Doors parents guide

Doors Parent Guide

Apart from its potentially interesting core ideas, this film is a dumpster fire.

Overall D+

Digital on Demand: As millions of alien doors spontaneously appear on earth, humans scramble to understand them. But the doors will ultimately question some of our most fundamental assumptions about ourselves, our universe...and our reality.

Release date March 23, 2021

Violence C
Sexual Content B
Profanity D
Substance Use B

Why is Doors rated Not Rated? The MPAA rated Doors Not Rated

Run Time: 81 minutes

Parent Movie Review

Life on Earth has always been messy and complicated, and now it’s getting worse. Millions of alien objects have appeared across the planet, defying direct observation and seemingly absorbing a significant percentage of Earth’s population. Scientists dub them “Doors”, as some people have come back through them… although not in their original condition. As the Doors carry out their mysterious business, a number of stories play out: students in a classroom struggle to make sense of the chaos as the doors arrive, intrepid explorers voluntarily enter the Doors to discover what lurks within, and determined scientists make every effort to communicate with the bizarre visitors. But no matter what we do, the Doors don’t seem to be going anywhere…

I don’t think it’s any secret that I enjoy science fiction. And, as a geek, there are a lot of things about this movie that I like. I always appreciate more unusual depictions of extra-terrestrial life, things that are genuinely alien – rather than the typical Star Trek approach of slapping $50 worth of makeup and prosthetics onto some poor guy and saying he’s from another species. Doors deserves extra points for taking a less familiar approach to the possibilities of extra-solar life forms.

But that’s about where my appreciation stops. This movie is, apart from some of the core ideas, an absolute dumpster fire. The biggest stumbling block is the dialogue, which is excruciatingly bad throughout. I had hoped that, since multiple directors worked on the different segments of this story, the quality might improve in different sections. That is not the case. It’s atrocious the entire time.

There’s also a weirdly high amount of profanity, with extreme swear words sprinkled over otherwise innocuous sentences for no reason. I don’t think the screenwriters actually know how to swear normally, because they’re awful at it. There’s a rhythm to human speech, and profanity fits in specific parts of that rhythm. Not here it doesn’t. Thankfully, that’s really the only content concern, with violence, drugs, and sexual material either minimal or functionally nonexistent. But I doubt that’s going to draw anyone in. The film is still a steaming pile of hot gibberish – even if it is gibberish with interesting potential buried somewhere at the bottom of the pile.

Directed by Jeff Desom, Saman Kesh, and Dugan O'Neal. Starring Lina Esco, Josh Peck, and Wilson Bethel. Running time: 81 minutes. Theatrical release March 23, 2021. Updated

Watch the trailer for Doors

Doors
Rating & Content Info

Why is Doors rated Not Rated? Doors is rated Not Rated by the MPAA

Violence: A person chokes to death. Several people are shot and killed. There is a brief physical altercation. Someone is struck in the head and then their neck is broken. Several birds fly into windows and die.
Sexual Content: There are some vague sexual jokes. A man is shown undressing in a non-sexual context, but is not seen naked.
Profanity: There are 49 uses of extreme profanity and 19 scatological terms. There are also occasional mild profanities and terms of deity.
Alcohol / Drug Use: There is a joking reference to marijuana, and some alcohol is seen. There are no depictions of any substance use.

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Doors Parents' Guide

Odds are that humans are not the only example of life in the universe. What do you think other life would look like? What do you hope contact would be like? What would you more realistically expect? How do you think aliens would react to our society if they arrived today? What are some of the limitations on our ability to seek out or communicate with extraterrestrial life?

Loved this movie? Try these books…

For a similar vibe, try Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and the Rendezvous with Rama series.

Home Video

Related home video titles:

This draws from a lot of sources. There are frequent references to Star Wars and Star Trek. If you want more alien goodness, the best alternative is going to be Arrival. Other choices include 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Trek: First Contact, and last but certainly not least, The Vast of Night.