Horror fans with kids: when do you intend to let your kids watch scary movies?

IMO, she should see one scary film.

If she likes it, great, move on to another.

If she doesn't, then you'll know, and more importantly, she'll know, and scary movies will just be something she doesn't like instead of some mysterious thing she wants to see but Dad won't let her.

Maybe start with a PG-13 J horror remake, like The Ring, or The Grudge.

edit: I totally misread that movie title.

Good answer James. That sounds like a reasonable compromise, and a good litmus test for how much of a horror fiend you're raising. Just hope says "I wanna watch more! NOW!"

My 4 year old son likes the origianl Predator. If it happens to be on tv and I channel surf by it, he asks me to stop to watch it. Yet, I bought The Incredible Hulk on blu-ray last weekend, on sale for $15.99, and he was scared shitless of the Hulk. He would go nuts anytime he would see the commercials for it, and is a big fan of the Spider-Man movies, so I figured he wanted it.

I'm not going any further in horror movies though until he's a bit older, like 6 or 7, until I introduce him to my other favorites.

Ludwig, if I had a 12 year old daughter, I honestly wouldn't let her see a movie like The Hills have Eyes remake. Horrible shit gets done to some females in the movie that I wouldn't want my daughter to see at such a young age. It is a good horror film though.

Yea I totally agree. My parents let me watch Return of the Living Dead when I was 9 or so because it was scary but it was also kinda campy and they made sure to explain what I was seeing was just a movie and it was scary for entertainment purposes. I have been a huge fan of the genre ever since.

Ask yourself this question. When you read Harry at AICN talking about letting his 4 year old nephew watch horror moives do you feel just a little bit worried for that kid?

Seriously i wouldn't even entertain letting a child watch a horror movie untill they were in their teens.

Yea I would say letting a four year old watch hardcore horror is borderline child abuse but at the same time once a kid is able to separate fantasy from reality then I think it safe to let them enjoy different genres of movies beside cartoons. Like by the time I was 9 I was almost totally over "kids" movies and I was able to appreciate the drama and action aspects of more grown up films. And like I said being scared is fun even for kids. Like what kid ever went to camp and didn't tell ghost stories.

Little kids dressed as Draculas and werewolves for Halloween is adorable. This, not so much:

I agree; to throw an arbitrary number out there, I'd say 13 is about when a kid should be allowed to watch hardcore horror.

But every kid is different - heck, I have a 30+ year old friend (who's a DOCTOR for fucks sake) who simply CANNOT handle horror. We watched The Descent with him and at one point I looked over and he had this expression on his face that said "why would anyone make a movie with a scene like this?"

Anyway, on topic - the "gentler" stuff, like old Universal films, I might try with my daughter at age 8-10, and then, much like James suggested, you move it up bit by bit and see if the kid can handle - or even likes - what you're watching.

They always creep down and watch from the stairs, anyway...

HILLS HAVE EYES remake? Yikes. I love that flick, but it was nearly too intense for me. Not a good intro to the genre for a 12 year old girl. You gotta work your way up to that one. My daughter (she'll be 5 in July) watches the Harryhausen stuff, KONG, kaiju, LABYRINTH, etc. I won't be moving on to POLTERGEIST till later.

ET and HARRY AND THE HENDERSONS were almost too emotional for her. She was leery at the creatures at first, grew attached, and then was seriously upset when they were hurt or sick.

I made the mistake of showing her the beginning of GREMLINS. I was going to make darn sure she wasn't going to see any of the bad ones. She loved Gizmo (I read her some old Gremlins storybook I dug out), but got seriously upset when the water pours on him and he starts spawning. I forgot how traumatizing that scene plays out and how much in pain Gizmo looked. I remember seeing that flick in theaters when I was 8 and my brother was 3. He was hopping up and down, laughing. I loved the flick but remember being a little creeped out.

Yeah, 12's more mature than mine for sure, but I would stick to the supernatural (ghosts, etc), monster stuff at first. Maybe an old school slasher (HALLOWEEN) that isn't quite as intense as the more recent amped-up hardcore stuff. By that age, I was an ALIEN/ PREDATOR/ROBOCOP fan though, so what do I know?

It's certainly a different time now... what used to be taboo is no longer (and some stuff that wasn't taboo, is now).

