What is Killer Joe about?
A cop who moonlights as a hit man agrees to kill the hated mother of a desperate drug dealer in exchange for a tumble with the young man's virginal sister.
Does it have a happy ending? (spoiler-safe)
No. Brace yourself.
A desperate drug dealer's family unravels in a darkly comedic, gritty thriller about a hitman's twisted deal.
Pulpy, with dark satire. A full-attention watch at a measured pace. Emotionally it is devastating.
Streaming on Netflix, Prime Video, Paramount+ and Tubi (free).
Killer Joe parents guide
No surprises for an NC-17: strong sex and nudity, and brutal violence.
- Scare
- Mildly scary
- A few tense or eerie moments.
- Jump scares
- None noted
- Gore
- Graphic gore
- Blood and wounds shown clearly.
- Violence
- Brutal violence
- Our top level for violence.
- Sex and nudity
- Strong
- Strong means explicit or repeated sex, extended nudity, or sexual assault shown on screen, attempted or completed, even partly off screen. Any one of these is enough.
- Language
- Strong
- Frequent strong profanity or slurs.
How we rate: an AI reads what is known about each title and tags it 0 to 3; we check the tags against a hand-rated set and correct them by hand when readers tell us. Estimates, not a scene-by-scene review. Spot a mistake? Tell us.
Three questions
- Is Killer Joe scary?
- Only a little. Killer Joe has a few tense moments, nothing that follows you to bed.
- How gory is Killer Joe?
- Graphic gore and brutal violence. If graphic gore is a dealbreaker, skip it.
- What is Killer Joe rated, and is it OK for kids?
- Rated NC-17, and it earns it: strong sex and nudity, brutal violence, and frequent strong language. Not one for kids.
Cast and crew
Directed byWilliam Friedkin
StarringMatthew McConaughey, Emile Hirsch, Juno Temple, Thomas Haden Church, Gina Gershon, Marc Macaulay
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Killer Joe is on our Thriller on Paramount+, Crime on Paramount+ and Crime on Tubi lists.
More like this feeling
Prompts we typed into CouchRot, and the lists that share its tags.
Lists with the same feel: Tearjerkers and Most violent.
Five more like Killer Joe
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Uses the TMDB API; not endorsed or certified by TMDB. Intensity, content, tone and pace tags are CouchRot's own.