Monster Summer | 2024 | PG-13 | – 1.4.3

Why is “Monster Summer” rated PG-13? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “some violence and terror.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes some flirting and discussions of teen crushes, discussions of divorce, several people engaged by a being that seems to extract something from them leaving them in a trance-like state, a description of a man dying in an accident and of a child abduction, two teens being pulled underwater while swimming in the ocean, discussions of riptides and of witches, several arguments, and some moderate language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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The promise of a perfect summer of baseball and friends is dashed when strange things start happening to children in an island town, leaving some of them unreachable. With Mel Gibson, Lorraine Bracco, Mason Thames, Kevin James, Nora Zehetner, Patrick Renna, Abby James Witherspoon, Lilah Pate, Kelly Collins Lintz, Julian Lerner, Barbara Goodson and Noah Cottrell. Directed by David Henrie. A few lines of muffled dialogue are spoken in Latin without translation. [Running Time: 1:37]

Monster Summer SEX/NUDITY 1

 – A teen girl wearing a low-cut top approaches a teen boy while they and others are seated on a beach around a campfire; the two teens walk off the beach into the shadows and the teen girl touches the boy’s lips with her finger, enticing him to follow her. A man and a woman hug in the background of a scene. Two teen boys embrace at a baseball game.
► Teens talk about a teen boy having “the hots” for someone.
► A woman wears a low-cut dress that reveals cleavage. A woman wears a low-cut sweater that reveals cleavage.

Monster Summer VIOLENCE/GORE 4

 – A teen boy and a teen girl swim into the ocean at night and are frightened by someone talking to them from a nearby pier, before jumping into the water; the teens try to swim back to shore, but the teen girl is pulled underwater, the teen boy tries to go after her and he is pulled away and out of sight (we see him alive later, but he seems to be in a trance).
► Three teens search through a house where they find a collection of shoes and photos of children and teens; we see a dead mouse on a plate in one room and someone lunges toward them from the shadows, the teens awaken bound and gagged as we hear knife blades being dragged across each other and the person says, “It’s not going to be a fairy tale ending for you”; the person transforms into a witch-looking being with long scraggly hair, sharp teeth, gnarled hands and feet and drags one teen out of the room; another teen hits the being with a baseball bat and she is thrown out of the room, against a wall and is shot in the chest. Two teens use a lighter to burn the ropes that bind their wrists, and the lighter is thrown across the room and sets curtains on fire; a teen boy follows a being into a basement and it lifts him off the floor, squeezing his throat until it is shot several times — once in the head and we see glowing streams of light leaving its body as it disintegrates into particles before disappearing.
► A teen boy crashes through a cabin window and onto the ground and runs away as a person with gnarled hands and feet walks down the stairs and moves toward him; the boy hides in the woods behind a tree and becomes frightened when he hears a cackling laugh and looks up to see something (we do not see it) and a bright light flashes as the scene ends; we then see the teen standing in a dark street seemingly in a trance as a police officer approaches him. Lights pop and burn out in a boy’s tree house as his typewriter types on its own with rhyming words that threaten to take the boy’s soul or eat him whole. A teen boy and a teen girl walk into the shadows (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details) and into a restricted area where there are unexploded munitions; they walk behind some brush, we hear an explosion, see a flash of light and we see the teen boy on TV later and he seems to be in a trance. A teen boy rides his bike alone on a dark road and is chased by a vehicle that speeds very close to him; he gets away unharmed. A teen boy finds his friend’s bicycle and backpack on the side of a road, he rushes into the woods and finds the boy hiding behind a tree as someone wearing a dark cloak stands nearby watching them and speaking in an eerie voice; the boys run out of the woods and ride away to safety. A young girl walks to a car window to sell the driver lemonade and after a flash of bright light the child is left in a trance. A video of a young boy plays on a TV and the child asks, “Why’d you let them take me Daddy?” as a man watches in disbelief.
► A man speeds in his car to pass traffic. Three teens on bicycles follow a woman through town and into a theater; one boy tackles her onstage as she approaches the curtain and accuses her of being a witch as the audience watches. A man prepares an investigation of missing children and we see pushpins indicating the children and from where they disappeared. A teen boy sneaks into a woman’s room and snoops around looking in her drawers and closets; he panics and hides in a closet when she comes back to the room. A teen boy looks through a telescope and is startled when he sees a woman looking back at him from a nearby window. A man tumbles into a crater made by an exploded munition and a teen boy helps him out (he is unharmed). A teen boy is startled when he places a knife under a door to see inside a room, sees a woman’s reflection and she seems to be staring at him; he charges down the stairs. A man is startled when a teen boy rushes toward him in the woods.
► A teen boy says that someone is “feeding on kids.” A teen talks about a witch “controlling stuff with their mind.” A man jokes and says, “I’m gonna have to dig a mass grave now,” when he sees three teens and the teens become nervous. A teen boy says that his father used to walk through his room carrying a golf club to “clear the room of monsters” every night before bed. A man tells a teen boy to “scram,” and “get out of here.” A teen boy yells at a baseball umpire disagreeing with his call. A woman and her teen son argue in a few scenes; she once tells him, “Get out of my sight.” Several references are made to a man dying in an accident. A man talks about his young son being snatched by someone on a motorcycle and being unable to chase them. Two teens tell another teen that they can’t hang out with him because their parents say that he is a bad influence. A man says that his marriage ended after his young son disappeared. A man and a teen boy argue in several scenes; the man slams his door on the teen during one exchange. Teens talk about a man’s wife and child disappearing and they suspect that he killed and buried them on his property. Police describe a teen boy suffering from PTSD after being caught in a riptide. Two teen boys talk about their future.
► Three teens watch as a man digs up a locked box from his yard; the teens sneak into the yard and hide in a shed; they run away yelling when the man appears standing next to them. Opening credits are accompanied by eerie music and fog-filled woods with crows squawking. A man reads an article a teen boy wrote and spills ketchup on it; the man says that he won’t publish it in the town’s paper because it will incite fear in the community. A man says that he is surprised when there is “No blood no guts,” at the scene of an explosion. A teen boy eats a handful of candy and spits it out, saying that it doesn’t taste good. A boy’s shoes are stained red (it looks like blood) and he says that it’s red algae. A man has a burn scar on his arm.

Monster Summer LANGUAGE 3

 – 1 scatological term, 9 mild obscenities, name-calling (trouble, stupid, jerk, fool, gross, zombie, evil, spooky, weird, animal, bad boy, creeps, rotten, monsters, hogwash, nut house, stupid little kid, alone and miserable, overreacting, bad influence), exclamations (jeez, how dare you, wait up, be patient, fine man, you gotta be joking, take it easy, loosen up, kids being kids), 2 religious exclamations (e.g. oh my God, my God). | profanity glossary |

Monster Summer SUBSTANCE USE

 – A man asks if a teen boy smokes weed and we are told that he does not. A man jokingly asks a teen boy if he wants a beer. We see three tobacco pipes on a table and understand that a man was a smoker.

Monster Summer DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Growing up, death of loved ones, child abduction, imagination, witches, respect, heroes, adventures, journalism, disappointment, privacy, serial predators, Peter Pan, children’s book authors.

Monster Summer MESSAGE

 – Monsters do exist.