I grew up watching horror films. My mom was ass-backwards like most of America still is today. So long as it didn't contain a ton of sex, I was pretty much allowed to watch it. I remember renting and watching The Evil Dead in 2nd grade (I would only realize what movie it actually was, years later). Also, Firday the 13th, Sleepaway Camp (she almost turned that off because of the language... wee bit traumatizing at the end), etc. Hellraiser was the only movie I recall she turned off and only because of the... yep, sex.

In 6th grade, I went trick-or-treating as Hannibal Lecter (the straight jacket my mom fashioned from an XL long sleeve white t-shirt, the mask I made from a F13 goalie mask, cut in half and modified).

Bottom line, now that I have kids of my own, I really can't say when I'll let them start watching the sort of stuff I did as a kid. I started to turn on Watership Down for my 3 year old awhile back and pretty quickly turned it off as I came to my senses (and realized I didn't want to be up all night with her).

I'm glad my mom was pretty lenient with what I was allowed to watch. I remember having my own video rental card as a tween and while I still needed an adult to drive me to the video store, my card specified that I was allowed to rent R-rated movies. I felt pretty awesome about that

The Plague Dogs makes Watership Down look like the happiest cartoon ever.

aaaaaand...netlix queu updated.

I have a six year old that likes the RL Stein stuff around halloween on Nick or Disney or whatever. I'm going to start sharing some of my faves with her before too long. Unfortunately, she's more into the hanna montana crap and unless there's a laugh track or something gets pretty bored very quickly.

Cool. Let me know what you think.

This is going to become a serious subject of debate in my house in the future. My folks let me watch damn near anything I wanted as a kid. I came to horror on my own at about age 9, when I started reading Stephen King books. I started watching movies soon thereafter, and pretty soon I couldn't get enough of them. But before that I was a real wuss about scary movies. I liked old school B&W flicks, like the Universal monsters and Beast from 20,000 fathoms and such, but more modern, gory stuff scared the shit out of me. I remember losing sleep over The Amityville Horror (the devil REALLY scared me as a kid; I blame the nuns) and the 1970's remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (although I loved the 50's version); that damn dog with the bum's face freaked me out. I guess the point is I didn't WANT to watch stuff like that until I thought I was ready for it, and it turned out I was. Before that, I wouldn't go near it. But once I made that decision for myself, my folks were very supportive, and had confidence in my maturity, believing I could handle it. I can never thank them enough for that. So my plan, if I'm allowed to implement it, is to allow him to explore when he's ready (within reason; no younger than 9, for sure). He's seen my horror novels lying around on the coffee table and knows these are "Daddy's scary books", and he knows Daddy likes scary books. I can tell he's curious already. The fact your daughter is expressing the interest on her own probably means she at least thinks she's ready for it (assuming, of course, this isn't the result of peer pressure alone, and there's some genuine desire on her part). But what DM8 says has some merit; I worked myself up to extreme horror flicks on my own, and Halloween was the film I started with. He posits a solid plan. Maybe you can suggest this to her? You risk coming off like the lame-o overprotective dad if you do, but the prevention of scares she isn't ready to handle yet may be worth it.

Seriousy, I'd start with the old Universals and work my way forward. With any luck, they'll learn to appreciate black and white cinematography too. There's really no reason to throw them into the deep end right away.

This is a broad generalization, but in my experience, girls seem far less scared of supernatural movies than slasher flicks. I'd go with the ghost/supernatural movies over the psycho chasing girls around, at least at first.

I'm gonna start mine on Godzilla when they're wee. If it proves too scary, I'll move on. I started watching hard horror (The Thing, Nightmare on Elm Street, etc) at 5-6 I think (product of teenage parents), and I don't think I'll be trudging down that road with them.

Start with the cheesy, late '60s kaiju flicks. They're most accessible to kids.

Might be true of girls in general, but I lived in at a beauty college (teenage girl territory) and it was the supernatural stuff that scared us all the most. The night we watched The Ring every light in the house was left on, the One Missed Call remake had a group of 10 - 15 girls all sleeping in the same room and not daring to go to the bathroom. When we watched the Shining I was the only one NOT scared and ending up having to TAKE girls to the bathroom (though that could count as supernatural and slasher, I guess). We watched the Hills Have Eyes remake (and the sequel) and most of the Saw movies though, and they didn't really bother anyone.

I've already let my son watch Dawn of the Dead (both versions), Night of the Living Dead (both the original and the Savini directed remake) and his favorite film: Shaun of the Dead.

