Elio pushes ratings boundaries with mild horror

Pixar films have its fair share of dark and intense moments. The studio’s upcoming film could spice things up with the addition of horror elements.

Screen Rant revealed that the director of Pixar’s Elio, Madeline Sharafian, stated how the upcoming 2025 animated film will push the studio’s ratings boundaries with the inclusion of horror genres references.

Based on an interview with Empire, the director made some interesting promises regarding Elio’s genre and intensity. As mentioned earlier, the 2025 Pixar film will consist of certain horror references that are sci-fi related with homage paid to films such as Alien, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and The Thing. Considering Elio is a sci-fi film, this could actually work.

Moreover, the Turning Red storyboard artist also stated that Elio will “ride that line of the PG movie” by having it be “weirder and a little creepier” than other PG films normally would be. Here’s the full quote from Sharafian:

“[Elio has] some sci-fi horror references. It’s one of our best surprises, so I don’t want to give away too much. I’m always trying to push it to be weirder and a little creepier, to ride that line of the PG movie.”

Hopefully, the horror elements won’t be too traumatic for children but enough to at least send some chills to everyone across all ages.

Elio is set to release in theaters on June 13, 2025.