12 Years a Slave: parents' guide

Graphic and sustained: repeated whippings that split open backs, including a long lashing of a woman tied to a post with blood spraying, a man left hanging from a noose for hours, two men hanged, and a man stabbed to death.

The n-word is used constantly as a weapon. Other words include bastard, bitch, damn, whore and misuse of God's name. Neither detailed guide reported f-words.

An owner rapes an enslaved woman, shown from the waist up with thrusting. Men and women are fully nude, including full-frontal female nudity, at a slave market and while bathing. In a sad, joyless encounter, a woman uses Solomon's hand to touch herself sexually.

Solomon is drugged with wine before he is kidnapped. A plantation owner drinks constantly and is often drunk, and a hired worker is said to be a heavy drinker. Wine is served at dinners.

Relentless dread and disturbing images: a kidnapping, a mother separated from her children, bloody beatings, a woman pleading to be drowned to end her suffering, and the constant threat of death.