PARASITE
Brilliant filmmaking, bottomless despair — brutal, godless, not worth it.
Should You Watch It?
Parasite is one of the most skillfully made films of its year — and the answer is still skip it. Bong Joon-ho directs with total control, blending dark comedy, thriller, and social drama into something genuinely unpredictable. That craft is real, and it's part of why this verdict costs something to give.
But craft isn't the same as truth. The film's vision is bleak: both rich and poor are shown as corrupt, capitalism is blamed for turning people into liars and snobs, and once civilization's veneer comes off, murder follows. The story flirts with hope in its final scenes, then deliberately takes it away. There is no God here, no redemption offered — only a wish the film itself calls wishful thinking.
Layer on 51-plus obscenities, extreme and bloody violence, and an uncomfortable sex scene, and the content matches the worldview: dark all the way down. If you want to study filmmaking, there's plenty to admire. If you want a film that leaves you something to hope for, this isn't it.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESA poor family in South Korea, scraping by in a basement apartment, cons its way one by one into staff positions for a wealthy family — tutor, art therapist, maid, driver — pretending not to know each other. The rich family, oblivious and comfortable, welcomes them in. When the wealthy Parks leave for a weekend camping trip, the Kim family lets loose in their newly claimed territory. Then the doorbell rings in a driving rainstorm, and the former maid returns with a secret that will upend everything. That's where the story we're willing to tell you stops.
Is It Any Good?
Four stars, and it's earned. Bong Joon-ho works at the top of his craft here, blending suspense, dark comedy, and drama with total control. The film is "alternately suspenseful, shocking and funny," always keeping you off balance.
The moral structure is clever, too. You start out rooting for the struggling Kim family against the oblivious, wealthy Parks — but as the story unfolds, sympathy shifts, until no one is left to root for.
The finale, a wildly violent backyard set piece, pushes everything into full nihilism. A few haunting closing scenes flicker with hope — then the film's own final, sad shot takes it back. It's a technical and structural achievement built to leave you with nothing to hold on to.
The Worldview
Parasite believes the problem is the system. Its worldview is Romantic and politically correct in the classic sense: strip away capitalism's pressures, it suggests, and the greed, envy, and cruelty on display in both families would fall away too. The poor Kims and the wealthy Parks are each, in their own way, victims — one family turned into liars by need, the other into snobs by comfort. Once the "veneer of civilization" comes off, the film argues, brutal violence is what's underneath for everyone.
That's a real observation about fallen human nature — but the film stops there. It never asks whether the corruption runs deeper than economics. Scripture says it does: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9). Parasite diagnoses the wound accurately in places and then has nothing to offer for it. Neither God nor Christ enters the story, and the closing scenes' flicker of hope is undercut by the film's own final shot, which calls that hope wishful thinking.
The ache underneath it all — for a home that's actually safe, for a life not defined by what floor you live on — is a real ache. The gospel answers it differently than this film can: our true home isn't won by scheming into someone else's house, but given by the God who prepares one for us (John 14:2–3).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Very strong Romantic, politically correct, anti-capitalist, ultimately godless worldview in a dark satire about South Korea where rich and poor alike have become corrupt under a corrupt system, and violence eventually explodes between two poor families vying for a piece of the pie and the violence leads to a poor man taking everything out on the male head of a rich family (it’s a pretty nihilistic, misanthropic movie that ends on a wish that maybe things can work out right, but the wish is clearly based on wishful thinking, and there is no God and no salvation to offer any hope
Foul Language
At least 51 obscenities (including many “f” words), two strong GD profanities, one strong Jesus profanity, two light profanities, and a couple scenes where a drunken man late at night urinates in the street near an apartment that’s located below the street, massive flooding in a basement apartment causes the toilet to overflow with sewage, and a short scene where a man briefly examines a toilet
Violence
Some very strong violence and strong violence includes people stabbed in chest and one in the back, woman fights a man with a knife, man impaled, woman kicks another woman down some steps and she hits her head against a cement wall, later the injured woman clearly has a terrible concussion, and she eventually dies, brutal fight where a man slings a rope around another man’s neck as the man is running and thus choking him and dragging him back, man beats his head against a light switch brutally to send a Morse Code signal to outsiders, man smashes a giant rock into another man’s head, and the action results in much blood, and a flood devastates a poor family’s basement apartment as they struggle during the flooding, and their toilet overflows with sewage
Sex
A married couple is seen on a couch with the man pleasuring his wife by rubbing and grabbing her genital area over clothing and feeling her breast underneath her shirt while she grabs his genitals over his clothes as well and they both moan loudly as the scene fades out (they are unaware that three other people are hiding near them under a low table
Nudity
Brief upper male nudity
Alcohol Use
Alcohol use and a poor family working for a rich family get wildly drunk while the rich family take a camping trip, and a drunken man urinates in the street late at night in a couple scenes
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
Some smoking and a couple drug references;
Miscellaneous Immorality
Very strong miscellaneous immorality includes deception, greed, envy, forgery, and ruthless attempts to take from the rich, and a rich man looks down on his servants while they’re not around to hear him.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
The film shows both rich and poor corrupted once "the veneer of civilization" comes off. What does Scripture say is really the source of human sin — our circumstances, or something deeper?
Jeremiah 17:9 · Mark 7:21–23The Kim family's deception opens doors for them but ultimately destroys them. What does the Bible say about gaining ground through dishonesty?
Proverbs 20:17 · Proverbs 21:6The film ends with a flicker of hope that the story itself calls wishful thinking. Where does real, lasting hope actually come from?
Romans 5:5 · Romans 8:24–25Envy and comparison drive much of this story's tragedy. How does contentment change the way we see other people's wealth or poverty?
Philippians 4:11–12 · Hebrews 13:5The Final Word
Parasite is a brilliantly made film with nothing good to leave you with — brutal, hopeless, and content to call its own flicker of hope a lie. Our answer is the same one we opened with: skip it. If you're choosing something for tonight instead, start with our latest.
