Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot | 2024 | PG-13 | – 4.4.3

Why is “Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot” rated PG-13? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “thematic material involving child abuse, some violence, language and brief suggestive material.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes discussions of rape and sexual exploitation of children, an implied sex scene between a pre-teen girl and a teen boy, a woman being shot in front of her two children, a car crash without injuries, a woman dying from an apparent heart attack, many scenes of trauma exacted on children, discussions of a young girl dying after suffering serial rape and torture, discussions of getting direction from God about paths to take, and some name-calling and exclamations. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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Based on the true story of a Reverend (Demetrius Grosse) and his wife (Nika King) who, in the late 1990s in a small town in East Texas, started a movement to adopt and care for orphans and children from abusive homes. They eventually inspired 22 families to adopt 77 children. Also with Elizabeth Mitchell, Diaana Babnicova, Jillian Reeves, Kaysi J. Bradley, Della Golden, Aria Jennai Pulliam, Asher Liam Clay, Taj Johnson, Rose Person, Jacinte Blankenship, Demián Castro, Lisha Wheeler, Roscoe Johnson, Sandra Jarrett and Rena Canady-Laster. Directed by Joshua Weigel. [Running Time: 2:07]

Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot SEX/NUDITY 4

 – A pre-teen girl and a teen boy go to a bathroom stall at school, the boy tries to touch her, she pushes his hand away and he tells her to “show him”; we see her top fall below the stall door and sex is implied (a man later tells the girl’s mother to stop at the drugstore on the way home) and the girl is seen cowering on the floor and crying later.
► A husband tries to seduce his wife and she keeps interrupting to talk about adopting children in need; he kisses her shoulder, neck and knee and puts on romantic music, they hug and the scene ends.
► A pre-teen girl changes her clothes into a tight-fitting top and short-shorts in the school bathroom and puts on makeup; teen boys watch her as she walks by and another teen girl makes a crude remark about her. A man and woman awaken to noises in the night and discover that their pre-teen daughter has snuck out; they find her at a teen boy’s house and we see them lying in bed together embracing, as the man yells and tells the girl to get home.
► A woman is said to have had 18 children. A wife asks her husband to get her “lady things” from the store and he complains.
► A woman removes a young boy’s shirt to get him ready for a bath and we see many bruises, presumably from beatings. A pre-teen boy sits on a toilet (we see his bare legs to the knees) and moans, needing help to finish and clean himself (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). A woman wears a low-cut top that reveals cleavage.

Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot VIOLENCE/GORE 4

 – A young child calls the police when a man is beating the child’s mother, the man draws a gun and shoots the woman (we see her fall back against a wall without visible blood) and bullets hit the wall very close to the child as he screams for someone to help his mother. Police break down a door and find several young children unattended with clutter and food scattered around. A woman and a pre-teen girl argue loudly and the woman tries to hold her arms, she grabs her and spanks her on the buttocks as she continues yelling.
► A pre-teen girl steals a car and speeds on a road, knocking down a mailbox and a road sign before crashing into a tree; she walks through woods to a pond and wades into the water where she dunks under the surface (we see bubbles) and she surfaces again unharmed; many people join a search for her. A young boy panics when a woman turns on bath water and he screams, saying, “No, I don’t want to,” as the woman and her husband try to calm the child. A pre-teen girl yells at a man and a woman and she throws a glass at the wall shattering it. A pre-teen girl trips another teen girl as she walks by and they fight, pulling each other’s hair and yelling; a woman intervenes and breaks them apart. We hear yelling inside a house and scuffling; we do not see what is happening. A man and a woman awaken to noises in the night and discover that their daughter has snuck out; they find her at a teen boy’s house and we see them lying in bed together embracing, as the man yells and tells the girl to get home. A woman makes a pre-teen girl’s bed and finds a kitchen knife under her pillow; when confronting the child she says that she is afraid someone will come into her room and hurt her.
► We see numerous photos of children suffering from a variety of abuse; one child has many bites on their back from bug bites, one child has severe bruising and swelling around her eyes and we understand that the child died after being “pimped out” by her mother, other children are seen to have bruises and welts from beatings and we hear that several are used for sex, one child is said to have been raped and tortured, one young boy is said to have been living in a crack house, and one child was smothered by her mother. A woman locks up prescription medication and kitchen knives.
► When searching for his daughter through the woods at night, a man imagines someone asking him, “How’d you find yourself shot by your neighbor?” Four pre-teens go to a pond where they goad each other to swim in it and one girl says that she cannot swim (we do not see them in the water). A young girl wakes up crying after having a nightmare; a man holds her and helps her settle down. A woman holds her chest, breathes in a labored manner and sits in a chair, she reaches for the phone but drops it before being able to call for help and we later see her lying motionless while family members grieve around her.
► A pre-teen girl says, “I don’t want to be here. I wish I was dead. I wish I wasn’t born.” A pre-teen girl talks about her mother hitting her and hyperventilates. A woman calls several people trying to find someone that will accept an emergency placement for two young children (7 and 3 years old). A man preaches to his congregation saying that they cannot look away from troubled children. A man confronts another man about needing financial help for adoptive families while the second man prepares a presentation about preparing for foreign travel and other expenditures. A woman threatens to take a pre-teen girl out of a home and send her someone more suitable. Several children argue and call each other names at a dining table. We hear that a boy was deprived of oxygen during childbirth and he has disabilities. A man complains of the taste of dirt in his mouth after he confronts another man about needing money.
► A child services agent visits a foster home where a pre-teen girl has been left on her own and we hear that she is missing school; we see the child in her room pretending to be a cat and we see the house is a mess with food and other items littering the area, as the woman is told that the child will be taken away because of neglect. A pre-teen girl is shown in psychiatric evaluation sessions in a few scenes.
► When a pre-teen child says that she is a cat and walks on all fours while meowing and hissing at other people, a man prepares a dish of raw chicken livers and puts it outside on a porch where the child is told to go eat and that she will sleep outside as well (the child gives up being a cat later). A pre-teen boy sits on a toilet (we see his bare legs to the knees) and moans needing help to finish and clean himself; his mother yells at her husband to help the child and she yells at her teen daughter for not watching a pan of food that is now burning while the boy stands up and bangs his head on the wall several times (we do not see injuries). A pre-teen girl puts on another girl’s dress and talks to herself in the mirror trying to build herself up.
► A woman tries to start her car and when the engine won’t turn over, she opens the hood and pounds on something that gets it started. A woman goes to a shack in thick woods and sits by a tree crying. A young boy holds a handful of wriggling worms.

Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot LANGUAGE 3

 – 2 sexual references, 1 anatomical term, 3 mild obscenities, name-calling (crazy, mess, problems, hateful old hag, troll, baby, stupid, idiot, fake, mean), exclamations (exclamations, I need help), 22 religious exclamations (e.g. the Lord is my shepherd, for God’s sake, oh God, oh Lord Jesus, one Lord one family, Glory, Jesus, Hallelujah, oh my Lord, our God is good, Lord have Mercy, oh Jesus, a baptism). | profanity glossary |

Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot SUBSTANCE USE

 – We hear that a young boy was being raised in a crack house. A woman says that she has drinking to do.

Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Miracles, virtue, faith, family, grief, death of a parent, vulnerable children, fear, testing your faith, betrayal, rejection, trust, depression, State Child Welfare Services, foster parenting, adoption, orphans, baring other people’s burdens, child abuse.

Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot MESSAGE

 – Love never gives up and it forgives.

(Note: An animated short precedes the feature and includes a shepherd falling from a tree branch and then over a ledge landing hard on the ground (he winces and we see no injuries) and when he fears for his sheep, he makes his way through a dark cave to find them safe while singing a song praying to and praising God.)