Disclosure Day is not a horror movie, and for most viewers it won’t be especially scary. Steven Spielberg’s return to alien movies is a PG-13 science fiction thriller about a TV meteorologist (Emily Blunt) and a cybersecurity expert (Josh O’Connor) racing to expose a decades-long cover-up of extraterrestrial life. There are car chases, gunfire and a menacing corporation hunting them down, but the film is built around suspense and conspiracy rather than monsters lurking in the dark.
That said, a few moments can be unsettling. The MPA rated the film PG-13 for “action/violence, some bloody images and strong language,” and New Zealand’s Classification Office singles out a scene of humans experimenting on a captured alien, with the camera lingering on its shrieks of pain, as one of the strongest in the film. There are also some bloody hand injuries, scenes of mass panic, and a story steeped in childhood trauma and recovered memories of being taken by the visitors. These moments are more disturbing than frightening, and they’re spread across a 145-minute runtime that spends far more time on chases and cover-ups.
Is Disclosure Day More of a Thriller Than a Horror Movie?
Disclosure Day is much more of a sci-fi thriller than a horror movie. Its tension comes from paranoia, surveillance and the question of what will happen when the world learns the truth, not from aliens stalking its characters. Younger or more sensitive viewers may find the alien experiment scene hard to watch, but anyone comfortable with a PG-13 conspiracy thriller shouldn’t find Disclosure Day particularly frightening.
