Hannibal Rising Review

Messages: Trauma during WWII produces Hannibal the Cannibal; his fierce Trauma during WWII produces Hannibal the Cannibal; his fierce fixation on vengeance leads to serial murder and decapitation; though he understands he is "wrong," he persists.

Violence: Brutal violence and bloody results. Wartime explosions, shooting, fires. Children witness their mother's fatal injury in an explosion, and their father is shot dead in front of them. An SS officer is shot in the head; wolves eat dead parents; Grutas eats a bird, showing his bloody mouth; Grutas threatens children with hatchet; villains eat little sister (off-screen, but fragmented memory repeats throughout, with screams and disturbing images); stabbings with forks, knives, swords; martial arts with poles; bloody wound stitched in close-up; several decapitations; repeated references to losing families in war; villain is squeezed to death by rope (blood splats on Hannibal's face, and he tastes it); Hannibal drowns a man; Grutas shoots Hannibal and another character; fight includes burning hand on stovetop; head is stabbed from chin through the top (seen from back); man squished between boat and dock (end is off-screen); Hannibal stabs villain's legs repeatedly, carves "M" in his chest, then eats his cheeks.

Sex: Sexual attraction between Hannibal and his aunt by marriage (brief, passionate kiss between them); verbal references to Lady Murasaki's "p--y" Grutas keeps a sex slave and forces her to bathe him in a tub; he appears out of the tub with a towel around his waist; Grutas licks Lady Murasaki's face, then puts his finger near her crotch and straddles her on a chair (very ugly threat of rape).

Language: "F--k," "hell," "bitch," and sexual slang ("p--y," "d--k"). Disparagement of a Jew.

Consumerism: Hennessey Cognac sign.

Drinking, drugs and smoking: Characters smoke cigarettes frequently; villains (including Hannibal) drink liquor and wine.