Chasing Ghosts

A squirrel lies in the street, bloody after being run over; morbid content, such as references to death in newspaper clippings, discussions of a boy who was killed in a car accident; a man collapses and is taken to the hospital, survives but has a terminal condition; a boy attends and films funerals.

Eleven-year-old boy pretends to smoke by holding a cigarette to his lips and flicking a lighter near it; adults drink glass of wine with dinner.

Parents need to know that Chasing Ghosts is a heavy-themed but often lighthearted movie about an 11-year-old boy grieving his older brother's death in a car accident (not shown) and his subsequent interest in the afterlife. He films funerals and jokes about and discusses death. There's morbid humor and references, such a dead, bloody squirrel left in the street that he studies, big questions about what happens after we die and whether ghosts exist, and funerals and sad scenes of people dealing with and discussing loss. The boy also pretends to smoke by holding a cigarette to his lips and flicking a lighter near it. But there also are lighter, more uplifting jokes, moments, and friendships and positive messages about what it means to keep on living.

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