| nudity |
4/10
A boy and girl head out to a cornfield late at night for implied sexual activity, but are interrupted quickly.
A man is seen sitting in the bath, his bare chest and legs are visible but nothing else as the water is filthy.
It is heavily implied (but not discussed OR seen) that a man rapes a 14 year old girl. |
| violence |
7/10
A girl is murdered offscreen, but implied with some very intense and grisly images. We see her try to climb out of the ditch Harvey built, as he grabs her leg. She kicks him in the face, and runs away, but this is only in her mind. In reality, Harvey throws her to the ground and prepares to kill her. We see him stuffing a blood soaked bag into a safe. In Susie's purgatory world, she momentarily thinks that she successfully escaped, but then sees Harvey sitting at home in his bathtub. We see Harvey's dirty and bloody clothes, a razor sitting on the edge of a sink filled and covered in blood. Susie then realizes that she has been killed, and screams, disappearing into thin air.
A man mops up a mess of mud and blood from his bathroom floor.
A man is badly beaten by a boy with a baseball bat. We see the man later bloodied and bruised, hardly able to walk.
The victims of a murderer are seen in the places where he dumped their bodies. Some of the bodies are partially buried, while others are clearly seen (no blood or injuries). This sequence is not in the real world.
A girl breaks into a male neighbour's house, and he chases her when he comes home. She falls from an upstairs window onto the lawn, she hurts herself and gasps for a moment.
A man breaks a hole in a neighbour's door.
A man violently destroys several glass bottles with ships inside that he had made previously. Giant representations of these bottles violently crash into a shoreline in the purgatory world.
A man dies after an icicle falls onto his shoulder, causing him to fall backward into a ravine. We see him hit several rocks hard during his fall and we see the body at the bottom of the ravine.
Quite MILD for a film that very easily could have been gory. |
| profanity |
4/10
1 F-word, 2 scatological terms, 2 mild obscenities, 2 religious exclamations.
Name-calling (moron, jerk, crazy, stupid, pathetic), exclamations (shut-up, shoot),
Average PG-13 |
| alcohol |
3/10
A woman is seen repeatedly drinking alcohol and smoking. There are several references to her taking pills, one seen shows her doing so while drinking alcohol. She tells a young child that she takes pills every day. It is not disclosed whether these are prescription or not. |
| frightening |
8/10
The movie is about a 14-year-old girl who was murdered, and might be too disturbing for children, even teens.
A young boy (about 4 years old) swallows a twig and nearly dies early in the movie. He survives, but the viewers see his lips turn purple as he lies motionless, unable to breathe. However his older sister saves his life by driving him to the hospital
Needless to say, George Harvey (the murderer) is a very creepy character. If younger children are watching this movie, it may be helpful to discuss how actor Stanley Tucci, who played the part, is actually a gentle and caring man in real life. He was reluctant to accept the role because he doesn't like hearing about serial killers and children being harmed. While filming intense scenes with teenage actress Saoirse Ronan, Tucci would often ask if she was all right, and he showed a lot of concern for her. This might put things in perspective a little more if children are afraid of his character.
Later in the movie, we see some unpleasant images of all the little girls/teenagers murdered by the same man. The youngest victim was 6. Their dead bodies are shown, sometimes face down, in water, by the side of the road, etc... The narrator also explains where the killer lured them, how they died, and where he dumped their bodies.
A murderer lures a teenage girl into a hole underground, which is built like a special fort for kids. He quickly makes her uncomfortable as it becomes increasingly obvious that he is going to hurt her.
Susie's parents are distraught when they learn that their daughter was most likely murdered. They are seen crying uncontrollably in some scenes.
When Susie's father has an emotional breakdown in the middle of the night, after her murder, the mother is lying next to their young son upstairs, who is sound asleep. She covers his ears and appears to be near tears herself.
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A teenager enters the house of her sister's killer, attempting to find evidence. The killer eventually realizes that someone is in his home, leading to a very intense scene. The girl does end up getting away by opening a window, literally rolling off the roof of the house, and landing in the grass on her back. She coughs and struggles for a moment, but then she gets up and runs, with the killer chasing her. He comes very close to grabbing her, but she ultimately gets away.
Ruth collapses onto a bed and faints after seeing Susie (who is already dead) moving toward her, through a window. As Ray tries to waken her, she opens her eyes, and Ray realizes that Susie has literally entered Ruth's body, and she asks him to kiss her, which she does. It can be considered a creepy moment to some viewers.
Overall: 27/50
Rated PG-13 for mature thematic material involving disturbing violent content and images, and some language.
UK - Rated 12 for Child murder theme, disturbing scenes and moderate violence.
Too intense for children under 13. 13 and up should be OK depending on the maturity. |
