FAQ for
The Frighteners (1996) More at IMDbPro »

This remains a mystery, as members of the Motion Pictures Association of America (MPAA), who screen movies beforehand and give it a rating, only give comments and are generally not available for discussion with the filmmakers over their decision. Although The Frighteners contains some mildly frightening and possibly disturbing scenes, the amount of violence and blood was deliberately kept to a minimum in order to obtain a PG-13 rating and reach a broader audience.

Peter Jackson stated on a making-of documentary that he sent a preliminary cut to the MPAA, which received an R rating. The crew made several re-cuts, but the MPAA kept giving ridiculous comments (Jackson recollects that one of them was an objection against the amount of bullet holes shot in a door during the scene where Dr Lynskey is chased through the house by Patricia). When it was clear that the MPAA would not change its mind, Jackson decided to make agent Dammers' death scene extra gruesome in post production (with an exploding head rather than a shot in the chest).

First of all, there's the well-known R-rated theatrical version but in the UK Peter Jackson's cult classic got censored in order to avoid the BBFC 18 rating. Two scenes were slightly altered. Unfortunately, this master was used for several European DVD releases as well. All cuts were waived for the Director's Cut release. A detailed comparison with pictures can be found here.

After its cinematical release Peter Jackson created a special Director's Cut that was for many years only available on a special Laserdisc version. Fortunately, this version was later on released on DVD and features a cut that runs more than 14 minutes longer and offers several extended story sequences. A detailed comparison with pictures between those versions can be seen here.