NC-17 Movies Are In Decline But Here’s A Few You Might Enjoy

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For obvious reasons, most movies that gain popularity are those that have lower maturity ratings. Sure, you’ve got the occasional The Shining or Game of Thrones type of movie or show, but since they aren’t “fun for the whole family”, they tend to have a more limited reach no matter how popular they get.

Now imagine what that’s like for NC-17 movies. These films contain so much sex, violence, and/or sexual violence that they’re just a step away from being classified as actual pornography sometimes. These films also tend to be the target of outright bans in some conservative countries and are likelier to get pulled out of theatres.

Because of this, you’re not likely to see a lot of them get released within a given years. Film studios aren’t exactly jumping at the idea of making a movie that can get slapped with a ban hammer. And yet, NC-17 movies have managed to establish their own niche and develop cult followings around them. 

In some rare instances, they become legendary influences in their genre as you’ll see in one of the NC-17 films we recommend at the list towards the end of this article.

A Quick History of the NC-17 Films Rating

Movie ratings have been around since the early days of Hollywood, though not always. If you’ve watched a few classic films before, you may have noticed that a lot of the really old ones tend to be very…out there in terms of their themes and way of storytelling. This is because films from the dawn of Hollywood existed just before the Hays Code. 

The Hays Code, which is also known as the Motion Picture Production Code, came into existence as a response to a perceived moral depravity in film. A lot of early movies had scandalous adult content by the standards of the 1920s which was further compounded by rumors of controversial behavior and events by cast members and producers off-screen. The contents of films became racier during the Great Depression as filmgoers turned to the movies for debauched delights as a way of escapism.

Due to social and political pressure, William H. Hays was pushed into the forefront as president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, hence the name “Hays Code”. The MPPDA quickly got to work imposing guidelines for films. It prohibited the depictions of material that, for most of us, makes sense to censor such as sexual violence. However, the code also prohibited, well, anything that suggested nudity and sexual activity – including showing married couples in bed together and depicting childbirth.

Later on, this was replaced by the MPAA rating system which was more relaxed compared to the Hays Code. It initially used four rating categories for classifying how sensitive the material in a film was. Films could be rated for general audiences (G), mature audiences (M), restricted (R)  which meant viewers under 17 years old had to be supervised by an adult, and X which meant no one under 17 years old could watch the film. Period.

New classifications such as PG and PG-13 would be later introduced as a middle ground between G and M. However, the X rating already laid the groundwork for the NC-17 rating of the 1990s. NC-17 took its spot and X got bumped up to mean that a piece of media was explicitly pornographic.

How Does A Movie Get Slapped With An NC-17 Rating?

There are currently no clear and exact rules about what gets a movie an NC-17 Rating, to the point that some feel the MPAA ratings are quite arbitrary regarding what makes NC-17 movies, well, NC-17 worthy. 

A recent and notable example of this is Blonde (2022), a Marilyn Monroe biopic produced by Netflix starring Ana de Armas as the legendary actress which raised eyebrows for its rating when it could have gotten away with a “TV-MA” rating even with a rape scene (hello, House of the Dragon?), but it seems to be more of a decision on Netflix’s part to put the film in the running for an Oscar.

Previous MPAA rulings on NC-17 movies, however, give us an idea of why movies get the rating. The first reason is full-frontal nudity. One of the most popular NC-17 movies of recent years, the 2007 espionage film Lust Caution, features a lot of frontal nudity shots and very graphic depictions of sex acts. Having male or female genitalia shown on screen practically guarantees an NC-17 rating.

A more arbitrary aspect of the MPAA’s NC-17 rating is that they seem to hit movies with indulgent depictions of female sexual pleasure more compared to movies that do basically the same thing with male characters. But I’m A Cheerleader (1999) got an NC-17 rating for a scene that implies its female character was masturbating.

If that wasn’t controversial enough, the MPAA also tends to give non-heterosexual pairing-centered films a higher rating. Less happy endings for lesbians in moves, it seems.

4 NC-17 Movies We Think You’ll Enjoy

All the hubbub about NC-17 movies aside, the rating still has a ton of great and enjoyable films that are worth watching. As usual, what makes a film good can be largely up to personal tastes, but here are some suggestions we think you’ll enjoy if you’re in the mood for a slightly stressful weekend viewing experience.

1. The Evil Dead (1981)

The Evil Dead (1981) is renowned as one of the greatest horror films of all time. Its iconic classic movie poster and premise have cemented it among the films that shaped the horror genre as a whole. It starts with five college students in a cabin in the woods – see where this is going yet? – where they find an audio tape that unleashes demons on their friend group. The young adults must now struggle to survive the gory events that follow. 

This movie spawned an entire Evil Dead franchise and is credited with launching the career of Sam Raimi who you might remember today as one of the heads behind the Spider-Man franchise.

2. Lust Caution (2007)

If you look at a still from Lust Caution (2007), you can’t be faulted for thinking it might be a Wong Kar Wai film. Sure, the bigger film buffs in the crowd can probably tell, but the aesthetic was giving In the Mood for Love (2000). Except it’s not. It’s an Ang Lee film that turns Tony Leung from In the Mood for Love’s wistful journalist Chow Mo-wan into brutal Japanese collaborator Mr. Yee. 

Set in Hong Kong and Shanghai during the events of the Sino-Japanese War and the Japanese occupation, Wong Chia Chi (played by Tang Wei) goes from college student to undercover spy who must seduce, and naturally, sleep with, Mr. Yee. Despite his sadistic nature and her mission, the two fall in love.

Lust Caution was so controversial that it destroyed Tang Wei’s career overnight. China’s National Radio and Television Administration banned her from appearing in more films, leading her to lose endorsements and advertising partnerships. Tony Leung, her male co-lead, walked away unscathed. You may have seen him in Shang-Chi as Wenwu.

3. Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013)

Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013) is an award-winning NC-17 film that has a Palme d’Or under its belt. The movie revolves around 15-year-old Adele who becomes inexplicably attracted to an older woman with blue hair. She masturbates to her in the film – one of the many reasons it has an NC-17 rating. 

It’s an emotional movie with a ton of drama about finding love, losing it, messing it up, and, as usual, dealing with a family that doesn’t accept queer relationships.

4. Wide Sargasso Sea (1993)

Based on a novel of the same name, Wide Sargasso Sea (1993) is a movie about Antoinette Cosway, a West Indian creole heiress who owns a ton of land in Jamaica. The abolition of slavery plunges her family’s estate into poverty as the sugar plantation isn’t able to cope with its operation costs. She later marries Mr. Rochester (yes, the same one from Jane Eyre) to ease the costs but the two deeply distrust each other as Mr. Rochester looks down on her for having non-white heritage.

Why Aren’t There More NC-17 Movies?

It’s been a while since we’ve seen NC-17 movies in theatres aside from Netflix’s Blonde and even when they do get released, there isn’t a lot of them to begin with. This is because, as NPR puts it, “NC-17 ratings can be a death sentence for movies”. NC-17 movies have been getting rarer since around the 2010s. Not even the breakout popularity of Blue Is the Warmest Color and Lust Caution convinced studios to come out with more films in the same rating category.

The reason? It just doesn’t make enough money. Even when films get a decent ROI, the fact that NC-17 movies take more or less the same amount of money to produce as a more marketable film means that they make less than the hypothetical marketable film would. Superhero movies with no consequences for violence just sell more. Simple as that.

Another reason, again, is the unclear standards as to how a film gets an NC-17 rating. No one wants to take the financial risk of making a movie that can get that rating, and therefore be stuck with a limited audience, anymore. So reboots and remakes it is.