Original 'The Meg' Cut Included "Horrifying, Disgusting" R-Rated Violence

Sharks are some of the most powerful predators on earth, with the animals capable of causing massive amounts of damage on their victims, whether they be their natural food source or the occasional human that gets in their path. The upcoming horror film The Meg will deliver audiences prehistoric-sized casualties, though some of the film's director's more gruesome visions had to be left on the cutting room floor to obtain a PG-13 rating.

"I am so disappointed the film wasn't more bloody or disgusting," Jon Turteltaub shared with Bloody Disgusting. "My wife is glad about it and I'm glad my kids can see the movie, but the number of really horrifying, disgusting, and bloody deaths we had lined up that we didn't get to do is tragic. There was some really good sh-t that didn't survive to the final cut."

The most famous shark horror movie of all time would be Jaws, which has a relatively tame PG rating, though it debuted before the creation of the PG-13 score, which the film likely would have earned today.

The previous two summers have both seen the release of a PG-13 shark horror movie, The Shallows and 47 Meters Down, respectively, which both earned a fair amount of success.

Ultimately, the director decided that the spectacle of the film wasn't reliant upon the gore and wanted to deliver the exciting film to as many people as possible.

"We shot or even did a lot of visual effects for [gory scenes]," Turteltaub said. "We just realized there's no way we're keeping this PG-13 if we show this. It's too fun a movie to not let people who don't like blood and people who are under, say, 14 years old into the theater. I was very hesitant to cut out a lot of blood and gore. I wouldn't have if I thought it was wrecking the story but it wasn't. It still looked okay. I'll sit down privately with your audience and take them through some really nasty sh-t."

A variety of horror films have been able to rely on their home video release to show audiences a director's original, more violent vision, but don't count on seeing the R-rated version on Blu-ray.

"The problem nowadays with those unrated DVDs is you used to have a bunch of scenes that were easy to either shoot or leave on the cutting room floor," Turteltaub admitted. "Now to finish a scene costs millions in VFX. No one's going to be spending millions of dollars just to have a little extra bonus footage."

Fans can see The Meg in theaters this Friday.

Do you think the film would need to be rated R to be successful? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!

[H/T Bloody Disgusting]