Common Sense Note
Parents need to know this is a pretty scary movie, and the last 20 minutes, in particular, take a turn for the dark. With windows like eyes and a flying carpet that unfurls tongue-like out the front door to scoop up trespassers, the house is a wonderfully alive structure. But it's creepy. You don't want your kids waking up in the middle of the night freaked out that their house is going to eat them. Most of the PG content comes from the scariness; there are very few crude jokes or language issues. The kids are in constant peril, and they're not exactly role models. They break and enter, steal cough medicine, operate heavy machinery, and use sticks of dynamite. Likewise, the adults in this movie are creepy ¿- not just Old Man Nebbercracker, but also the uninterested babysitter, detached parents, and clueless cops.
Sexual
Content
The boys are at an age where they're starting to think about girls, which comes out in their dealings with Jenny. Also, the babysitter's boyfriend tries to put the moves on her, and she kicks him out of the house.
Violence
The house is a nightmarish creature that gobbles up neighborhood toys, pets, even people that trod on its lawn. It's scary, especially the last 20 minutes. The storyline includes dead and dying people; violent video games, guns and explosions; and there's a supernatural undercurrent to the movie that isn't appropriate for young kids. Nebbercracker and the babysitter's boyfriend make physical and verbal threats to the kids.
Language
Verbal threats to the kids, name-calling, potty humor, terms of deity used as expletives, and other words such as "suck," "moron," "kiss my butt," and "crap".
Social
Behavior
The children work together and learn an important lesson about the dangers of judging people by their appearances but these lessons are negated by the children's misdeeds.
Consumerism
Very few pop culture references, which is refreshing.
Drugs / Tobacco /
Alcohol
The boyfriend drinks beer and appears drunk when he leaves the house. The kids plan to use cough syrup to put the house to sleep. A cop takes a drink of the cough syrup when no one is looking.
