Sting | 2024 | R | – 1.7.7

Why is “Sting” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “violent content, bloody images and language.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a kiss, many scenes in dark air ducts with sounds of skittering and growling and people screaming, people are seen with bloody wounds and acid burns on their faces and later wrapped in large sticky webbing, the remains of a parrot and a cat are seen with blood and tissue visible, many arguments, and about 24 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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After a pod from outer space drops through the atmosphere and crashes into a young girl’s (Alyla Browne) apartment, she befriends the spider that emerges from it, as it eventually grows to giant proportions and becomes a flesh-eating monster. Also with Jermaine Fowler, Ryan Corr, Noni Hazlehurst, Robyn Nevin, Penelope Mitchell, Danny Kim and Silvia Colloca. Directed by Kiah Roache-Turner. [Running Time: 1:32]

Sting SEX/NUDITY 1

 – A man and a woman kiss and hug.

Sting VIOLENCE/GORE 7

 – A large spider crawls on a woman’s shoulder, and she screams when it squirts something on her face (we see bubbling flesh on her cheek); the spider jumps on her face and she falls back on the floor, hits her head (we see blood on her head), looks in a mirror and vomits in a sink (we see goo); she then falls back and hits her head on the bathtub (we hear a crunch) and she seems unable to move as the spider crawls into her mouth, we see movement under her skin and a slice opens up in her abdomen as the scene ends. An exterminator searches an apartment and the building for the source of a sound in the walls and air ducts; he finds green goo seeping from a vent and throws a bug bomb in an air duct, he finds a smear of blood on the floor and a man with a bloody head wound and blood spurting from another wound as he is pulled into an air duct by something unseen and the other man screams. A man arms himself with a nail gun and shoots at a giant spider that threatens him until he is speared by a sharp spider leg and dragged into an air duct as blood spurts from the wound. A man and a pre-teen girl hide in a trash compactor, a giant spider follows them and the man tries to slam the compactor on it, but the power cable is disconnected; he plugs it in and is thrown by a shock.
► A man finds a woman dead in her apartment, we see blood, and her face seems partially melted and mutilated. A large parrot in a cage squawks loudly and the scene ends; we then see the remains of the bird in the cage without feathers and bloody flesh that seems to have been burned and a man says that the bird was trying to get out of the cage and wonders what got in the cage that would “melt their food.” A woman searches for her cat in an air duct and hears it meowing; her flashlight dies and she lights a match to see a giant spider with sharp teeth standing in front of her and she screams, she is pulled away and we hear pleading and later see her face bloody and she is wrapped in a large web.
► A giant spider skitters along a ceiling drops onto a man and the man is immobilized on the floor as he watches a woman immobilized by the spider and dragged away (they both have blood on their heads); we see them both wrapped in webs later and the man moans. A pre-teen girl burns webs wrapped around a man using mothball water and they climb through an air duct together, fall through a chute into a garbage dumpster (the girl has a bloody head wound) and a giant spider stands over her; the man sprays it with mothball water and the spider screeches and runs away. A pre-teen girl blocks the entrance to an apartment with furniture to protect her younger brother from a spider and the spider breaks through and snatches the toddler; the girl arms herself with a mothball water filled squirt gun and searches for the child; she finds the remains of a cat in an air duct (we see blood, tissue and fur) and later finds a man stuck to the ceiling by a web and he dribbles goo from his mouth.
► A man hears noises in an air duct and climbs on a ladder to find out what’s there; he falls off the ladder when a small dog runs toward him (no injuries). A small dog hears noises in an air duct and barks; the dog’s human puts the dog out in the hall and closes the door.
► A man is shocked by a faulty electrical cable a few times and he’s thrown in one scene and we see him lying motionless on the ground until a woman performs CPR on him and he revives. A man is shocked by a TV cable and he yells and punches the TV screen shattering it (we see blood on his hand).
► A pre-teen girl draws cartoons of a doll with its head cut off and a puddle of blood at the neck. A pre-teen girl draws a cartoon of a giant spider with a girl riding on its back. A pre-teen girl crawls through air ducts in an apartment and into a room where there are collectibles; she finds a small spider and puts it in a match box and then in a glass jar. Lightning flashes in several scenes and thunder rumbles. Eerie music plays in several scenes and a few feature a woman sitting alone in her dark apartment and she hears skittering, thumping and screeching coming from the vents and walls. A man pounds a wrench on a furnace in frustration while trying to repair it.
► A spider shatters the glass of an aquarium where it is kept and gets out. A man describes that when a spider eats you, you are alive and that it liquefies you. A spider mimics sounds that it hears: whistling, a cat meowing, and a baby cooing. A mothball touches a spider web and goo and it sizzles and melts. A man jumps when he thinks that cables are a large spider.
► A man reprimands a pre-teen girl about keeping a venomous spider as a pet. A man tells another man that a pre-teen girl has a dangerous spider as a pet. A woman yells at a man in several scenes and threatens not to pay another man for services. A pre-teen girl grumbles when her mother asks her to take care of her baby brother. A reference is made to an infant having eaten paint. A man tells a pre-teen girl not to make a pet of a spider and that all they do is eat and kill. A woman appears to not know her daughter when she comes to care for her in a few scenes.
► The lid of a large glass jar turns and we see the shadow of a large spider and hear skittering (implying that the spider opens the jar and gets out). A cockroach falls on a man’s face while he is attempting to repair a plumbing pipe under a sink; he jumps up, swatting it off his face. A pre-teen girl puts a cockroach into a jar with a spider inside and says, “Eat it”; we hear a hiss and the bug is snatched and disappears. A pre-teen girl puts bugs in a jar with a spider in several scenes and we see them swooped up. A jar with a spider inside is seen with slime spreading on the inside. A toddler throws baby food in a man’s face. A pre-teen girl douses herself with mothball water as protection. Many small spheres are seen in a dark area and one breaks open with some slime on it.

Sting LANGUAGE 7

 – About 24 F-words and its derivatives, 1 not fully enunciated F-word, 7 scatological terms, 3 anatomical terms, 11 mild obscenities, name-calling (disgusting, recalcitrant, bane of my existence, stupid animal, weak, stupid cat, nasty, mean, Addams Family, creepy, cheap, puta, lame-o, smart [anatomical term deleted]), exclamations (eew, shut-up, forget it), 6 religious profanities (GD), 5 religious exclamations (e.g. oh God, sweet Jesus, oh my God). | profanity glossary |

Sting SUBSTANCE USE

 – A woman takes a Diazepam tablet with a large sip of Sangria. A woman holds a glass of Sangria and drinks in several scenes (once from the pitcher) and seems inebriated, a man and a woman drink wine with a meal, a woman drinks glasses of liquor in several scenes, and a man drinks bottles of beer while working. A woman smokes a cigar.

Sting DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Alien lifeforms, family, blended families, estranged parents, dementia.

Sting MESSAGE

 – Be careful what you decide to keep as a pet since it could eventually eat you.