Venom: Let There Be Carnage | 2021 | PG-13 | – 3.6.5

Why is “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” rated PG-13? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “intense sequences of violence and action, some strong language, disturbing material and suggestive references.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a drawing of a nude woman from the back, a few kissing and flirting scenes, many scenes of fighting between humans and symbiotes and two symbiotes with property damage and some deaths with little blood but vomit and slime are evident, symbiotes inhabiting human hosts, and many arguments and at least 1 F-word and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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The reporter (Tom Hardy) who became the reluctant host for a sinister extraterrestrial being in Venom has since become comfortable with the demanding symbiote. Trying to revive his career, he interviews a serial killer (Woody Harrelson), who ends up becoming the host of a more violent symbiote and escapes prison after a failed execution. Also with Michelle Williams, Naomie Harris, Reid Scott and Stephen Graham. Directed by Andy Serkis. [Running Time: 1:37]

Venom: Let There Be Carnage SEX/NUDITY 3

 – A man and a woman kiss in a few scenes. Two teens express their love for each other as one is taken away by guards. A symbiote tells a man to kiss a woman (he does not).
► We hear that a boy killed his mother by throwing a hairdryer into her bathtub (we see animated drawings as the woman is electrocuted and her skeleton flashes and glows through her flesh and her bare buttocks, back and legs are shown when she stands up out of the tub). A woman wears a low-cut top that reveals cleavage in a few scenes. A dead body is shown wearing boxer shorts and we see his bare chest, abdomen and legs. A man wears swim trunks and we see him shirtless (his bare chest and abdomen are visible).

