Superb storytelling makes this movie worth watching twice (which I did). The acting is also top-notch (Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Benedict Wong). I counted nine jump-scares but only one vomit scene although it is quite substantial. There are no clowns but definitely people painted like clowns. There’s not one but two needle prick scenes!
Synopsis
When all but one child from the same class mysteriously vanish on the same night at exactly the same time, a community is left questioning who or what is behind their disappearance.
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9
wellyfish
A man brutally murders his husband. While the man is under a spell and not acting out of his own free will, seeing a previously sweet and loving husband suddenly brutally beating his partner to death can be jarring
A mature aunt-like figure is manipulative, condescending, dangerous and overall vile to a child.
One parent is implied to be somewhat stern towards their child, but it is never shown in the movie, and the parent recognizes his failure in this and is apologetic. This is only really like 30 seconds of plot though, and is not relevant to the main story.
Parents depicted going after child to attack the child while not in control of their own bodies. No physical/verbal abuse ends up happening, but they hit a locked door repeatedly in an attempt to enter, which can be triggering.
The children have been weaponized. They are not actively perpetuating the cycle of abuse. It has much more in common with Hansel and Gretel shoving the witch into the oven at the end of their story than an abused child growing up to abuse his kids
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4
A character uses some type of drugs in a pipe ? Needles are also shown. We can see it at the beginning of the James section when he’s in the tent and then one more time after he sells a bunch of stuff at the pawn shop
Whoever is voting yes to some of the animal questions is a d**k There are NO animals in this movie. You hear a dog bark once. No animals are harmed or killed in this movie.
Who are this person who is just randomly saying yes to everything about animals being abuse or hurt? That's not cool a lot of us rely on these reports and seriously get triggered by animal abuse! Stop it
A woman is accused of getting a man drunk to sleep with him. However, while she does ask him to have drink with her and they do have sex, it is not otherwise suggested that that's what she did.
The man is a recovering alcoholic, but it seems that the woman didn't know about that when she encouraged him to have a drink with her.
Someone consumes hard drugs willfully, and trip-like camera and audio effects are used. People are otherwise abstractly poisoned by another. May not fit definition of ‘drugging’ though.
Women characters are some of the characters who are subjected to violence from the antagonist/s during the movie, but not because of their gender. I don't recall seeing an actual slap across the face to anyone.
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5
hettispaghetti
*SPOILERS* it all depends on how sensitive you are to this trigger. the 'zombies' eyes are bulged however you don't see the bulging happening, just the person getting choked. at the end, the antagonist gets ripped apart and for maybe 2 seconds you see her face and eyes being torn apart, but it is towards the very very end. you could easily look away whilst she's lying on the floor and the children surround her.
In my head body horror is usually when the body is made to do things that shouldn't be possible. Most of the body-related horror is just possible IRL gore, but there are a couple moments related to someone being controlled that feel unsettling (no blinking, not reacting to physical damage or pain, super strength and speed)
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9
Right after a character vomits black goo, not much visual but graphic sounds and then at the end of the scene it kinda pans to the head but you it’s not a graphic close up
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9
onlycallisto
Someone makes reference to forcing people to eat each other. At the end of the film someone is torn apart and starts to be eaten but things stop just short of this.
Not fully dislocation, but could be seen similarly. In one of the final scenes, it is shown that a characters limbs have been torn off. The act of tearing them off is not shown on screen.
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10
Pretty gory scene at the end, and other events listed in the body horror section. But it’s easy to look away during those scenes so don’t let it stop you if gory’s not your thing!
The film is split between the perspectives of various characters as it's told out of order, and one of the characters with a "chapter" of their own does die at the end of it.
. . . . . . . . The parents are essentially comatose at the end of the film. The closing VO explains that they’re in a care home and the child is living with a kinship carer who is nice.
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6
Anonymous
Pretty gross nature doc scene shown with zombie ant. When the two guys sit down to watch TV, close your eyes. Also there are face stabbings with forks and a syringes, so some skin holes are shown
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31
About 1 hr 20 min into the movie. When the woman with red hair rings a bell in the kitchen, one of the characters starts violently attacking someone else, and vomits a lot of black goo onto their face. It lasts maybe 10 seconds.
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4
onlycallisto
Towards the very end of the movie. After the boy brings home the papers, he wakes up in the night. When he finds the woman, she spits into a bowl pretty graphically.
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5
onlycallisto
The single needle is in the "Paul" sequence, you cash probably guess when it's coming. The 3 needles are in the "James" sequence and you will see them for a few seconds before they are used so time to look away.
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2
Queerkiddo
In the kitchen scene with the principle, a character cuts their hand with a stick purposefully. While not intentional self harm, can def be triggering.
An alcoholic strikes a restrained person and later the person who was stricken (who is addicted to drugs) attacks the man who struck him because he saw the villain and mistook him for her.
At approx. 35mins: Camera pans up to the sky during dream sequence, subdued lightning flashes appear in the clouds behind the floating assault rifle
At approx. 50mins: Flashing police car lights turn on, prominent for several seconds in an initial exterior shot but then not visible again until Paul gets out of the car for just two shots
Much later on during Alex’s chapter there is a brief flash of explosive sparks when Gladys lights the potion. During finale two single-flash gun shots occur.
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24
Strivaille
The only gay characters in the movie have the most violent deaths (one brutally bashing the head in of his husband) and then having his head run over by a car.
The main antagonist of the movie is suffering from an unnamed long term illness. Hospice is mentioned and the fact that she might not have a month left is mentioned.
As a person who has been there, I actually loved James as a character. I found him very honest, funny, and lovable. When you’re an addict living in a tent, yeah, all you’re thinking about is your next hit. That is the nature of being in an intense state of addiction. His actions all made internal sense for someone in that place in life, and they were used to further the plot in ways that would be difficult to get a stable, sober person to do.
Also, he has a name and his own segment of the story. He’s not a throwaway character.
The bad guy is killed but the children and other people who were possessed don’t go back to normal. Plus a few main characters died throughout the film. Melancholy ending