Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that teens who like ghost stories may well want to see this latest creepy-scary horror film. It includes frequent jump scenes (big noises, sudden movements on screen), and its premise is based on the long-ago murder of a family. Early scenes indicate the killings with spatters of blood, rough camerawork, loud booms, and screaming. Later, gray-faced, long-limbed ghosts grab at the main character's head and ankles, and viewers see glimpses of ghosts in the walls and under floors and repeated scenes of crows flying, perching, and attacking. Violence is usually insinuated by fast editing and close-ups, though the bloody effects are visible. Minor language includes "damn," "s--t," and "hell." The movie's most disturbing theme has the parents disbelieving and distrusting their daughter, although viewers know she's right.
Sexual
Content
Parents joke about sex (he says he's going to do "new things" to her, he's been reading the "Farmer Sutra") and kiss and embrace in the kitchen.
Violence
Scary movie stuff: ghosts move quickly and make crackly noises, shadows loom, a house has creaky floors (and, in the cellar, a floor that turns into something like quicksand, with hands that reach out at grab at victims); lots of dark places, lots of close-ups with blurry, shawdowy threats in the near background; crows attack people several times, leaving them bloodied; farmer shoots his gun at the crows; family members are attacked by father with a pitchfork; attacks lead to screaming and falling; house sometimes shakes, walls collapse, pitchfork spikes slice through walls, ghosts appear through walls and under floors.
Language
Minor language, including "hell," "s--t," "son of a bitch," and several instances of "damn it."
Social
Behavior
References to Jess' previous "mistakes" (meaning her drinking and driving, which led to a car accident that injured her brother); murdered previous house owners seek revenge; parents don't believe their daughter's reports of haunting (she worries that she's going crazy).
Consumerism
Not applicable
Drugs / Tobacco /
Alcohol
Reference to Jess' drinking and dirving in back in Chicago.
