I finally got around to seeing the second installment of the Fantastic Beasts franchise last night.
Even though I had heard from several people that it is an extremely dark movie compared to the others in the Harry Potter world, I was still not fully prepared for some of the fairly shocking and harrowing scenes contained in Crimes of Grindelwald.
If you still haven’t seen the movie and don’t want any SPOILERS stop reading here, but if like me you would have preferred some warning about what you were going to see on screen, read on.
I have always found it really hard to watch anything where children are hurt or killed, but even more so since I became a parent.
Whenever I watch something where a child is harmed the scene plays on my mind over and over and in general, I just find them really upsetting.
I completely understand that films can’t come with a trigger warning for everything as you never know what an audience will find distressing, but to be honest, if I had known about certain scenes in Crimes of Grindelwald beforehand I probably wouldn’t have watched it.
Fairly early on in the movie, it’s established that Grindelwald and his followers are stone cold when they kill a couple just so they can take over their home.
Moments after this happens they hear a child’s voice coming from another room and all I could think was ‘No, No, No!’
The group of wizards enter a bedroom to find a toddler sitting on the ground calling for his mother. I knew given what had just happened to his parents that things were not going to end well but I was still shocked when they actually killed him.
I sat, completely taken aback, but certain that there wouldn’t be anything half as bad, regarding children, happening in the rest of the film. I was wrong.
This next bit is a major part of the plot so once again if you don’t want to spoil the film for yourself this is where you should leave off.
During the film, we are introduced to character Leta LaStrange who often alludes to having a very troubled past and family.
In part of the penultimate scene, Leta revels that she accidentally caused the death of her infant brother when she took him out of his cot during a shipwreck, leading to him becoming separated from the family and eventually drowning.
The story itself is devastating and well portrayed by actress Zoë Kravitz but it was the slow-motion imagery of little Corvus sinking into the ocean that continued to haunt me after the credits rolled.
While some people would scoff at being sensitive over these scenes, the fact is a lot of parents, unfortunately, have been affected by child loss and scenes like these can trigger some very traumatic memories.
While traumatic elements such as infant or child death cannot be completely stripped from films and other forms of storytelling, I think if possible it’s important that those who have dealt with such issues are given prior warning so they can make their own decision on whether they feel able to cope with such scenes.
