Though used sparingly, there is still a fair amount of violence in the film, particularly in the third act, which illustrates the actual "murder" of Elizabeth short. Two different women are violently beaten. One is apparently stabbed in the genitals with an ornate looking blade after being "raped" with the handle of what appears to be a BDSM device. One woman is beaten repeatedly with a hammer while the other (in the past) has a smile carved onto her face and it is implied she is severed in half. There is also a suicide and a man shot in the head. Two police officers are also murdered, though their wounds are not lingered upon.