A couple of nights ago I saw Insidious, a very creepy and excellent horror movie even though it was rated PG-13. I highly recommend you see if it you like scary movies. The TL;DR of what comes next is: Every horror film should be rated R.

That night’s theater experience was somewhat ruined by the fact that the movie was rated PG-13 instead of R. Just as the previews were ending, a large group of young teenagers came barging in making a lot of noise. All of them easily younger than 17, which would have been required for a rated R movie.

I was hoping once they found some seats they’d sit down and shut-up. Sadly, I was wrong. Through the entire opening setup they were laughing and giggling and generally being very distracting. I’d almost reached the point where I was about to get up and tell them to keep it quiet when they finally settled in.

Lastly, was the girl 2 rows in front of me that texted through the first hour of the movie, and not discretely either. Her phone was one that had a horizontal slide out keyboard and she was constantly sliding it and out to respond to texts. Worse yet, she was holding it up and had a very bright screen which was incredibly distracting in a dark movie. It got so bad that someone several rows behind me yelled at her to “put her damn phone away”. Which of course she didn’t do. Someone else must have complained because a few minutes later an usher came in and asked her to put it away, at which point she finally did.

Had this movie been rated R, neither the gaggle of teens, nor the texting girl would have been in the theater to dampen the experience of such a suspenseful film. That’s not to say people over the age of 17 can’t also ruin the experience, but I have more thoughts on that for a future post.