What is Side Effects about?
A woman turns to prescription medication as a way of handling her anxiety concerning her husband's upcoming release from prison.
Does it have a happy ending? (spoiler-safe)
There is a twist, and that is all we are saying.
A woman's anxiety over her husband's return leads to dangerous prescriptions and pulpy, cerebral suspense.
Suspenseful. A late-night trip at a measured pace. Emotionally it is heavy.
Streaming on Prime Video, Paramount+, Kanopy (free), The Roku Channel (free), Pluto TV (free), YouTube (free) and 2 more.
Side Effects parents guide
Nothing past what an R promises: moderate sex and nudity, and some violence.
- Scare
- Mildly scary
- A few tense or eerie moments.
- Jump scares
- A couple
- One or two sudden jolts.
- Gore
- Light gore
- Some blood or injury, briefly.
- Violence
- Some violence
- Some fighting or peril.
- Sex and nudity
- Moderate
- Moderate means a sex scene or nudity on screen, even brief, or sexual violence that is described or implied but never shown.
- Language
- Moderate
- Some strong profanity, a few f-words.
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 Side Effects scary?
- Only a little. Side Effects has a few tense moments, nothing that follows you to bed.
- How gory is Side Effects?
- Light gore and some violence.
- What is Side Effects rated, and is it OK for kids?
- Moderate sex and nudity, and some strong language. The R is earned, so not for kids.
Cast and crew
Directed bySteven Soderbergh
StarringRooney Mara, Jude Law, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Channing Tatum, Vinessa Shaw, Ann Dowd
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Side Effects is on our Courtroom, Thriller on Paramount+, Crime on Paramount+, Thriller on Tubi and Crime on Tubi lists.
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Uses the TMDB API; not endorsed or certified by TMDB. Intensity, content, tone and pace tags are CouchRot's own.