ratings of films to make sure that there are no laws being broken and that everything in the industry is legal. They aren’t a business there to make money so the way in which they make money to pay employees is by charging the filmmakers the amount of money for that needed to be paid for their length of the film. The BBFC rate films into a number of different categories and these are U, PG, 12, 12A, 15, 18, R18. Their powers include having a say in the rating of a film. The reason why the BBFC classifies films is so that children aren’t subject to being able to view certain things which aren’t age appropriate. Even though all these age ratings are put in place people such as the local council can still override these ratings and for example the council can say that they will allow people under the age rating into a cinema to watch the film. They can also do things such as ban a film due to inappropriate content. Action can also be taken as far as prosecution.

The BBFC guidelines cover:

·         Context

·         Theme

·         Tone and impact

·         Discrimination

·         Drugs

·         Imitable behaviour

·         Language

·         Nudity

·         Sex

·         Threat

·         Violence

The raid

The BBFC rated this film an 18 and the reason for this is because there is strong bloody violence and gore.

There are a large number of fast paced fight scenes which include gore and strong bloody violence and this also includes weapons including guns, axes and machetes. There are many examples of gore in the film which can be viewed by the viewer and these include a close up of the tip of a knife emerging from the side of a man’s neck after being stabbed and a man being shot in the head in a close up shot. The amount of violence that is in a high enough amount of detail goes beyond what can be shown at the certification of 15 as at 15 the ‘Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury’. The gory images in the film are likely to be too strong for the age rating of 15.

The film uses a large amount of strong language with there being one use of very strong language and over 60 other uses of strong language.