PARENTS beware: “Batman Begins” director Christopher Nolan has taken the superhero in a terrifying new direction.

With its nightmare vision of a Gotham gone wrong – especially its scenes shot from the point of view of innocents who’ve been zapped with a hallucinogen – the third-generation “Batman” movie is closer in intensity to “The Exorcist” than “Spider-Man.” Batman himself is an angry, sinister creature.

“We see really nasty, gross things,” says Lori Pearson, lead critic for kids-in-mind.com, who rates the film a 6 for violence on a scale of 1 to 10. (Both “Spider-Man” movies, which like “Batman Begins” were rated PG-13, got a 5; the current R-rated slasher flick “High Tension” got a 10). “There are many scenes in the film that are nightmare-inducing,” she says.

Unlike other superheroes, this Batman starts a war with the police and uses fear as a weapon, Pearson points out.

“Spider-Man was a kinder, gentler superhero,” she says. “This Batman is very dark. Part of his whole mission is to make people fear him, good or bad.”