The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - Family Review

Content Warnings

• Sexual Content

  Mild
  None Mild Moderate Severe
  Read details

  A skinny human-like male creature wears nothing but a small loin cloth throughout the film.

  A young man is bare chested for a scene (non-sensual).

  A man and a woman kiss passinately.

• Violence

  Moderate
  None Mild Moderate Severe
  Read details

  Two characters fight for a ring, they bite and push each other until one chokes the other to death in a scene with a slightly intense atmosphere

  The Most violent Lord of rings movie.

  In the extended edition, one character stabs another in the back and pushes him off a tower just before being shot through the chest with an arrow. The man who was stabbed then falls off the tower and is impaled on a spike in the water.

  In one battle the orcs throw decapitated human heads using a catapult.

  The film is dominated by large scale battles

  We see the aftermath of a battle. The battlefield is covered in dead bodies, some with spears or arrows sticking in them. We briefly see one dead man with his arm severed--we can see his arm lying next to him and his bloody stub--blood soaks the ground. The camera moves away and it is for at most a second.

  The enemy catapults human heads into Minas Tirith. We see somewhat closeups of the bloody heads and their severed necks.

  A Lord catches on fire, is engulfed in flames, and jumps off of the castle to his death.

• Profanity

  Mild
  None Mild Moderate Severe
• Intense Scenes

  Moderate
  None Mild Moderate Severe
  Read details

  The film is intended for people 13 over due to strong violence.

  In the extended edition, the Mouth of Sauron makes a brief appearance. His physical appearance can be seen as unsettling (notably for younger audiences) as he has a grotesque mouth that has the lips cracking, flesh rotting, and teeth decaying. He often turns his head erratically and showcases his decaying teeth often, with his lips retracting greatly.

  Gollum's transformation in the opening scene of the film is deeply disturbing.

  The long, violent battlefield sequences are quite scary as the heroes are always under threat of death or serious injury.

  A trio of characters journey through "The Paths of the Dead" and encounter ghosts.

  Frodo gets attacked by a giant spider while Sam battles against it and it's very intense (these sequences can especially frighten those who suffer from arachnophobia). The spider also moves very quickly which makes the scene all the more intense

  The Witch-King scenes may be frightening for some.

  Two of the characters descend into violent madness. The first of these is marked by a transformation into a creepy creature. That scene is particularly intense.

  Gollum's appearance and voice can be frightening.

  This is a rather violent movie but not much blood/gore is shown. It has a fantasy overtone to it.