The movie What We Do in the Shadows is generally rated R (or 16+/18+ equivalents) for bloody violent content, some sexual material, and frequent strong language, while the TV series is typically rated TV-MA (or 16+/18+ in many countries), so it’s aimed at adults and older teens, not children.

Quick Scoop: Age Rating at a Glance

  • Movie (What We Do in the Shadows , 2014):
    • MPAA: R for bloody violent content, some sexual material, and language.
* Content includes frequent blood, violence, and vampire/werewolf attacks, but usually played for dark comedy.
  • TV series (What We Do in the Shadows , 2019–2024):
    • United States: TV-MA (mature audiences).
* Many countries list it as **15–18+** (e.g., 15/16 in Europe, 18+ in Russia/Turkey).

Why It Has These Ratings

Violence & blood

  • Frequent vampire feeding, blood splatter, and some on-screen attacks (including werewolves), often undercut by jokes or absurdity.
  • Occasional burning or injury of characters, again treated comically rather than realistically.

Sex, nudity & language

  • Brief, non-graphic sexual situations or innuendo; some partial or distant nudity.
  • A noticeable amount of profanity, including repeated uses of strong words like “f**k” and other coarse terms, usually for humor.

Tone

  • Dark humor around death, violence, and social taboos; mockumentary style similar to other adult comedies.

Movie vs. TV Show: Ratings Overview

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Version Main rating Typical age band Main reasons
Movie (2014) R (US) Roughly 16–17+ depending on country Bloody violent content, some sexual material, strong language, horror-comedy tone.
TV series (2019–2024) TV-MA (US) Often 15–18+ internationally Frequent profanity, sexual innuendo, supernatural violence, dark humor.

Is It Okay for Teens?

Different guides and regional ratings suggest something like:

  1. Under ~13
    • Usually not recommended: the mix of blood, horror themes, and adult humor can be too much.
  1. 13–15 range
    • Possibly okay for mature teens with parental guidance, especially if they’re used to horror-comedy and strong language.
  1. 16+
    • Many sources consider 16 and up a comfortable range to watch without supervision, assuming they’re fine with dark humor and gore.

Example: some parental guides explicitly suggest “16 and up alone, 13–15 with parental supervision” for the show.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.