SCOTLAND, PA
Lead on, McDuff! A clever Macbeth retelling best kept at home.
Should You Watch It?
SCOTLAND, PA is a genuinely funny and inventive retelling of MACBETH. Billy Morrissette cleverly moves Shakespeare’s story into a rural Pennsylvania fast-food restaurant, while Maura Tierney, James LeGros, and Christopher Walken give excellent deadpan performances.
The movie also preserves much of the original play’s moral shape: ambition is seduced by evil, sin brings consequences, and villains receive their comeuppance. But that moral framework is surrounded by strong foul language, occult witchcraft, sexual references, nudity, violence, and substance use. The film also loses some of Shakespeare’s emotional power by omitting an equivalent scene to Macbeth’s discovery of Lady Macbeth’s suicide.
If you are an adult who can thoughtfully navigate those concerns, you may find the comedy worthwhile. For most teenagers and many adults, however, wait for home—or choose something else.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESIn rural Pennsylvania during the early 1970s, a restless, power-hungry couple work at Duncan’s, a local hamburger restaurant. They see a chance to escape their dead-end jobs when the restaurant’s owner dies under mysterious circumstances.
A son who had argued with his father sells the restaurant to the couple, while Detective McDuff investigates. Three spaced-out hippies take the place of Shakespeare’s witches, helping draw the McBeths into a dangerous struggle for power.
Is It Any Good?
Three stars means this is a funny, clever adaptation with real weaknesses. The fast-food setting gives the familiar story fresh comic energy, and the three leads deliver excellent comical, deadpan performances. Morrissette also inserts many details from Shakespeare’s morality tale into the restaurant setting.
The chief artistic loss is Shakespeare’s language. The film also fails to create an equivalent to Macbeth’s famous, emotional discovery of Lady Macbeth’s suicide. That omission dilutes the power of the story it borrows.
The Worldview
SCOTLAND, PA retains the Christian moral elements of Shakespeare’s story. It portrays an ambitious married couple being drawn toward evil, and it presents their choices as morally destructive rather than admirable. The villains ultimately receive their comeuppance.
The film’s moral vision is weakened by its occult framework. Three hippies fill the role of Shakespeare’s witches and help seduce the couple into a murderous rampage. The story also includes pagan elements and comical homosexual references, which depart from a biblical view of human identity and morality.
The film understands that unchecked ambition can corrupt people, but it does not present its moral lessons through a distinctly Christian relationship with God. Scripture warns that temptation grows from desire: “Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin” (James 1:15).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Content Summary
Christian worldview with moral elements in a modern re-telling of Shakespeare’s play MACBETH about an ambitious married couple seduced by evil occult witchcraft, spoiled by some pagan elements & some comical homosexual references; politically correct aspect because vegetarian defeats villains who sell meat; about 50 mostly strong obscenities, 13 strong profanities & 6 mild profanities; moderate level of violence, much of it implied, includes man accidentally (and fatally) falls into deep fryer (partially off screen), man hit on head twice, man bound & gagged, man shot to death off screen in barn, woman chops off her hand & bleeds to death off-screen, fighting, & object fatally impales man’s stomach area; implied homosexual tryst when dead man’s younger son dressed in robe shows up with male friend one morning, passionate heterosexual kissing & visit to a club with partially naked female dancers; rear female nudity & partial upper female nudity in nightclub, plus nude male streaker runs past camera in longshot; alcohol use & drunkenness; smoking, marijuana use & villain drugs friend; and, stealing, lying, kidnapping, & teenage rebellion, but villains get their comeuppance.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
The McBeths are driven by ambition and dissatisfaction. When does a healthy desire for improvement become sinful discontent?
Luke 12:15 · 1 Timothy 6:6–10The story shows people being drawn into evil through temptation. What choices could have stopped the destruction before it began?
James 1:14–16 · 1 Corinthians 10:13The villains receive their comeuppance. How does biblical justice differ from revenge?
Romans 12:19 · Micah 6:8Shakespeare’s story is a morality tale, but this retelling includes occult elements. Why does Scripture warn God’s people against occult practices?
Deuteronomy 18:10–12 · Isaiah 8:19The Final Word
SCOTLAND, PA is a hilarious, inventive comedy with excellent performances and a clever fast-food setting. Its moral backbone cannot overcome strong language and other objectionable material for most viewers. Our answer is WAIT FOR HOME — ADULTS ONLY. For a cleaner family choice, see.
