The BBFC

 British Board Of Film Classification

What is it?   The reccomended age which a person aught to be to see the film in question.

 This is very important for many reasons. Firstly, if parensts let their child watch a film which was very violent and had lots of scenes including nudity, they would be outraged that they didn't know this information before going into the cinema and sitting their child down to watch it. The trailer advertising a film doesn't always add in the most horrific parts of the film, so when paying customers sit down, they get a film which they did not expect to see and this could cause many complaints and leave cinemas with minimum profits as people would stop buying tickets. The BBFC give a fair opinion what audience the film is most suitable for. 

 SUITABLE FOR ALL. It's hard to know what could effect and upset each individual child. How ever a "U" film is an all rounder, for anyone over the age of 4 years. No threatening behaviour or bad tensions should be made through these films. Nothing relating to sex, horror or threats should be in a "U" film to ensure the younger members of the audience can watch it without feeling uneasy. It should have a positive moral behind the film and should be suitable for the individual watch of a pre-school child.

PARENTAL GUIDENCE. A General film how ever some specific scenes may be unsuitable for a pre-school child to view alone without becomming a little scared. A child of the age of 8 should be fine to watch it alone however any child younger than 8 should have parental permission before viewing it to ensure no problems will be caused after the showing.

 12 YEARS AND OLDER. A young child could find the scenes in one of these "12/12A" rated films unsuitable for a child under this age. This age is for cinema use only. No child may enter a "12A" without being accompanied by an adult. The parent has the right to decide whether the child would be ok to watch the "12A" but the same film could not be brought or rented in a shop for video use by a child under the legal age of 12.

FIFTEEN YEARS OLD ONLY. Noone under the age of 15 could enter a "15" film at the cinema of buy/rent the film from a shop. Even if accompanied by an adult the individual child must be over the legal age to go into the film and see it. Cinema's regularly ask for the birth date's of the people going in to watch it as no legal ID can be given unless a passport is taken, however this is unlikely to take to the cinema and is the legal age group which is broken mostly at cinema showings as children can easily lie about their age. It is up to the ticket seller to look to see whether they believe the birth date which they have been given to let the child in question in or not. This age group is allowed swear words of a thame nature. Sex, nudity and violence but not in extreme proportions.
This is the right age group to set our thriller opening at. A good thriller should have a sense of mystery involved and fear should flicker through the audience at different points of a film. The feeling of fear should not become so intense and over powering that viewers find it distressing. Violence should not be very over the top, not only would this be a component of a film rating"18" but could also lose many viewers, through making it to hard to watch. Sex and nudity could be involved in a thriller film but by making the age rating "15" you would not see the act happening. The film would give hints to suggest that it would happen but not show you the actual scene.

 18 YEARS OF AGE ONLY. Noone under the legal age of being classed as an adult in the UK may see an "18" film. In the cinema ID will be asked from individuals as the film could be very graphic with violence, sex and nudity, swearing or sexual violence. Nobody under the legal age of "18" could rent or buy the film without identification of either a driving liscence, passport or other formal document.

 LISCENCED CINEMA'S ONLY. This is the most unknown age restriction. This film can only be displayed in liscenced cinemas. Involves alot of sex and adult scenes with things such as fetish material involving adults. These kind of films can only be sold/rented in "sex shops" by a person over the legal age of "18". It is the strictest age liscencing and identification would be very strict. It is the only age restriction which says you CAN NOT order a film by mail to arrive at your house. It HAS to be purchased. It would contain very extreme scenes found very distressing by a person under the age of 18.