It seems like a lot of kids may have snuck into Terrifier 3 via The Wild Robot

Sneaking into a movie is a time honored tradition, one that must be as old as cinema itself. It continues with the unrated Terrifier 3, which isn’t hurting for those extra ticket sales; it’s currently the number-one movie in America. Instead, Terrifier is sharing the wealth: according to distribution sources for The Hollywood Reporter, the family-friendly DreamWorks Animation picture The Wild Robot saw what’s described as a “noticeable bump” in ticket sales over the long weekend. The distributors theorize that kids were buying Robot tickets to sneak into Terrifier. 

Terrifier 3 is kind of the Wild West in terms of who is “allowed” to see it since it’s unrated. Because it’s an independent film it isn’t required to be submitted for a rating (unlike the major Hollywood studios, which are members of the Motion Picture Association and therefore required to submit all their films for ratings). Being unrated means it’s up to the theaters to determine how to handle ticketing; according to THR, most theaters (including AMC, Regal, and Cinemark) are treating it like an R-rated movie and won’t sell Terrifier tickets to unaccompanied minors. But unlike NC-17 films, which don’t allow children in the theater at all, R-rated movies allow kids into showings if they’ve got a guardian. “The scary part is that we’ve seen a lot of screenshots of people bringing their kids to the movie,” a source bemoaned to THR. 

This is presumably “scary” because the content of Terrifier 3 likely would’ve garnered the forbidden NC-17 rating if it had indeed been submitted for that consideration. (Common Sense Media describes it as “ultra, ultra gory” and cites the fact that “kids are in peril” as well as “extremely graphic, disturbing imagery” such as genital mutilation among its shocking qualities.) But the fact is, most people aren’t going into Terrifier 3 blind. The third film became the success that it is today based largely on the word-of-mouth momentum of the previous films. Part of the marketing success of Terrifier 2, in fact, was the stories of people vomiting and passing out while watching the movie. The lurid allure of the little slasher that could is what made Terrifier 3 a box office success. Of course, that doesn’t mean movie-going youths aren’t being irreparably scarred by the ultra gore, but that’s also a time honored tradition of the cinema.