Well at least the horror genre and fans can be spared the obligatory, yearly article from the NY Times declaring the horror genre dead for a little longer. Unfortunately though the movie who bought us some time had to be the PG-13 - remake of Prom Night, which took number one at the box office this weekend with $22,700,000. This now means studios will start choosing to ignore the fact that Saw IV made $31.8 million, and previous to that Rob Zombie’s Halloween made $58 million (both R-rated), and they will begin to push for more PG-13 horror so they can sneak a few more teens in.

What does this prove? It proves teenage kids are bored and will go see anything, and that the MPAA should drop their rating standards. Kids these days can see more on the Internet with the push of a few keys than I saw my entire childhood of watching cable TV. Do we really need to protect 16 to 17 year-olds from a little fake gore and a titty now and again?

Prom Night also scored with smart marketing, something else studios gave up on with the horror genre. Cloverfield was also a success do to great marketing, but studios normally like to treat horror movies like their red-headed-step-child, leaving them to fend for themselves and shrugging their shoulders when they fail to succeed. However, when a horror film does rake in the cash they have no problem cashing the check.

It is an old story, it happens every year we just have to wait for the next R-rated horror film to hit big and the balance will be restored again.