This Is Spinal Tap (1984)

This Is Spinal Tap parents guide

It stays inside its R, with some innuendo or implied sex and no real violence.

Scare

Not scary

Jump scares

None noted

Gore

No gore

Violence

No real violence

Sex and nudity

Mild

Mild means innuendo, or sex implied off screen, with no nudity.

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.

What is This Is Spinal Tap about?

"This Is Spinal Tap" shines a light on the self-contained universe of a metal band struggling to get back on the charts, including everything from its complicated history of ups and downs, gold albums, name changes and undersold concert dates, along with the full host of requisite groupies, promoters, hangers-on and historians, sessions, release events and those special behind-the-scenes moments that keep it all real.

Cast and crew

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This Is Spinal Tap is on our Under 90 minutes, 1980s, Comedy on Max, Comedy on Kanopy and Comedy on Hoopla lists.

More like this feeling

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

• “funny but not stupid, under two hours”
• “a fun halloween movie, not too scary”
• “a movie that will make me cry”

Lists with the same feel: Weird and surreal and Gentle.