A young boy masturbates another young boy and is implied to perform oral sex on him. A young girl watches.

A young man and an older man meet in a motel room to have sex. The older man rubs and fondles the young man before removing his pants. Nothing explicit is shown. The older man performs oral sex on the younger man. The younger man's face and the older man's hands are the only things visible during this scene. After some time the younger man climaxes in the older man's mouth. Sucking, gargling and choking sounds are heard in the background during the scene.

A boy watches his mother and her lover have sex, and talks about how he had an orgasm for the first time while watching them. There are shot of the boy's face

A teenage boy is raped by an older man(no nudity).

A teenage boy and an older man have sex. They kiss passionately and strip nude (brief rear nudity).

A woman shows a teenage boy a dead cow. She encourages him to put his hand inside its genitals.

A young boy puts fireworks in another boy's mouth, and then he proceeds to light them. They shoot up in the air, and the older boy's mouth is the seen bloody and cut up.

Some bits of horror movies are shown being watched by characters. A zombie movie is seen on television, and a bit where a man is violently ripped apart by zombies. Blood and gore is shown, although the film is in black & white. Also, a female character is shown watching the same movie, and a bit is shown where a zombie eats a large insect.

A young boy in a movie theater watches a film where we see a girl's head being chopped off. Blood briefly squirts from the neck stump before the camera cuts away.

Fuck is used several times throughout the film, as well as others like shit, bitch, ass, cock, faggot, etc.

Many scenes show character smoking and drinking. Teenagers are frequently shown smoking and drinking. A teenage character often abuses drugs and is seen taking LSD and smoking marijuana. A man snorts cocaine in one scene and forces a teenage boy to do the same.

'Mysterious Skin' is very disturbing and sometimes hard to watch

The controversial subject matter and it's occasionally graphic and certainly triggering presentation of molestation involving minors led to the MPAA stamping the film with an NC-17 rating

The fireworks scene.

The rape and subsequent beating.

Themes of child molestation and sexual abuse.