Scream | 2022 | R | – 3.9.10

Why is “Scream” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “strong bloody violence, language throughout and some sexual references.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a few passionate kissing scenes, a shower scene with partial nudity, several sexual references, many attacks by a killer using a knife and causing many very bloody and fatal injuries, a few gunshot wounds that spill a lot of blood, and over 90 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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After 25 years the town of Woodsboro is under siege again by the Ghostface killer and the two women (Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox) painfully aware of the original events return to try to end it once and for all. Also with David Arquette, Melissa Barrera, Marley Shelton, Jenna Ortega, Dylan Minnette, Jack Quaid, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sonia Ammar, Mikey Madison, Mason Gooding and Kyle Gallner. Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett. [Running Time: 1:54]

Scream SEX/NUDITY 3

 – A teen boy and a teen girl (both are clothed) lying on a sofa kiss passionately (she seems to be thrusting slightly on top of him); she tells him that they should go to another room to be alone (sex implied) but he says no. A young man and a young woman kiss and make suggestive remarks about a pill the young woman took. A teen girl and a teen boy kiss. Two teen girls kiss passionately. A photo shows a man kissing a woman on the cheek.
► A teen girl says that she will possibly hook up with another teen girl at a party. Teens tease a couple about not having had sex yet. A young woman talks about reading her mother’s diaries and that her mother was pregnant with her in high school. A teen girl complains about not being able to have sex with her boyfriend. A young man talks about how easy it was to seduce a young woman.
► A teen boy undresses to shower and we see his bare chest, abdomen, back and partial buttocks. A man urinates against a wall outside a bar (we do not see any nudity). Women wear low-cut tops that reveal cleavage in a few scenes. A teen girl wears a short skirt that reveals her bare legs to the upper thighs.

Scream VIOLENCE/GORE 9

 – A teen girl opens her front door to go to help her friend that she thinks is being attacked; a man wearing a mask stands at the door with a knife and stabs her in the abdomen (we see a bloody patch on her sweater), she punches him in the face and slams the door, he pounds on the door, hacks the security system to unlock the doors, she locks them again and they go back and forth a few times; the phone rings and the teen jumps (we see blood on her hands), the attacker jumps at her and stabs her, she hits him and he pushes her to the floor, she kicks him, he stomps on her leg breaking it (we see some bone protruding), she pulls herself along the floor and he stabs her through the hand when she tries to defend herself (we see the bloody blade through her hand), and the attacker grabs the teen and stabs her in the back several times as sirens sound outside and the attacker leaves the scene. A man urinates against a wall outside a bar, his car starts up and the lights shine on him as he walks toward the car yelling, he leans into the car and switches it off, and turns to walk away but he is attacked and stabbed in the throat; he falls to the ground where he bleeds profusely and dies. A woman runs to the front porch of her home where she is stabbed in the abdomen, she stumbles back onto the ground and the attacker stabs her many more times in the abdomen and chest (we see a lot of blood on her clothing, neck and face). A man is stabbed in the abdomen and the back simultaneously and one blade is pulled up toward his chest as we hear tearing and squishing and a lot of blood pours from his mouth and the wounds; he falls to the floor dead with a lot of blood pooling around him. A teen boy is stabbed through the neck (we see the bloody blade entering and exiting) and there is a lot of blood pouring from his mouth as he slumps to the floor dead. A teen boy is stabbed in the leg (we see a lot of blood) and when he tries to get away from the attacker, he is stabbed in the back, and then repeatedly in the back when he falls to the ground (we see a lot of blood and he dies).
► A killer attacks a man, pushes him to the floor, holds him with a knife over him, they fight and the man shoots the killer three times throwing him into a wall of glass shelves that shatter and he slumps to the floor. A teen girl shoots another teen girl in the head (blood splatters from the wound) and then shoots at other people that scatter. Two women load handguns and move toward a house where they hear screams; one woman is shot in the abdomen (we see blood) and falls to the ground, the other enters the house searching through rooms and shooting through doors (she shoots a man in the leg with one shot). A young woman shoots a young man in the head (blood sprays) and she shoots a teen girl that enters the room screaming. An elevator door opens and a man that’s inside shoots at a killer, as the killer runs away.
► An attacker stabs a woman in the abdomen and turns the blade as she moans. A teen girl stabs a woman in the abdomen (we see blood). A young woman stabs a young man through the face (we see the blade passing through his cheeks with a lot of blood); he falls back and she stabs him in the abdomen and chest repeatedly before slashing his throat (he gurgles and we see a lot of blood as he dies). A teen girl hides in a room and hits a young man in the head with a phone receiver when he opens the door, and the young man is attacked by a man with a knife, who slashes him on the arm (we see some blood).
► A young woman is attacked by a man wearing a mask in a hospital break room, he swings a knife at her and she fights him off with a chair, runs out of the room to get a security guard, who goes to the room with a gun drawn but finds nothing. A killer pushes a teen girl out of her wheelchair and she pulls herself along the floor toward an elevator as the attacker tells a young woman on the phone that he will only kill one person, either her sister or her boyfriend, and the young woman must choose which one. A woman hears a door open and arms herself with a kitchen knife; she jumps when her teen son enters the room and startles her. A woman is attacked and she and the attacker fall over a railing and slam to the floor below; they both moan. A teen girl holds a gun to a woman’s head. A teen girl attacks a young woman with a crutch and hits her several times. A woman grabs a man’s arm as he aims a gun and bites him on the arm (the man yells). A teen girl holds a woman by the throat and she gasps and struggles to get free. A woman shoots a teen girl that collapses on a lit stovetop and catches fire; she stumbles around in flames and collapses on the floor. A young man and a woman fight and he slams her against a wall before they both tumble down a flight of stairs and moan.
► A teen girl patient hears noises in a hospital corridor, she unplugs her monitors and pulls out an IV before climbing into a wheelchair and moving into the hallway as the lights go out; she passes the nurse’s station where she sees a dying officer with a very bloody neck wound and a pool of blood on the floor around him. A teen girl is shown in a hospital bed with monitors, an IV and a cast on her arm in a couple of scenes. A teen girl goes to a dark basement alone to get beer for a party.
► A man says to a woman driving a police car, “I will have gutted your baby boy,” and she turns the car around and speeds with lights flashing and sirens blaring. A teen girl tells a teen boy that his girlfriend is “probably dead.” A man says, “You have to shoot them in the head or they always come back.” A teen boy yells that they should, “Cut some throats.” Two women tell a young woman that they plan to kill a killer. A man yells and tells two people to leave his home and he slams the door behind them. A teen girl yells at her older sister to “get out.” A teen girl becomes nervous after getting a strange call from a man; she locks her doors and windows, draws the curtains, and jumps when the phone rings again. Two teen girls accuse each other of being a serial killer and seem nervous that the other might actually be one. A man on a telephone says that he cloned a teen girl’s phone and we see a video of the teen brushing her hair while being watched through the window and a long knife moves across the screen. A teen girl talks on the phone with a man asking questions about a scary movie after he creepily asks her to play a game; she talks about them always starting with a kill scene. A teen boy says that he will fight a young man if he comes near his girlfriend; he rolls up his sleeves in a threatening manner in one scene and lunges toward the man in a bar scene (the man pulls a knife, but leaves when the proprietor tells him to go). People talk about the rules to surviving in a horror movie. People tell other people to stay away from a town. People say, “Don’t split up.” A woman hits a man on the arm and back a few times while yelling at him and he complains that she is hurting him. People talk about a specter of death. A teen girl yells at a movie saying, “Turn around. Look behind you,” as a masked man stands behind her and raises a knife over her; she is stabbed in the shoulder and we see the bloody wound. A character claims to have been radicalized. A few scenes are accompanied by scary music swelling, suggesting that there will be a jump scare. A sheriff tells a young woman to leave town. A teen boy talks about being armed with pepper spray and a taser. A man talks about having been stabbed numerous times and suffering nerve damage in his leg that causes him to limp. We hear that a teen girl was attacked and that she made it through surgery. A young woman sees the reflection of a young man with several bloody bullet holes in his chest (blood stains are shown on his shirt) in a few scenes. An announcement is made that classes are cancelled due to public safety concerns. A teen girl talks about a young man stalking her Instagram. A young man tells people at a party that they are likely murder targets and that they should leave; the partygoers complain and one throws a plastic cup that hits the young man in the head. End credits begin with a jump scare.
► A teen boy tries to use his cellphone but his hands and fingers are covered with blood that smears on the screen. A couple of bodies are taken from a crime scene and we see them covered with blankets. A body in a body bag is taken away from a crime scene and a woman collapses when she realizes who it is. A man urinates against a wall outside a bar (we do not see urine). A man spits stale food into a sink. A teen girl is shown with bad burns scars on her face, head and arms.

