The film stays true to the direction of the book. Of course it is dark and scary at times, and even mean spirited. But both of these are present in the source material. I went with my 6 year old, and he loved it. Do I realistically think he understood the metaphors or more adult parts? Not at all, but there was enough to hold his interest. In fact he's been drawing Wild Things all morning! In the end it was a visually stunning movie that didn't look to overcomplicate what made the book such a classic to begin with.