Kaiju Theory: Could The Next Godzilla Movie Be R-Rated, And What Would It Be Like?
Of all the things that could happen to the Godzilla franchise in the future, there’s something that stands out like Kong’s sore tooth in Godzilla x Kong because it has never come to pass in 70 years, despite how easy it would be. That thing is an R rating.
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The series has come close a few times on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, and it didn’t take long for Toho to give blood to their beloved films. Before they walked up to the line with certain moments in Minus One and Shin, especially in the latter’s body horror elements residing in deleted scenes, they’d already let the big guy profusely spray red back in the 1970s when his kiddo-directed rap was well in place.
That didn’t spoil his image then and all the necessary cuts to Shin Godzilla kept it in line with PG-13 standards though, let’s be honest, they only stayed in line just enough to earn a more modest rating. There is still plenty of goop, entrails, blood, and dismemberment to go around in these movies, especially those of the MonsterVerse.
The key there, however, is all the carnage and injury has to be relegated to the kaijus – unless we’re talking about Kong: Skull Island, which showed humans getting maimed while maintaining a PG-13. (Some movies still live up to the promise behind that rating when it was introduced in the 80s, but that’s another story.)
I shouldn’t have to point out the glaringly obvious irony: Godzilla movies have never ever shied away from the toll the wanton destruction takes on the forgotten men and women of society. From the very beginning, these films were a dark and grim allegory where people died tragically, even if we didn’t see it on the screen.
There are multiple ways that unfolded – some are killed in Godzilla’s attack, others linger and pass from serious injury or radiation poisoning. That right there is fallow ground for a whole movie: show us what happens to someone unlucky enough to get too close when Gojira overheats, say, in gritty detail.
I don’t know if any of you have looked up what exposure to a nuclear reaction without protection does to a person, but it’s slow, it’s fatal, and it’s not pretty. Japanese audiences and producers might still be too squeamish to depict the effects, but somebody out there is willing, and it only takes one vision.
But even if that person’s pitch meets with approval, neither Toho nor Legendary Pictures needs to go that far. All they really need to do is show more sanguinary casualties during a rampage or kaiju fight in full realism. Stomped on, falling off buildings, crushed by rubble, blasted by a heat ray – whatever the means, there should be blood and ash, smeared and splattered.
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The same goes for the monsters getting torn apart as green blood and guts are no substitute for a more realistic version of the same. Following the Robert Rodriguez-From Dusk Till Dawn rule of thumb has made some serious coin, but it still results from the studios playing things safe.
Mind you, that doesn’t mean the MonsterVerse or wherever Japan’s Reiwa Period goes next has to leave the confines of Godzilla’s more familiar cartoon world. Fan-made animation, like the one below, shows you don’t have to toss out the Showa feel to turn the mise en scene into The Evil Dead.
The only question is if a genuine demand exists for this stuff in a Godzilla flick; or is it lobbied for by a minority of fans who don’t know that ‘edgy’ doesn’t always mean ‘better’? Answering that is ultimately up to Toho, but they will have to see a gain in allowing the go-ahead for their boy to be a Rated-R Superstar for once.
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