I'm pretty open (watched most of those when I was his age and despite an ever present sense of the approaching doom of the zombie apocalypse) about what I let him watch, just like my parents, and I turned out okay. My parents were more apathetic as to my viewing habits but I try to discuss issues of fantasy vs. reality with my child and he's got a pretty mature grasp on it for a kid his age.

Won't let him watch Zombi 2 though. How do you prepare a child for the greatness of shark vs zombie? They skipped that chapter in the booklet from Babies R Us.

My nine year old son loves the kaiju.

But since he sobbed for hours over Marley and Me, I think I'll keep him away from the Hostel/Saw flicks for a few decades.

I love horror stuff, but he can't even stand to hear the eerie music when it goes past on my channel surfing. He's definitely a horror featherweight.

Maybe if I sat with him and watched some of the old Universal stuff, it might be a gentle way to introduce him to scary stuff.

I was the exact same way. Look what happened to me. . . .

I remember watching Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter at 7 or 8 and just being scared out of my whits that night. I LOVED it. I still love a good nightmare or movie that just gives me the creeps.

My daughter semi-freaks out when her animated movies, etc get "scary" but at the same time seems to enjoy it as well. There have been times when I've asked if something was too scary (because of her reaction to it) and she'll answer "Yes". I'll go to change it and she 'll immediately say "No".

Starting her out (some day) with the older stuff is probably good advice. Today's horror can be a little much.

While i don't have children yet....and hopefully not anytime soon, I'm defiantly going to be weening the little suckers on horror at a young age. Granted i would defiantly not start with anything modern. The effects would probably be too well done and a bit harder for a child to understand it isn't real. Creepshow would probably be a good movie to start out on.

You sobbed about Marley and Me as well? That damned dog!

As others have said, I think it depends on the kid. My dad hates horror films, as does my brother, but me and my mum are MEGA fans, so a lot of my childhood (from like, maybe 9/10? Possibly even earlier...) was spent in the upstairs room at my local independent (and sadly, now long departed) Video Shop, looking through all the crappy and not-so-crappy VHS covers for stuff that me and her could watch. We saw a lot of shite, but I absolutely loved it, not just for the Horror side of things, but 'cos it gave me something to do with my mum. Especially as, invariably, just as today, she'd be way more freaked out by shit than i was. Ahhh, Cellar Dweller, where are you now...?

Start 'em on the classics. Don't let 'em be tainted by the (mostly) bilge attempts at horror they churn out these days.

Actually, it was Snoopy Come Home that did it to me.

My daughter's the same way. She's convinced there are Goblins under her bed, and yet requests LABYRINTH all the time, and quotes it. She's Daddy's girl alright.

Old Yeller. (sniff)

Anyway, no kids (maybe someday), but I have a 1 year old niece. If/when the day comes where she wants to visit her Uncle Tim (and after consulting with her folks), and she's old enough, we'll start with the Universal stuff, segueing into Hammer flicks. Godzilla, King Kong, Gamera (Friend to Children!), always on standby.

When she's older, we'll move onto the works of Romero, Carpenter and Craven. If she's got a sophisticated palette, Barker, followed by Argento and Fulci. We'll work our way up to Roth, etc. in due time.

Of course, during all this, I expect to be repeating ad nauseum "y'know, that's only a movie, right? That's make believe?" like my folks did. Which will lead her to ask me "how'd they make David turn into a werewolf?". That's when we break out my old Famous Monsters and Fangoria mags.

Hey, the above formula worked wonders for me and my brother, so if it ain't broke...

I'm kind of like whiskaz's mom in that I tend to keep graphic sex scenes from my 10 year old daughter, but I will let her watch horror flicks. In fact it's Sunday morning here and we're spending our family time watching Splinter.

Where the Red Fern Grows, man...

My family and I were out by the gulf of Mexico the other day, and saw a shark fin out in the distance. Since then my daughter has expressed interest in seeing Jaws. My wife's never seen it, and it's been a while for me. So I borrowed the VHS from my Mom last night, and my wife made me shut it off towards the end of the first scene saying it was "inappropriate" for children. I grew up watching horror films of all sorts from an early age, so I have no way to gauge how appropriate this film was being that when I was around the same age I was watching F13, Halloween, and TCM.

Does anyone think Jaws would be too much for an 8 year old? And if it is, what age is it appropriate for?

