Story
The opening scene of Seventh Son shows witch-hunter Master Gregory (Jeff Bridges) imprisoning an evil shape-shifting witch, Mother Malkin (Julianne Moore), in a deep prison on top of a mountain. He hopes this is where she will stay forever.
Decades pass. With the rising of the ‘Blood Moon’ Mother Malkin gains new power and escapes her prison, bent on seeking revenge against Gregory. Before long Gregory and Mother Malkin do battle. Mother Malkin kills Gregory’s apprentice, William Bradley (Kit Harington), and escapes to her mountain fortress.
After William’s death, Gregory searches for a new apprentice, who must be the seventh son of a seventh son. Tomas Ward (Ben Barnes) is given the position. Master Gregory doesn’t know that Tom has supernatural powers that enable him to see the future. This is because his mother is a witch.
Gregory and his new apprentice set off to hunt down and destroy Mother Malkin, who is gathering together a host of demonic minions. Along the way Tom encounters a beautiful young woman named Alice (Alicia Vikander), and the pair quickly falls for each other.
Themes
Supernatural powers; good and evil; demonic possession
Violence
Seventh Son has extended sequences of intense fantasy violence, including the use of swords, knives, staffs, axes and chains. There are many violent and sometimes gruesome deaths, although the movie shows minimal blood and gore. For example:
Sexual references
Seventh Son has some scenes that show mild flirting and characters talking about love.
Alcohol, drugs and other substances
Seventh Son shows some use of substances. For example:
- Characters in a tavern drink from tankards. Gregory drinks from a tankard and acts in a drunk way, slurring his words and stumbling around.
- Gregory carries a hip flask and says he is allowed only one mouthful a day.
Nudity and sexual activity
Seventh Son has some nudity and sexual activity. For example:
- Women wear low-cut and clinging clothing.
- Characters kiss passionately.
- A young man and a young woman lie together on a bed. Both are clothed, but it looks like they have had sex.
- Two men are shown from the back urinating on a fire.
Product placement
None of concern
Coarse language
Seventh Son has some coarse language.
Ideas to discuss with your children
Seventh Son is a fantasy action adventure, which is very loosely based on The Last Apprentice book series by Joseph Delaney. It is targeted at older teenagers and adult fans of fantasy movies, which is a more mature audience than the books.
There are several scary characters and scenes of transformations and violent deaths. These are likely to disturb younger viewers, including many younger teenagers.
These are the main messages from this movie:
- Most of life’s curses can be gifts.
- You can’t escape your destiny.
- Live your own life.
Values in this movie that you could reinforce with your children include the following:
- Persistence: Gregory never gives up his relentless fight against evil.
- Selflessness: Tom’s mother, who is a witch, selflessly puts herself in danger to protect people who can’t protect themselves. She sacrifices her own life to protect others.
You could also talk with your children about the gender stereotyping in this movie.