Great R-rated movie--to bad it's PG-13

Rating: Null/10 (7 June 2010)

This movie starts out with a graphic, bloody murdered body involving eyeballs missing from the body (the eyeball is shown)--and it gets much, much worse. I'm not going to put the details of all the disturbing murders that are shown as the movie goes on; if you would like to find more detail, I recommend the parents guide. Unfortunately, accurately portraying the movie does involve a general overview of all the gruesome ways people are brutally murdered.
The whole basis of the movie is set around an ancient secret society, like Dan Brown's stories all are. Like the Da Vinci Code, this movie is wonderfully well-researched and very intelligent. In terms of the plot line, I loved it.
At the beginning of the movie, the Pope has just died. The church is about to meet to elect a new one when four of their most elite members go missing. Shortly after, they receive a very threatening message from the previously mentioned secret society--every hour, for four hours, one of the four missing Cardinals will be publicly sacrificed. That's insanely intense and mature right there--but it gets even worse.
Come to find out, there is a bomb inside the Vatican that will go off an hour after the last Cardinal is sacrificed. Of course, since a new pope is being elected, the Vatican is packed will people waiting to see their new religious leader. If the bomb goes off, hundreds, or perhaps thousands of people will die.
Enter Robert Lagdon. The whole movie is about him trying to find the places where the Cardinals are going to be sacrificed before it happens, and ultimately trying to find the bomb and stop it before it goes off.
This movie is a real nail-biter. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.
One might say that the plot line alone would be enough to get it an R rating. If you add many graphic murders to the mix, I think anyone would agree that PG-13 is not strong enough.
The Cardinals are killed in several gruesome ways. One is suffocated by putting dirt in his mouth. When the newly-dead body is found, there are rats eating away at the mans face. The second one is killed by puncturing his lungs. We see his heavily bleeding, half-dead body in the Vatican Square; the body is discovered by a little girl, probably around nine years old. He dies a few seconds later. The third one is burned on a cross. Before he falls into the flames, we see him hanging them, screaming. I didn't even fully watch that scene, and it still disturbed me. The fourth one lives, but barely. He is strapped to a heavy medal object, and dropped into a fountain.
All four of these men have been branded with the symbol of the secret society. Though we do not see it actually happening to them, it is very apparent what is about to happen. We do see a fifth person branding himself, with much screaming.
In addition to all this, there are many other graphic murders throughout the movie. These include stabbings, shootings, another burning. We also find out that the dead pope was poisoned. To make sure, they open his tomb to check if his mouth has turned black. The corpse is about two weeks dead, and the body is very graphic and disturbing.
Overall, this movie should never have even been considered for a PG-13 rating. It really bothers me that it was not R. My thirteen year old sister watched this, before we knew what was in it, and she was hiding her face for half the movie.
Nevertheless, if you are an adult who doesn't mind the gore, this is a great movie. Just please, please think very hard before letting your children watch it.