Story
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is based on the popular book of the same name by American author Ransom Riggs. It’s directed by Tim Burton in his typically dark, quirky and surreal style. The plot follows Jacob Portman (Asa Butterfield), a 16-year-old American boy, as he seeks the truth behind his grandfather’s strange stories about a Welsh orphanage and its quirky child inhabitants.
Jake goes to a remote Welsh island with his father and finds himself in an alternative world. The inhabitants of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children are locked in a time loop for their own safety, but terrifying monsters and evil characters threaten their existence. It falls to Jake, with his own special peculiarity, to save the children.
Themes
Death; being different; jealousy; good versus evil; magic and fantasy; mental illness; war and Nazis
Violence
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children has many violent incidents. For example:
Sexual references
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children has some sexual references, including some scenes that show teenage romance and mild flirtation between Jake and Emma.
Alcohol, drugs and other substances
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children shows some use of substances – for example, some scenes show adults drinking in a pub.
Nudity and sexual activity
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children has some mild sexual activity including a scene where Jake and Emma kiss.
Product placement
None of concern
Coarse language
There is some coarse language in this movie.
Ideas to discuss with your children
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is a comedy horror movie based on teenage fiction. It blends fantasy, magic and horror with a warm and relatable narrative about being unique and accepting differences.
The movie’s M rating is well-deserved. It’s very dark, menacing and creepy in some parts, and the monsters are quite terrifying. Therefore we don’t recommend it for children under 13 years, and we do recommend parental guidance for children aged 13-15 years.
The main message from this movie is that our differences are also our gifts.
Values in this movie that you could reinforce with your children include bravery, teamwork, self-sacrifice, acceptance, friendship and family.
This movie could also give you the chance to talk with your children about real-life issues like:
- what happens when people we trust deceive us
- how it feels when someone you love dies
- what happened as a result of the Second World War.