Scream LANGUAGE 10

 – About 94 F-words and its derivatives, 4 sexual references, 25 scatological terms, 7 anatomical terms, 10 mild obscenities, name-calling (schlocky, cheeseball, nonsense, weird hair, over-lit, toxic, sweetie, dude, bait, hopeless victim, selfish, weak, coward, sensitive, psycho, nuts, douche nozzle, ridiculous, terrible, distant, goofy, murder target, too boring, would-be killer, creep, idiot, sloppy, lunatic, dumb [mild obscenity deleted]), exclamations (hey, spit balling, arm up, huh, good luck, whoa, okay, no no, watch your tone new girl, the nerve of that girl, freak you out, bummer, be smart, ow), 5 religious profanities (GD), 18 religious exclamations (e.g. oh my God, God help, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Holy [scatological term deleted]). | profanity glossary |

Scream SUBSTANCE USE

 – A teen girl inhales from an inhaler in a few scenes, a young woman takes what we hear are anti-psychotic meds in a few scenes, a teen girl says that she is going to “smoke some weed” (we do not see her do so), a teen girl talks about getting better painkillers every time she gets attacked, a teen girl says that she is “so high right now,” and a young woman talks about taking every drug that she could find when she was a teenager. A man offers to buy a teen girl a “real drink” in a bar scene, a teen boy talks to a man about having “crawled into a bottle,” teens drink liquor and beer at a party, a character tells another character that her mother is a drunk, a woman drinks a glass of wine then gets into a car to drive to pick up food from a restaurant (she is a Sheriff), and we see several liquor bottles in a man’s trailer home and we understand that he has a drinking problem.

Scream DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Scary movies, serial killers, fandom, “Babadook,” “Psycho,” family secrets, truth, anonymity, elevated horror, horror movie sequels, meta-slasher.

Scream MESSAGE

 – Horror movie sequels are just not that original any longer. Don’t trust anyone.