{"id":222045,"date":"2026-01-07T20:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T20:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/222045\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T20:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T20:46:08","slug":"this-is-not-a-test-gets-r-rating-for-gore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/222045\/","title":{"rendered":"This Is Not a Test Gets R Rating For Gore"},"content":{"rendered":"

School will be out forever when zombies invade class in This is Not a Test, and the film\u2019s official MPAA rating suggests it\u2019ll end with a whole love of gore and violence.<\/p>\n

This is Not a Test has been rated \u201cR\u201d for \u201cstrong bloody violence, gore, suicide, language, some sexuality and brief teen drinking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Independent Film Company and Shudder will release the film in theaters on February 20, 2026.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0This is Not a Test, \u201cSloane and a small group of her classmates take cover in their high school to escape their suddenly apocalyptic hometown. As danger relentlessly pounds on the doors, Sloane begins to see the world through the eyes of people who actually want to live and takes matters into her own hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Olivia Holt\u00a0(Heart Eyes<\/a>),\u00a0Froy Gutierrez\u00a0(The Strangers),\u00a0Luke MacFarlane\u00a0(\u201cBros\u201d),\u00a0Corteon Moore\u00a0(\u201cFrom\u201d),\u00a0Chloe Avakian\u00a0(\u201cDevil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy\u201d), and\u00a0Carson MacCormac\u00a0(Clown in a Cornfield) star.<\/p>\n

Writer\/Director\u00a0Adam MacDonald\u00a0(Out Come the Wolves<\/a>, Pyewacket) adapts the 2012 young adult novel of the same name by\u00a0Courtney Summers, which is\u00a0getting a re-release\u00a0on January 13 via Bindery Books. You can read an\u00a0excerpt here.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cCourtney Summers\u2019 book\u00a0This Is Not a Test\u00a0captivated me completely with its raw energy and dynamic characters, a story I felt personally and knew it had to\u00a0be brought\u00a0to the screen,\u201d said MacDonald. \u201cI couldn\u2019t be happier with Olivia Holt\u2019s exceptional talent stepping into Sloane\u2019s shoes (Docs) and bringing her to life,\u201d MacDonald said\u00a0previously<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The YA horror movie made its debut out of the\u00a0Brooklyn Horror Fest<\/a>\u00a0earlier this year, where our own Daniel Kurland praised Olivia Holt\u2019s lead performance. He wrote in\u00a0his review<\/a>, \u201cHolt does the best work with this material as she processes her grief over losing her sister and channels it into killer instinct.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"School will be out forever when zombies invade class in This is Not a Test, and the film\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[133308,156,409,111,139,69,133309,27452,133310],"class_list":{"0":"post-222045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-adam-macdonald","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-movies","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-olivia-holt","15":"tag-shudder","16":"tag-this-is-not-a-test"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}