Joker: parents' guide

Several graphic killings: men shot on a subway, a man stabbed in the eye and neck with scissors, a TV host shot in the head on camera with blood spatter, and a woman smothered. Also riots, beatings, and a couple gunned down in front of their son.

Frequent strong profanity: one count put it near 30 f-words and about 10 s-words, plus "asshole," "prick," "dick," "bitch" and a slur aimed at a man with dwarfism. A middle finger is shown.

Pornographic clippings of nude women flash by in Arthur's notebook, and porn theater marquees line the street. He and a neighbor kiss at her door, implying more, and he forces a kiss on a TV guest. Arthur is often in his underwear, and he bathes his mother, showing her bare back.

Arthur chain-smokes cigarettes in nearly every scene and relies on several psychiatric medications that later run out. His first victims are drunk businessmen harassing a woman, and characters drink in a bar.

Sustained dread rather than jump scares: a disturbed man's mounting violence, sudden bloody killings, psychiatric hospital scenes, and records describing a child tied up and starved. Arthur rehearses shooting himself, and the climax erupts into citywide rioting.