The document analyzes the age ratings of 10 thriller films from the past 10 years assigned by the BBFC. It finds that the ratings ranged from 12A to 18, with 15 being the most common. Thrillers tend to contain graphic content unsuitable for younger audiences. Among subgenres, techno thrillers averaged the lowest rating (12A-15) while horror thrillers averaged the highest (18) due to containing more graphic violence. Psychological thrillers averaged 15, allowing some graphic elements but not as strongly as horror thrillers rated 18. The document compares its own psychological thriller and horror thriller films to these averages.

1. COMPARISONS OF THE
AGE RATINGS OF FILMS
IN THE THRILLER GENRE

2. How are Thrillers classed by the
BBFC?
• I researched into 10 different thriller
films from the past 10 years to see
what the BBFC has rated them and if
this is similar to the thrillers I have
researched. They were a range in the
sub genres from horror thriller to
techno thriller but this is these are
the ratings that I found.
• As you can see all the thriller films
that I collected data from ranged
from a 12A rating to 18. This is likely
due to the fact that thriller films tend
to have a higher amount of graphic
content that tends to be unsuitable
for a younger audience.
• As you can see, the age rating that
was used most often was 15. This is
likely because thriller films, although
intense and exciting aren’t usually full
of highly gore-filled scenes and
violence unlike horror films.

3. Individual Sub Genres
This bar chart shows
the average age that
the particular sub
genre has as its age
rating from the films I
have researched. From
this you can see that
techno thrillers tend to
have the lowest age
rating and horror
thrillers have the
highest. This may be
because techno
thrillers tend to be
about technology
rather than action and
horror so the content
tends to be less bloody
and violent. This leads
to a lower age rating.
The psychological thriller genre has an average age rating
of 15 which means it does have graphic subject content
such as nudity, profanity and violence but it won’t be as
strong as that found in horror thrillers which are rated 18.
This is something that I will consider in my own
psychological thriller.

4. How do my films compare?
Hard Candy: 18
Psychological
Horror Thriller
Circle: 15
Psychological
Thriller
Would You
Rather: 15
Psychological
Horror Thriller

5. Two of the three films I analysed were
psychological horror thrillers but still
followed similar conventions to a pure
psychological thriller. Hard Candy was
rated 18 which is slightly higher than
average and Would You Rather was aged
15. Both of these ratings are near the
BBFC ratings 15 and 18 which, by looking
at my data previously, I can see are the
conventional ratings of thrillers by the
BBFC.