Films NOT really for kids.

[Carmel]

Did you ever watch a film that was classed as a children's film to find it really wasn't suitable for children. Watcher in the woods i think was a great film and starred the great Bettie Davis but really i felt it was creepy for a young child to watch another i found was the remake of the haunting classified cert 12 which i find a bit creepy for kids as well. I also find films that really are not suitable for children are being classed as suitable for kids more so in the past 10 years. Does anyone agree.

[john audley]

According to the Daily Mail (sorry Bats) all the films listed for TV as suitable for 15s
would require an X cert 30 years ago (kids are kids at 15 years and still with the same uncertainties and could well do without this constant stream of films that contain (quote) drug abuse, violence and sexual content and language

[scholes]

Originally Posted by Carmel Did you ever watch a film that was classed as a children's film to find it really wasn't suitable for children. Watcher in the woods i think was a great film and starred the great Bettie Davis but really i felt it was creepy for a young child to watch another i found was the remake of the haunting classified cert 12 which i find a bit creepy for kids as well. I also find films that really are not suitable for children are being classed as suitable for kids more so in the past 10 years. Does anyone agree.

Interesting subject this.
I remember Charles Laughton as 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' caused me several sleepless nights as did the disfigured Frank Welney played by Dirk Bogard in the 1959 film 'Libel'. Both these films were regarded as suitable for younger viewers.
I think as far as the last ten years are concerned children have so much more at their disposal as a source of entertainment , computer games being an obvious example.The whole kids action film package packs a mighty punch as far as releasing characters of horrifying appearance and with alarming regularity.Twenty or thirty years ago these may have been quite daunting for younger viewers.
Harry Potter for example.
However it does seem to form an acceptable diet for our present generation.
Some of the creatures synthesised in the Tolkein trilogy were strikingly frightening I thought.
Films perhaps disturbing to adults may not affect a younger viewer in the way we think.
The original ratings for Sleepy Hollow for example were 12 in Germany and France and 15 in the UK.
It would be interesting to know how your children reacted to 'The Haunting' assuming they saw it.

I was surprised when my two girls at 13 and 15 respectively told me that they thought 'The Excorcist' (which was an 18 cert) was more funny than horrifying. For me as an eighteen year old it was simply apalling.They simply didn't relate to the latent horror of pure evil when taken in a religious context.

[Third Man]

The Plague Dogs is an animated film depicting two dogs who escape from a laboratory that deals in vivsection and various other types of very unpleasent experiments on animals, I watched this when I was young and it had a profound effect on me it's a very grown-up film whether it's for children or not is a matter I think for the parents to take. Some children might respond to it well others it might haunt as it's a very bleak tale.

Simon

[Carmel]

I have only one child at home now aged 14 my other two are 22 and 25 and i always watch a film first to make sure its suitable for my daughter to watch, i never would dream of letting her watch the Exorcism god it frightened me never mind a child. All my kids were always allowed to watch things i watched first and found ok for them to watch as they were growing up. My mother had done the same to me when i was growing up. I was brought up on Hammer Horrors which i found frightening as a child my kids laugh at them and dont think they are scary at all, how the generations have changed. The haunting, my daughter went to the cinema with a friend to see it when it came out first (the remake) and she found it scary enough so you really don't know what to do for the best and there's me thinking thats what the classifications were for, not any more. Don't even get me started on those mindless computer games.

[Marky B]

Having an eldest child of 25,you are looking great,Carmel.
Ta Ta
Marky B

[Carmel]

Originally Posted by Marky B Having an eldest child of 25,you are looking great,Carmel. Ta Ta Marky B

Well thankyou although there is only 16 years between us.

[dogstar]

The Witches ( the adaptation of the Roald Dahl story ) is pretty scary for a kid's film. My other half's offspring were thoroughly freaked out by it which is I guess, the point and a testament to the story but seeing it again recently I was struck by how nasty it is. Which is not to say I didn't enjoy it thoroughly ( especially Angelica Houston as the Queen Witch ) but I think I would be a bit careful about showing to certain kids - and certain mice :-)

[Windthrop]

Shifting the subject slightly. I saw The Orphanage recently and was surprised it got a 15 cert. I guess because there was no sex and gore would be the reason. It is one of those films really gets under the skin and nearly makes you jump out of your seat with fear.

[Frank63]

Back in the 50's one Christmas I had a book I think it was called 'Film Review' . In there was a full page picture of (Sir) Alex Guiness as Fagin, jeezz that used to frighted me so much I'd skip that page every time.

I think these days children see so much on TV that they are immune to stuff that would have frightened the living dayligts out of us old'uns when we were young.

[faginsgirl]

Its the same with general t.v, some of the stuff is really unsuitable. What I hate is swearing in tv and film when there is no need for it and young people would be watching, I dont like it myself, its not necessary. Sure if someone has thier arm blown off or something then it is realistic but not day to day f`ing to get characters through the day!

Ok, it may be after 9.00pm but sex in film and tv these days is taken with a pinch of salt by production companies, when I was younger it wouldnt have been accepted that a couple would be having sex on a reality show(and we all know young teenage kids watch them!)

Actually, sorry, reading the question again I`ve gone off the point, but bring back Mary Whitehouse I say!

xx

[silverwhistle]

Depends on the child. I began watching Hammer films as a kid, and was an avid reader of Poe when I was about 9 or 10. I never found horror scary. The bullies I faced almost daily at every school I attended for about 11 years were scary: the world of the imagination, however highly coloured, was my refuge.

[faginsgirl]

Me too Silverwhistle, I loved Hammer horror from being small

Anything to do with the supernatural is and always has been normal to me!

xx

[batman]

I was discovering about the Universal horror series in pictorial books at an early age, I found them fascinating. I was desperate to see them and I finally got to see Frankenstein when I was about eleven. I can't see many teenagers being disturbed by those great old films these days. However, The Boy Wonder will have to wait till he's about twenty-seven!

[Windthrop]

Originally Posted by batman I was discovering about the Universal horror series in pictorial books at an early age, I found them fascinating. I was desperate to see them and I finally got to see Frankenstein when I was about eleven. I can't see many teenagers being disturbed by those great old films these days. However, The Boy Wonder will have to wait till he's about twenty-seven!

Denis Giffords by any chance ?