Parents Guide for
Primal Fear (1996) More at IMDbPro »

A brief scene of a home movie porno featuring two men and a woman. The woman's bare breasts and nipples are visible (for about a 12 seconds) as is one man's rear. The camera zooms in close on her breasts when her top is taken off. She is evidently performing fellatio on him although there is no genital nudity. The other man is instructed to 'take her from behind'. It is made clear that the two men are altar boys over the age of 18 and that the person filming the scene is an Archbishop. There are some references at other stages in the film to said Archbishop recording many such scenes and of former allegations of sexual abuse.

A brief scene in which a man is attacked with a large knife. His fingers of one hand are cut off in medium close-up followed by a shot of him in anguish with his mutilated hand in view. There is a large spray of blood and the attack, although momentary, is very bloody and disturbing. Immediately afterwards, the ensuing murder is witnessed in part from outside the room, with windows being smashed, although detail is obscured by curtains.

A man is seen covered in blood, running away from chasing police officers.

At a few points in the film, images of the attacked man's dead body are shown. These are graphic gory images including his empty, bloodied eye sockets and several large knife wounds over much of his body. Blood stains are present on the carpet, walls and curtains. Occasionally, there are references to details of the attack such as that the man was stabbed 78 times, although these are not very descriptive.

A man is threatened with a knife after a chase scene. Said man is then threatened with a gun.

A man is pushed against a wall and hit across the head. There is sight of a little blood in a following scene. This is momentary and mild.

A man's corpse is seen being dragged out of a river with a clear gunshot wound in the jaw. His corpse is watered and gray.

A woman is attacked by a man who holds her throat. This is not only brief but undetailed as the scene features much panic. The woman escapes unharmed quite soon and the man is restrained.

Frequent uses of 'f***' and its derivatives, although not excessive. One use of a vulgar female genital term in an aggressive, non-sexual context. Some uses of 's***', 'c***sucker' and other mild profanities.

Some smoking of cigarettes at points during the film - one character is shown smoking several times, although it is not glamorized.

Some drinking of alcohol, although none to excess.

The attack scene is both shocking and brutal, and further images and descriptions of the corpse have the potential to upset some viewers.

There is a chase scene, followed by a scene in which characters are threatened with both a knife and a gun.

The courtroom scenes are often quite intense.

One character pretends to suffer from Multiple Personality Disorder, which results in some shocking and intense moments.