What You Need to Know Before Showing the 2017 Death Note Movie to Your Kids
The Netflix Death Note from 2017 is rated R, which means under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian. That rating exists for a reason. I put my younger cousin on it once when he was fourteen because he kept pestering me about it, and I immediately regretted letting him watch the opening fifteen minutes alone. The movie opens with a suicide attempt, deals with killing people via a supernatural notebook, and doesn't shy away from showing the consequences. Here is what the film actually contains that parents should be aware of. The rating breakdown on common sources points to violence and gore, some language, and mature thematic material. The plot revolves entirely around the concept of writing someone's name in a notebook and causing their death. Light Yagami, the protagonist, decides to kill criminals and build his own version of a perfected world order. His sister discovers what he is doing early in the story and the emotional fallout between them is one of the more intense scenes in the film. The violence is not extreme by horror standards. There are no prolonged torture sequences or splatter-focused set pieces. What makes this problematic for younger viewers is the moral complexity wrapped around the violence. The film asks you to root for a character who is murdering hundreds of people while convincing himself it is righteous. That is a heavy theme to throw at a kid who has not yet developed the framework to process it critically. I learned this the hard way when a friend's son asked me after watching whether the main character was the hero or the villain, and I realized we had given him a moral puzzle he was not ready to untangle.
Language in the film includes several uses of strong profanity. Not continuous, but frequent enough that the MPAA noticed. Sexual content is minimal. There is a romantic subplot and some suggestive moments, but nothing explicit. The drug references are indirect and not a focus of the narrative. If you decide to show it, here is a workaround I found that actually helps. Watch it yourself first. The Netflix version runs about two hours and twelve minutes. Skip ahead to about the forty-five minute mark where the thematic weight starts intensifying significantly. If your child is around sixteen and you think they can handle it, sit with them and pause at key moments to talk about what is happening rather than letting the story wash over them without context. The difference between watching alone and watching with guidance is significant when the content involves mass murder framed as justice. Some parents report that the movie works better for teens who are already engaging with philosophy or ethics in school. The underlying questions about utilitarianism, vigilante justice, and whether the ends justify the means tend to land better when the viewer has some foundation to build on. A sixteen year old who has discussed those topics in class will absorb the film differently than a thirteen year old watching it because every friend has seen it.
The acting is decent. Logan Lerman plays Light and carries the moral ambiguity reasonably well, though the screenplay compresses a lot of the source material's nuance. Margaret Qualley plays Misa and does adequate work with the limited screen time she gets. The supporting cast including Willem Dafoe as the detective pursuing Light adds some credibility to proceedings that could otherwise feel silly. That said, the film takes enormous liberties with the original manga and anime. If your teen is a fan of the source material, be prepared for disappointment or at least frequent corrections from them throughout the runtime. One thing most parents do not catch is how the film handles the death of non-human characters early on. The opening sequence establishes the notebook's mechanics through a sequence that involves animal deaths before moving to human victims. It is brief but worth noting if you have younger children who might be upset by animal suffering depicted on screen. I made the mistake of skipping that detail the first time around and a viewer next to me was clearly disturbed by it before the human body count even started climbing. Parental discretion is not just a formality here. The R rating is accurate. For mature sixteen and seventeen year olds who can separate fiction from reality and engage with complex ethical questions, it can be a worthwhile experience with guidance. For anyone younger, especially under fifteen, I would strongly recommend waiting. The themes require emotional and intellectual maturity that simply does not exist in a lot of younger teenagers, regardless of what streaming algorithms suggest about their viewing history.
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There is no sequel in the theatrical sense, though a second film was released covering different material from the story. It is generally considered weaker than the first and deals with even more psychologically disturbing content around identity and possession. Do not mistake the first film as part of a gentle series. Both are R-rated for good reasons. The best approach is honest conversation before the screen turns on. Tell your kid exactly why you are evaluating this movie, ask what they already know about the story, and gauge their emotional readiness based on that. The movie is entertainment first but it is also a meditation on power corruption and moral relativism dressed up as a thriller. Treat it like what it is rather than just another streaming option.
