The following contains MAJOR spoilers for the upcoming "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" motion picture.
Britain's pre-teen Harry Potter fans are going to need to find an adult to take them to "Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire" when it opens on Nov. 18. They won't be let in alone because the film is to get a 12A certificate, according to the BBC.
"Younger viewers could be frightened by some of the more intense scenes," said the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC).
The BBFC passed all 154 minutes and 54 seconds of the film without cuts, but they have made it the first film in the series to receive anything other than a Parental Guidance (PG) rating in Britain. The BBFC gives a 12A rating to films that contain what it considers to be "moderate fantasy violence, threat and horror." The BBFC rule for this rating is that "no-one younger than 12 may see [the] film in a cinema unless accompanied by an adult." All ages can get into PG films, which are said to contain "mild horror, violence and language," according to the BBFC.
Under-12s will be able to go unaccompanied in the US, where the film has been given a PG-13 rating by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPA). That rating does, however, come with a parental advisory that "some material may be inappropriate for children under 13." All previous movies in the series have also been rated PG in the United States, but the MPA gave a higher rating for "The Goblet of Fire" because of "sequences of fantasy violence and frightening images."
These warnings should not be surprising given the advance word-of-mouth coming from the set. The previous film in the series, "Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban," was much darker than those that preceded it thanks to Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón. Yet "The Goblet of Fire," directed by Britain's Mike Newell, sounds even darker still.
"The first two films are very sunny in a way and very wish-fulfillment-y," Newell said in Empire magazine. "But there is no adult challenge. Alfonso put some of that in and I take it further forward. The truth that you tell with and for and about an 11 year-old is different from what you'll tell with a 15 year-old."
Like Anakin Skywalker in "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith," Harry will be challenged by an evil nemesis with dark powers. In his case it will be the wizard Lord Voldemort, who will be played by British actor Ralph Fiennes. It sounds, however, like Fiennes is cutting his character from the same cloth as Chancellor Palpatine, who brought down the Jedi and helped earn "Revenge of the Sith" a 12A rating in Britain.
"I wanted my portrayal of Voldemort to be deeply, truly evil," Fiennes said in an interview on IGN FilmForce. "That comes from fear, frustration and unhappiness. Voldemort was a rejected child. He had a very unhappy childhood, and that's where his anger, jealousy and hatred began to fester."
In "The Goblet of Fire," Voldemort reassumes human form and evidently his evil personality will contribute a lot to the film's more adult edge. It isn't just his malevolence that makes him so scary, though, according to Fiennes.
"There are moments when anger spits out of him at Harry and other moments when he can be almost pleasant," Fiennes said. "You never quite know what he's going to do. People are incredibly scary when they're charming but you suspect they might suddenly do something very violent. If you sit across the table from someone who offers you a glass of wine and a present, but you know that he stabbed his wife to death, it's quite unnerving."
Fiennes also elaborated on the kinds of evil acts that Voldemort will be perpetrating on Potter (played by Daniel Radcliffe) in the film.
"Daniel had to put up with a lot from me," Fiennes said. "Here's a boy who's tied up with a man pushing his finger into the wound on his head, laughing and delighting in the pain he's causing. He had to act as though he was in agony and terror without having many words to say. I was full of admiration for him."
It sounds like the rapidly maturing Harry is no angel himself, though.
"Harry hates Voldemort with every fiber of his being," Radcliffe said. "He wants to murder him for killing his parents. At the same time, he is also absolutely terrified of him."
Parents of young children can consider themselves warned.
"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" has its world premiere in London on Nov. 6. It will go on general release in Britain and America on Nov. 18