Parents Guide for
The Butterfly Effect (2004) More at IMDbPro »

In two scenes, a young man walks in on his roommate having sex with a girl (we see their bare breasts, and they toss and turn in sheets); at one point, the girl gets up and leaves, and the man appears to masturbate under the sheets. A woman steps out of a shower, and we see briefly see her fully nude (bare breasts and pubic region are seen). During an extended scene, a young man and a young woman lay in bed, nude under the sheets (obviously after sex), and there is some brief talk of what they just did. We hear moaning and a bed squeaking, and see a man in bed with a woman supposedly having sex. A man makes two young kids act in a child porn film, and we see them on the set, supposedly nude (though nothing else is seen). A man repeatedly threatens to rape another man; the man agrees to perform oral sex on him, and is about to do it, but instead stabs him.

~A boy puts an explosive in a mailbox and we see different outcomes: One is that a woman and her baby go to the mailbox, open it, and it explodes killing them both (we hear the explosion, do not see the people but hear a news report referring to it as a "gruesome scene"); the other is that a boy rushes the mailbox and he is blow back (we hear the explosion and see him later, missing his arms and requiring a wheelchair).

~A boy puts a dog in a bag, sprays the bag with lighter fluid, lights a stick on fire, and then there are different outcomes: One shows the boy hitting a girl hard with a board, she falls unconscious, then he hits another boy in the stomach with the board, we see this boy with a very bloody face later and a smoldering bag on a fire nearby (it is implied that the dog was still in the bag and is now dead); an alternate outcome of this scene shows a boy being hit in the head with a board, then kicked in the stomach, we see the other boy igniting the bag with the whimpering, growling dog inside it and the boy threatens another boy who has a stick in his hand by saying "drop it or I'll slit your mother's throat in her sleep"; yet another alternate outcome has the boy hitting a girl with a board in the face (we see her with a huge bloody gash on her cheek), another boy stabs a boy in the back with a metal shard, and the boy lies dead. A young man with a stick threatens another young man, he begins hitting him repeatedly on the legs and back, then kicks him while he is on the ground. The young man on the ground sprays the other young man in the face with mace, punches him repeatedly then hits him hard in the head with the stick killing him (he is sprayed with blood). Two men unfasten their pants, a young man gets on his knees in front of them preparing to perform oral sex on them, he then pulls a knife and stabs them (we see blood on their crotches and abdomens, we hear them screaming and see blood spray). A boy trips a boy who in turn hits him in the face with a metal pole then kicks and punches him repeatedly. A man attacks a boy and tries to strangle him, the man is hit in the back of the head by a guard and we see the man on the floor with a pool of blood collecting around his head, and then we see the man's funeral (we see the attack portion of the scene several times, but the man's death only once). A boy slams his hands down hard onto pointed wire paper holders (we do not see the after effect). A man grabs a young man by the crotch and threatens him with sodomy or death, and a boy threatens a man with castration. A man punches a young man and grabs him by the hair. We hear that a young woman has committed suicide, and a young man tries to drown himself in a tub of water. A boy threatens a man with an explosive, the explosive rolls toward a girl who picks it up and it explodes killing her (we hear the blast). A young man has what look like seizures in several scenes, causing him to thrash, he holds his head (we sometimes hear ripping and crunching noises) and his nose bleeds. A man hits his son on the head and threatens him. A young man shoves another young man against a bookshelf and threatens him, a young man threatens to kill another young man over the telephone, and a young man yells at another young man. A young man bounces a pool ball off a pool table, it lands on a nearby table breaking a pitcher of beer and disrupting the people sitting at the table, they rise in a threatening manner, the young man who hit the ball then hits the pool table with the cue and they sit back down. A young man shoves another young man against a wall. Men yell at a young man as he comes into a prison. A boy is hypnotized to recall memories, he begins to convulse, his eyes roll back into his head and his nose begins to bleed. A boy lies motionless on the ground and appears to be in shock. A girl has bruises shaped like a handprint on her arm (it is suggested that her father abuses her). A young man wakes up in a panic when he realizes that he has no arms and that he must use a wheelchair. A young man is shown strapped into a bed in a psychiatric hospital. A boy stands motionless with a kitchen knife in his hand, his mother enters the room and is alarmed. A boy has drawn a picture that shows a boy with a bloody knife standing over two bloody bodies. A young man breaks down an office door, appears in a panic and hides under a desk while people pound on the door from the outside. A young woman has a large scar across her cheek, and a young man has a burn scar on his stomach where he was burned by a cigarette. A boy twists a doll's head and appears very angry. A boy is rude and mean to a girl causing her to cry. People make fun of a young man because of his appearance. A car has been vandalized and we see it with a broken windshield and dented body. A young woman working as a waitress drops dishes on the floor, when she bends down a man touches her buttocks, and a man yells at her. A boy and a girl climb on a roof. A young man vomits on himself in his sleep, which wakes him up. A young man throws a soiled (with semen) T-shirt at another young man.

51 F-words and derivatives, 7 sexual references, 22 scatological terms, 16 anatomical terms, 16 mild obscenities, 1 derogatory term for Hispanic-Americans, 1 derogatory term for African-Americans, 2 derogatory terms for homosexuals, 4 religious profanities, 5 religious exclamations.

Scenes of drinking. A man briefly smokes marijuana. Children are seen smoking cigarettes.

The movie is filled to the brim with extremely disturbing, brutal, and grim content that will likely disturb and upset even the most desensitized viewers. Animal cruelty, child abuse, child porn, prison rape, kids killing kids, suicide, attempted suicide, murder, child murder, mental illness, attempted murder of a child by his father, prostitution, amputation, and many vicious threats are among the unpleasant subject matter that pervades the film.