THE WRETCHED

Name: THE WRETCHED
Item: THE WRETCHED
Author: Tess Farrand

"Devouring Demon Targets Families"

Content: -3 Excessive sex, violence, immorality, and/or worldview problems. (Sometimes excessive content such as violence is in otherwise redemptive movies.)

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

THE WRETCHED is a horror movie about Ben, a troubled teenage boy struggling with his parents’ divorce. After getting in trouble, Ben is spending the summer with his father, Liam, at a lakeside resort where Liam works as the harbor master. Ben has been engaging in some juvenile hijinks. At the resort, Ben reacts poorly to the news his father is seeing someone. The young married couple living next door has a new baby and a young son. Unknown to everyone, a demonic entity living in the forest starts stalking the family. The demon steals the couple’s children, so then the couple denies having children. The demon seems to have possessed the mother. Ben tries to warn everyone, but they think Ben’s having drug problems.

THE WRETCHED is suspenseful and scary, with some nice twists. However, the movie has some gory violence and lots of foul language. Finally, THE WRETCHED has a strong occult worldview where Ben must use occult means to get rid of the demonic entity and its lair. Also, Ben’s victory isn’t total. So, MOVIEGUIDE® labels THE WRETCHED unacceptable.

Content:

(OOO, FRFRFR, C, B, LLL, VVV, S, NN, AA, DD, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Very strong occult worldview about a demonic spawn of Satan who haunts three families in a coastal village, but occult means are used to defeat the demon, but the victory is only partial, plus some Christian, moral elements, which include biblical metaphors of salt and light and references to the Devil

Foul Language:

27 obscenities (several “f” words), one Jesus profanity, one GD profanity, eight light profanities, character sits on toilet, drunken boy vomits, woman urinates in woods

Violence:

Extreme scary bloody violence, and some strong violence includes demon haunts and snatches baby from crib with blood oozing from under crib implying devouring, demon seems to be eating other children, demon lurks around people and possesses people, demonic creature can crawl out of deer carcass and people, dog attacks man and is shot, a bloody tooth is pulled out, man shoots himself in head, character stabbed in back, character stabbed in neck, children wrapped in webbed cocoons for demon (apparently to eat afterwards), bloody victims, demon tries to grab people, creepy demon lair under an old tree that can disappear from view, dead girl has a bloody neck after being partially devoured by demon

Sex:

Implied marital sex and fornication, girl entices boy to swim in pool with his underwear, and she then pulls off his underwear for a prank

Nudity:

Brief rear female nudity, partial upper female nudity, upper male nudity, rear male nudity

Alcohol Use:

Alcohol use, 17-year-old gets drunk

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

Character smokes a cigarette, a story about a 17-year-old breaking into a house to steal some Vicodin, a mention about taking someone to rehab; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Lying, deceit, demon takes away people’s memories of their children and siblings.

More Detail:

THE WRETCHED is an occult horror movie about a defiant, troubled teenage boy, struggling with his parents’ divorce, who tries to warn his dad and others at a lakeside resort about the demonic spawn of Satan that seems to have possessed the body of a woman next door. THE WRETCHED has a few clever twists and scary suspense, but it’s marred by some gory violence, lots of foul language and a strong occult worldview where occult means are used to defeat the demonic entity, and the victory is only partial.

Seventeen-year-old Ben is spending the summer with his father, Liam, at a lakeside resort where Liam works as the harbor master. Struggling with his parents’ separation and upcoming divorce, Ben has been engaging in some juvenile delinquent hijinks, which have resulted in a broken arm. At the resort, Ben reacts poorly to the news that his father is seeing someone. This causes friction between them.

Meanwhile, the young married couple living next door has a new baby and a young son, Dillon. Unknown to everyone, a demonic entity living under a mysterious tree in the forest is stalking the family. One night, the entity takes the baby, and a frightened Dillon runs to Ben for help the next morning. The next day, however, Dillon himself has disappeared, his mother starts acting strangely, and she and her husband deny they ever had any children at all. Ben doesn’t exactly know what’s the matter with them, but the viewer realizes the demon has possessed the mother’s body and somehow wiped the father’s memory.

Ben tries to warn people about the couple next door, but no one pays any attention except for a teenage girl who gives lessons at the marina to children, including Dillon. Mallory clearly remembers Dillon.

Eventually, Ben and Mallory must do battle with the demonic entity, which lives underground beneath an old mystical tree.

THE WRETCHED is suspenseful and scary, with a few nice, provocative twists. However, the movie has some gory violence, lots of foul language, partial nudity, and references to underage substance abuse. Finally, THE WRETCHED has a strong occult worldview where the two teenagers must use occult means to get rid of the demonic entity and its lair. Sadly, their victory isn’t total. So, MOVIEGUIDE® labels THE WRETCHED unacceptable.

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Quality:

- Content: +4

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