The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus poster

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)

Film · 2h 3m · Rated PG-13

Adventure, Fantasy, Mystery

A fantastical carnival troupe journeys through a surreal dreamscape to win a wager with the devil.

Dreamlike and campy, with absurdist humor. A late-night trip at a measured pace. Emotionally it is heavy.

Not on a US subscription service as of Oct 27, 2026.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus parents guide

No surprises for a PG-13: some innuendo or implied sex and mild language.

Rated PG-13, but by what is on screen our estimate is fine from about 10.

Scare
Mildly scary
A few tense or eerie moments.
Jump scares
None noted
Gore
No gore
Violence
Some violence
Some fighting or peril.
Sex and nudity
Mild
Mild means innuendo, or sex implied off screen, with no nudity.
Language
Mild
Mild words like damn, hell or crap.

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 The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus scary?
Only a little. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus has a few tense moments, nothing that follows you to bed.
How gory is The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus?
No gore and some violence. Squeamish viewers are fine here.
What is The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus rated, and is it OK for kids?
A gentle PG-13: some innuendo or implied sex and mild language.

What is The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus about?

After a carnival troupe saves his life, a man agrees to help its immortal leader collect five souls and win a bet with the devil.

Does it have a happy ending? (spoiler-safe)

It leaves the ending open to interpretation.

Cast and crew

Directed byTerry Gilliam
StarringChristopher Plummer, Lily Cole, Heath Ledger, Andrew Garfield, Verne Troyer, Tom Waits

More like The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

More like this feeling

Prompts we typed into CouchRot, and the lists that share its tags.

Lists with the same feel: Weird and surreal and Late night.

Five more like The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Say the mood. Five picks with where they stream, right here.

Uses the TMDB API; not endorsed or certified by TMDB. Intensity, content, tone and pace tags are CouchRot's own.