This sort of indecision is what makes things most complicated imo. Most of my childhood fears were things that fascinated me, also - vampires being the biggest example, where I would relentlessly seek out stuff about them, and then not be able to sleep for fear of the nosferatu.

Jaws was released well before the PG-13 rating came out thanks to Spielberg's later film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

It's a very tense thriller with significant shark violence, a severed head emerging unexpectedly, amputated limbs, a child being eaten, a major character bitten in two on screen....

...and Robert Shaw.

That's enough to keep any self respecting 8 year old out of the ocean for the rest of their natural life.

FWIW, these things often develop pretty organically: when my wife and I started watching Buffy, our daughter was 9, and voluntarily absented herself from the room when it would come on, as "too scary." By season 3, she'd become a hardcore fan of the show.

Her first movie at the theatre, by the way, was Beauty and the Beast (in retrospect, she might really have been too young), and while she seemed scared to the point of freaking out once or twice (I did tell her we could leave whenever she wanted), she came out of the experience loving it.

It's been about 10 years since I last saw Jaws. I had seen it so much as a kid (it was on TBS practically all the time), that I forgot how effective the film was. We did end up watching it, and believe it or not, my daughter didn't get scared. And she was totally into it...next up Jurassic Park, then Poltergiest!!

I'm kind of torn on JP; as a kid, I was a dino buff, as I figure many kids are, and probably would have loved the dinos. But as a very young kid I was frightened by horror film imagery, and might not have enjoyed the gore. I wonder when it'd be OK to spring that on a kid, myself. I so want to see the delight on my son's face when he sees the dino scenes, but fear his reaction to the gore. He is only 3, however, and any decision on this film is doubtless years away anyway. But I do ponder this question from time to time.

I don't have kids yet, but this is something I've been thinking about for awhile. Personally I loved the stuff when I was growing up, I was one of those kids that would sneak out of my room to watch grown up TV, and I saw bits and pieces of Gremlins and Silver Bullet and a few other scary movies from the time I was 3.

When I was around 7 or 8 my dad took me to see Jurassic Park in the theatre and it was magical. It may not be technically a horror film but it's horrific enough at that age with all the scary dinosaurs eating people but I discovered that I loved being scared and I got sucked into the fantasy aspect right away and went on a major dinosaur kick for awhile. I think that's a good film to start kids on, it worked for me.

I also remember being scared of a lot of movies that aren't technically supposed to be scary. All of The Dark Crystal scared the living shit out of me and a few parts of E.T. gave me nightmares, particularly the scene where Elliot discovers him in the cornfield and they both scream.

The Secret of Nimh scared me too, especially the part with the Owl. And I remember the wolf monster thing in The Neverending Story also being terrifying and fascinating. I used to rent all these movies on VHS and rewind the scary bits and watch them over and over.

I think it's best to start kids early on more comedic and light horror films as well as some spooky stuff that's specifically meant for children. Here are a few movies I've been considering starting a kid on:

- Beetlejuice
- The Addams Family 1 and 2
- Shaun of the Dead (I figure a 10 year old would love the hell out of it)
- Gremlins or Gremlins 2
- Any of the old Universal stuff (Frankenstein is awesome!)
- Little Shop of Horrors
- Edward Scissorhands
- Creepshow (Maybe for the slightly older kids, the bugs thing would be pretty freaky for a 5 or 6 year old)
- Poltergeist
- The Nightmare Before Christmas (of course!)
- IT

I guess in the end you just have to play it by ear though. Either the kid will dig it or they won't.

Whoa, may have to disagree with you about IT. I actually know kids who had to go to child therapists after watching that movie, and I can understand why. For a kid, Tim Curry as Pennywise was the shit nightmares were made of.

I always liked Pennywise when I was kid.

I think mine is quite a few years away from seeing anything like May, however, I may show her House of Wax (w/ Vincent Price) in the near future as I have the DVD quite visible on my shelf. I was thinking of picking up a bunch of the MGM Corman discs like Bucket of Blood and Little Shop of Horrors, although with that one my wife is wanting the remake with Rick Moranis, I am going for the original. Also his Poe films, but a lot of these I haven't seen in a good bit of time, so I'm not sure if they are age appropriate. Also, I'm considering around Halloween going through the Classic Universal stuff, and the Hammer remakes from the 50's and 60's.