Parents Guide for
The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008)

There is none.

Most of the blood in the movie is green - very clearly not human blood. Example: after Mallory cuts a goblin, she stares at the green goblin blood on her sword. Another example is when a tow-truck driver runs over a troll and green blood is shown on the bumper of, and underneath, his tow truck.

Goblins cut at kids legs, but it is not bad. The goblins bite and scratch Simon's leg and arm, and later cut Mallory's wrist. In flashbacks we see the goblins cut the young Lucinda in similar ways.

The kids throw corrosive chemicals - tomato sauce and salt - at the goblins. The goblins bleed and melt onscreen. But it is barely shown.

Near the end of the movie, the children load tomato sauce and other ingredients into the oven, then turn the gas on without igniting it. They coerce the goblins into the kitchen and light the gas. When the oven blows (violently!), the room is showered in tomato sauce, which very quickly dissolves the goblins into pools of green goo.

Near the end of the movie, Richard Grace (the childrens' father) enters the foyer of the house. Jared becomes aware that it is not his father...it is actually Mulgarath in human form. Jared stabs his "father" with a knife, who then immediately morphs into Mulgarath's ogre form. The sight of a boy stabbing his father could be very disturbing to children.

The "h" word is used, but only once. A goblin says part of the "s" word. It is used like this, "Oh shi-."

There is none.

Kids are menaced repeatedly.

The battle scenes are suspenseful but not too violent.

Ogre Mulgarath and a crow could be frightening to young kids.