We’ve dug into the mystery of how The Predator – rated 15 in the UK – became an 18 for its disc release, purely off the back of one single trailer.
If you’ve not caught the story of this so far, there’s an odd reason that The Predator – a film rated 15 by the BBFC in cinemas – was awarded an 18 for its Blu-ray and Ultra HD 4K release.
Whilst it’s not unusual for extra features to lift the rating of a film for its home release, what’s odd here is that it’s purely for one trailer amongst a package of extra features. Furthermore, that this is acknowledged on the box art where – and I’ve never seen this before – we’re directly told that the film’s certificate is purely for the “official trailer”.
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You can read our earlier piece on this here, else here’s the image in question.
I’ve since gone back to one of my least favourite films last year and picked the disc up to examine it. It’s taking one for the team, chums.
I got the Ultra HD 4K release, which contains two physical discs in the box. The 4K version is rated 15, the Blu-ray is 18, and those ratings are printed on the individual discs. The Blu-ray is the only one to contact the ‘official trailer’, that’s at the heart of that 18 rating.
I’ve played the trailer on the disc side by side with the theatrically released promo, and I’ve now managed to conclude that it’s exactly the same as this one to my eye. The blood, swearing and, er, ‘banter’ is the same.
This isn’t a particularly safe for work trailer, I should note. It is, after all, rated 18.
Now the above trailer played in cinemas, and I can’t recall whether it attracted an 18 certificate there. Likewise, there’s nothing I can instantly see there that wasn’t in the 15-certificate movie. There must be something, though, and it’s little secret that the film was hacked about heavily in post-production. There’s a bunch of deleted scenes on the disc, but nothing that would challenge the rating.
The difference that I can see, however, is under what grounds the trailer was classified. That for its home release, it comes under the auspices of the Video Recording Act in the UK, which has a habit of being a little stricter.
That said, it’s under the same act that the full feature has been classified 15. I have asked the BBFC for clarification too, but haven’t heard back as of yet.
The mystery, then, isn’t fully solved, but the exact cause of the matter has been found. Take a look at that trailer above, and see what you think…
