Parents and movies

[Darth Tanner]

Reading Remo's rant in his review of TCM: THE BEGINNING made me think of an interesting topic. When you were all growing up, what were your parents' attitude towards you watching genre films?

In my case I was lucky to have somewhat liberal parents that let me watch pretty much anything as long as it wasn't too racy. So violence such as horror films and RAMBO movies were OK, but sex comedies like PORKY'S and FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH were off-limits. When I was 10, they certainly didn't think twice about taking me and my 4-year-old brother to the drive-in to see JASON LIVES (their idea, not mine:) ). Interestingly enough, two years later my dad rented GATES OF HELL from Erol's and he refused to let us see it because of the warning label on the box. When I finally saw it as a college student, I felt he was right not to have let me see it at such a young age since it might have traumatized me. But I got my first taste of extreme horror at age 16 when I saw ZOMBIE and DAWN OF THE DEAD for the first time. I then later got into the more adventurous stuff like the John Waters and Russ Meyer films. No way in hell my parents would have ever let me see any of those (except maybe HAIRSPRAY and FASTER PUSSYCAT).

Now that I am a responsible adult I'd have to say that if I were a parent, I would NEVER let my kids watch the stuff I saw growing up until they were well into their teens and mature enough to handle them. Not only are there better things for kids to watch and do with their time, but today's genre films are a lot more explicit than the ones I saw 20 years ago. But I still wouldn't let them see a Jason film while they were still as young as I was. Bad thing is I'd have to keep most of my movie collection off-limits with the exception of the family and mainstream films I have that are OK for family viewing (ie. STAR WARS, James Bond, etc.).

Now you've heard mine, let's hear yours......

[Chris Slack]

My parents took me to all kinds of fucked up movies as a kid (at my request mind you) but they were all at the drive-in.

[gsfnw]

Ill say this. Seeing Halloween for the first time at the age of 5 absolutely fucked with my little head to the point where I didn't sleep through the night for a while. It scared the living shit out of me!

Having a black lab that liked to sleep under my bead and breathe heavy didn't help either.

I'll let my kids see horror movies when they're ten. Until then they can see stuff like "The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow", and "Something Wicked This Way Comes", safe things.

But, I have to make the little bastards first, which should be happening within the next year if my wife has it her way.

[Kimberly]

I think I turned out just fine...

[-deathboy-]

My parents took me to all kinds of fucked up movies as a kid (at my request mind you) but they were all at the drive-in.

hell yea!
i made my dad take me to see deathrace 2000 and jaws in the drive in.
now my daughter watches every horror film out there with me, but my boys don't want to have anything to do with them.

[Latte Thunder]

Until I was 13, my folks were pretty strict about the shit I watched. If it was an R rated movie and was running theatrically, there was no way in hell they would take me to see it.

That didn't really stop me, though. We lived in one of the last towns in Massachussetts to be wired for cable, so until 1986, my options for for TV were limited to the big three VHF stations (the national networks) and a handful of UHF stations (the locals). UHF, for whatever reasons, captured me most easily. Cartoons after school were followed by reruns of Three's Company, Good Times, Welcome Back Kotter, etc.; At eight o'clock, each of the UHF stations ran a movie since they didn't have any kind of prime time originals and I always watched the movies on WLVI, which is now a WB (or a CW, I guess they're calling it now). WLVI made no bones about its lack of budget and instead ran crap three out of five nights of the work week. Usually, it was something I was interested in. They also didn't do much to edit their movies for TV. Most of the violence and gore was left in with only obvious shit like nudity being cut out. Most of the time they ran action movies and this was how I was introduced to Sho Kosugi, Chuck Norris, Bruce Lee and any number of cheap-o, mostly Italian action rip offs. Saturday afternoon was kicked off with Creature Double Feature, which ran kid friendly horror movies and I saw a lot of Hammer Horror and Godzilla this way, not to mention more 50's drive-in schlock than I can remember. WSBK had Black Belt theater which was where I became familiar with Sonny Chiba and the Shaw Brothers.

So even though my folks wouldn't take me to see anything running theatrically, I was having much more fun watching a lot of b-movies on TV that were met with minimal editing.

When I turned 13, my mother was taking night classes and my dad's work had him out of the country two or three weeks a month so I was alone at home with two or three movies that my mother rented for me. Usually they were horror movies, whatever she saw first on the shelf, she rented. There was also a video store nearby that let me and a friend rent whatever we wanted and we'd do two horror movies a day.

So despite their restrictions, I was still seeing a lot of the stuff I wanted to see whether I knew it or not. Back then I would gnash my teeth over not being able to see the new Nightmare on Elm St. or Friday the 13th, but in hindsight, I wasn't really missing much.

[DylanDog]

I was exposed it alot of it early. I remember seeing A Clockwork Orange when I was 5 or 6, and ALL sorts of nasty business when I was 10-11. I Spit on Your Grave, Zombie, House On The Edge Of the Park, Last House on the Left, Pieces, Demons (alone in a theatre!), Re-Animator, Night, Day, Dawn, etc etc.. I'm the youngest of 3 brothers, y'see, and my older brothers were big into horror at that time. The video rage was just really taking off and most of these movies were readily available where we lived. Funny thing is, both my brothers have long since outgrown it all, but I, who never asked to see it in the first place, still love it. Actually, I shouldn't say "still". I went through a good 8-10 year phase where I wasn't into movies at all. It wasn't until reading Stephen King's "Danse Macabre" when I remembered my fondness for monster movies. Most of those movies I mentioned earlier, I'd totally forgotten I'd seen until seeing them again years later. Hell, it's wasn't until the conquistador zombie comes out of the ground that I remembered I already saw Zombie!

With that said, if I were a parent, I think I'd start showing classic, b&w monster films at around 5 and then maybe PG-13 around 10 or soft R around 12. When I think back to when I was 14, I would have been furious if someone told me I couldn't watch a movie, regardless of rating, so I'd probably let the kid loose at that point and let him watch whatever he wanted (excluding porn). I figure by that age if the movies the kid is watching is my biggest problem, I'm lucky.