Venom: Let There Be Carnage VIOLENCE/GORE 6

 – Two symbiotes fight, a woman screams and a symbiote hits her in the face; they throw and hit each other causing property damage and one punches a hole through the other, one is pinned to a wall by thrown spikes, one is stabbed through the abdomen with a sharp tendril and one is shown pinned under heavy rubble. A man is laid on a table and is prepared for a lethal injection; when the fluid enters his veins, he thrashes and red spikes push out of his arms and face as he screams and becomes a giant multi-tentacled being with many teeth in its mouth; guards shoot at it and the bullets are thrown back at the guards, it grabs people and flings them around like rag dolls as it roars, it holds one guard against a wall and as he pleads with the alien, who shoves its long slimy tongue down the guard’s throat killing him; it then spins around creating a cyclone funnel cloud, it grabs a man by the throat and it is implied that it bites the man’s head off, and it later says, “You tasted just like ham.”
► A symbiote and a woman crash out of a building and a woman speeds away in a car chased by police; the symbiote lifts the chasing cars up, throws a few and slams others together; a helicopter shoots at them, the woman screams and the symbiote grabs the helicopter out of the sky. A symbiote punches his host in the face twice breaking his nose (we see blood and swollen flesh); they fight with the symbiote wrapping a tentacle around the man’s neck and the man pulling on the symbiote’s tongue very hard. A man slaps another man hard in the face twice. A man kicks a convenience store clerk in the face knocking him to the floor and stomps on him behind the counter (we hear crunching and do not see the result). A man berates another man until a symbiotic being sprouts out of his back and thrashes the first man around a cage; the man grabs the second man against the bars and bites his hand (we see blood on the attacker’s mouth and when he licks some off his finger, we see tiny spikes sprouting from the blood.
► A teen girl sits in what seems to be a cell, leaning on a toilet while talking to a teen boy in a neighboring cell (she says that her mutations are advancing too quickly and that her powers have become too strong) until two men enter her cell and drag her out as she and the boy plead with them to stop; the girl is placed in a police van where an officer shoots her after she screams loudly enough to shatter his eardrums (we see blood tickle from his ears as the girl is blown out of the back of the van and the girl is shown later with a bandage on her head and eye and later still with a scar on her face and a discolored eye). A symbiote wraps a tendril around a woman’s neck, lifts her off the floor (we see her feet twitching) and drops her to the floor (presumably dead).
► A man points a gun at a man and he transforms into a giant symbiote, grabs the officer and wraps him with its tentacles; we see him later held by the tentacles behind a pulpit in a church. A woman stabs a man in the shoulder, pins him to the ground, presses her thumb in his eye (he screams and we do not see what happens), wraps a chain around his neck and throws him off a fire escape (we see him later motionless). A woman head-butts another woman and we see her bound and gagged in a coffin in a church later.
► Many bodies are shown being exhumed from graves among rocks on a shoreline (we do not see the bodies, but see them covered with tarps and being carried on stretchers). A symbiote leaves a host, enters another and we see it entering several hosts and killing them; the people collapse and vomit (we see goo) and their flesh becomes gray and one woman screams and flinches. A man stands over a dead body in an alley, we see a long tendril protruding from his back, and the body has goo on his head and the ground around him.
► A man flashes back to when a woman screamed and deafened him and he shot her; his hearing aids whistle and he winces. A man pours gasoline on a symbiote and sets it on fire; the creature thrashes and grabs the man until the sound of a church bell distracts it. A man’s head is wrapped in a plastic bag. A man’s leg is slammed with a sledgehammer and he screams. A woman is taken to the top of a tall building where two symbiotes fight; the woman is dropped, one symbiote catches her, the other stabs the first one several times (we hear squishing and gasps) and it drops the woman, and the woman falls but is unharmed. A woman screams loudly and a giant bell falls on her (presumably killing her).
► Police walk through a hospital and find rubble and many bodies strewn around (no blood shown). We hear that a boy killed his grandmother by pushing her down a flight of stairs (the description is accompanied by pen and ink animated drawings that show the incident). We hear that a boy killed his mother by throwing a hairdryer into her bathtub (and we see animated drawings as the woman is electrocuted and her skeleton flashes and glows through her flesh (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details). We hear that a boy was beaten by his father and we see illustrations of a man yelling and striking the boy. Drawings of a boy being bullied are shown and we see the child on the ground as bullies kick him repeatedly until a girl screams and the bullies collapse to the ground with their heads bleeding. A woman is shown in a soundproof glass enclosure and she becomes angry after reading a newspaper article about a man getting the death penalty and she screams (we hear no sound but see items in the chamber being thrown around). A man is shown in a caged enclosure and a reporter asks him about where the missing bodies are (we understand that the caged man is a serial killer). A man rides a motorcycle and swerves toward oncoming traffic, and then swerves out of the way before a collision.
► A symbiote hears screaming and sees a man snatching a woman’s purse; the being jumps down and throws the thief to the ground, picks him up by the feet and holds him over its mouth while saying that it is going to eat his head (it does not). A symbiote pushes out from a man’s back and hands in several scenes and transforms fully in others; we see it as a giant, clawed being with many sharp teeth in a mouth that can enlarge and with a long tongue and it speaks with a deep booming voice; the being says, “Let me eat him,” in a few scenes and threatens to bite off people’s heads in others. A symbiote jumps from a rooftop into what sounds like a collection of chickens; we hear squawking and then see the being spitting out feathers and slime. A symbiote transforms a man’s hands and draws with appointed claw-like fingers. A symbiote controls the hands of a man and draws very fast with both hands on a large sheet of paper. A symbiote talks about thinking it would be OK if a man were to fall into traffic and lose his head and his legs and all of his teeth. A man is shown partially transformed into his symbiote with slimy and clawed feet and a long head and neck with sharp teeth coming out of his back. A man yells at a woman and a man slaps another man in the face twice.
► Two symbiotes argue as the creatures, and as their human hosts. A man yells at a woman and says, “I’m gonna slice your face off and wear it to a party.” A symbiote says that it wants to eat a woman and the man host tells it, “No, you cannot eat Mrs. Chen.” A symbiote being says, “I need human brains to survive.” A man tells a being to eat a chicken when it complains of wanting to eat human brains; the being won’t eat the two chickens living in the apartment with them because it has becomes attached to them and has named them; the being then bites on a tire hanging from a chain in the room and slams a hole into the ceiling when it stands up. A symbiote tells a man that he cannot mend the heart when the man is sad after a breakup. A man receives an invitation from a man on death row inviting him to “witness my demise,” and he says in the letter, “They’ll stop my heart.” A man yells, “You suck,” as he enters a prison checkpoint and the guard checking him in is alarmed. A man tells another man, “I wish you this heartbreak,” and “You are a cancer.” A man accuses another man of killing his mother, “Just by being born.” A symbiote says of a woman screaming, “She does that again, I’ll beat her face in.” A man is told, “No one likes you.”
► A symbiote throws a truck off a bridge and we hear someone inside the vehicle scream. A symbiote tears apart a man’s motorcycle. A symbiote makes a large mess in a kitchen while preparing food; water boils over in a pot and a pan catches fire. A man squishes a bug and licks the remains off his fingers. A symbiote squeezes a ketchup bottles and spurts ketchup on a man’s face.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage LANGUAGE 5

 – At least 1 F-word, 1 obscene hand gesture, 14 scatological terms, 16 anatomical terms, 9 mild obscenities, name-calling (fractured angel, idiot, old, black-mailer, grossness, nitpicking, amoeba, baby, monsters, ashamed, ball of rock, circus of hell, daddy-o, puny, crazy, loser, pariah, reject, tiny little brain, condemned, pig dog house bat, funny little guy, bananas, weirdos), exclamations (I don’t like you, no, shut-up, pull up your big boy pants, shut your mouth), 1 religious profanity (GD), 10 religious exclamations (e.g. oh my God, oh God, God, Holy cow, Holy [scatological term deleted]). | profanity glossary |

Venom: Let There Be Carnage SUBSTANCE USE

 – None.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Aliens, symbiotic beings, vindication, closure, child abuse, psychopathy, defects, mutations, superpowers, secrets, heartbreak.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage MESSAGE

 – You cannot keep an aggressive symbiote contained for very long.