Parents Guide for
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) More at IMDbPro »

The closest this film comes to sex is two romantic kisses.

Intense battle sequences/strong violence riddle the movie throughout, including an extended (over an hour long) war sequence. During this scene, multiple characters are stabbed, impaled with arrows, decapitated, crushed by falling rocks, eaten, thrown etc. One army intimidates another army by catapulting severed human heads.

Throughout the film, horses are killed and thrown. A fell beast's head is severed, and the gory inside of its throat is visible for a moment. A wraith is stabbed in the back and in the face. A man is impaled by a spear. A man dispatches many men by shooting them with arrows before killing a war elephant. Some Orc warriors bear uniforms and armor that show severed human parts as trophies.

A man attempts to burn his son whom he wrongly believes is dead. A man is thrown onto a funeral pyre, runs away in flames, jumps off the edge of a cliff, and plummets to his death. A creature bites off a man's finger. Blood leaks out.

A creature falls into a volcano, and melts into the lava. A man is shot with an arrow in the arm. A man is thrown off a tower and lands on a spike (extended version) you hear a crunch when he hits the spike and he is lowered under water. An orc's head is cut off (extended version).

While there are a lot of deaths, there is very little gore. Mostly the gore is computer-generated goo in varying colors, although this is present in great amounts. Blood on bodies is remarkably minimal given the carnage of the battle sequences.

None.

A party is shown where various characters drink beer or ale, sometimes to excess. They also smoke pipes from time to time.

The long, violent battlefield sequences are quite scary as the heroes are always under threat of death or serious injury.

A trio of characters journey through "The Paths of the Dead" and encounter ghosts.

One character's battle with a huge spider is very intense.

People may find the scenes with the Witch-King scary.

Two of the characters descend into violent madness. The first of these is marked by a transformation into a creepy creature. That scene is particularly intense.