This Sam Raimi Horror Gem Proves Doctor Strange 2 Can Still Be Scary (Despite Being PG-13)

gamerant.com:

Marvel fans who also enjoy scary movies got excited that the twain would meet when Kevin Feige announced that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness would be the MCU’s first full-blown horror film. Those fans got even more excited when Sam Raimi was hired to direct the movie. Raimi is the only director on Earth who can claim to have influenced both the superhero and horror genres with groundbreaking classics: the Spider-Man and Evil Dead trilogies, respectively.

But Multiverse of Madness’ promise of Lovecraftian horror has been taken with a pinch of salt, because the Doctor Strange sequel is still beholden to Marvel’s standard, restrictive PG-13 rating. There will be no gonzo Romero-style closeups of zombified Avengers feasting on the brains of the living and the evil Scarlet Witch won’t be as truly evil as the titular enchantress from Robert Eggers’ The Witch. Still, just because Multiverse of Madness will be rated PG-13, it doesn’t mean it won’t be just as terrifying as the rest of Raimi’s horror films.

What Kevin Feige's Evil Dead II Promise Means For Doctor Strange 2

“Rated PG-13” doesn’t necessarily mean “not scary.” The beauty of horror cinema is that filmmakers don’t need to rely on gallons of blood or graphic on-screen violence to shock their audience; just creepy imagery, a palpable sense of dread, and good old-fashioned Hitchcockian tension. There are plenty of great PG-13-rated horror movies out there that are as scary as the R-rated ones without the excessive gore – The Others, The Visit, A Quiet Place – and one of them was even directed by Raimi himself.

After completing his Spider-Man trilogy, Raimi went back to his roots and returned to the horror genre (more specifically, his uniquely bizarre, darkly