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I have long been a fan of horror movies, and now that my oldest is 12 (13 next month...wow!) I have begun exposing her to horror movies and she likes them. She does not have nightmares (or at least none so far), so that's not much of a concern. We make a kind of game out of it really...I try to scare her; she tries to scare me. Paeter suggested I start a thread asking for horror movie suggestions, and I thought that sounded like a great idea.
I started her out with kind of a "history" of horror movies showing old classics like Dracula, The Wolf Man, The Birds, Psycho, etc. Now I am pretty much going for PG-13 horror because a lot of times R horror is rated R because of more than just the intense scenes and violence.
Intensity and violence do not bother me or concern me really. It is actually interesting sometimes to look at it from an special effects perspective. I'm not opposed to supernatural horror -- we watched Amityville Horror recently -- but things are a little *too* close to the truth I have steered clear, if that makes sense. For example, I enjoy Supernatural but it has a lot to do with angels and demons and portrays angels doing bad things, opposing God, etc. At this point, I don't feel like she is mature enough spiritually to know that's not how angels would behave and didn't want to have to spend every episode correcting Supernatural's theology for her. I think it would give a great opportunity for some "relevance score" but it is so prevalent in that show I would rather avoid it at this point.
I also want to avoid excessive foul language. Some is fine and to be expected, but I just don't want to build up that callousness to foul language just yet. She is old enough to know she is not to use those words, but ... she's still my little girl and I want to preserve some of that innocence still.
I had seen Cabin in the Woods and remembered it being not that intense of a scarey movie so I fired it up. I had to turn it off within the first 15 minutes or so because they had already dropped several f-bombs; and we hadn't even gotten to anything intense...that was just casual conversation. I pay very little attention to foul language so had not remembered that aspect from when I had watched it, but I was sensitive to it with her.
I don't want excessive nudity or strong sexual content either. I know girls are affected by this differently than guys, but it goes back to preserving her innocence. I don't want her thinking this is normal and acceptable for her to do. When we run across content, I often call attention to it and point out "uh, oh... they're not married!" I kind of make a joke out of it whenever we see anyone kiss (in any movie) and I tell all the kids to cover their eyes if they two kissers aren't married.
She has held up surprisingly well so far. We have watched The Ring, Pet Semetary, and others that I thought would get to her. Probably the one that really got to her the most was a recent one called The Call. It's not even a horror movie, but rather more of a thriller. In the movie a teenage girl gets kidnapped and I think that struck a little close to home. Afterwards we talked about some self-defense and things she should try to do if she were in that situation.
So with all that background to let you know where my mind is as for qualifications...what suggestions do you have for us to watch? A few movies we have watched besides the ones I've already mentioned:
I started her out with kind of a "history" of horror movies showing old classics like Dracula, The Wolf Man, The Birds, Psycho, etc. Now I am pretty much going for PG-13 horror because a lot of times R horror is rated R because of more than just the intense scenes and violence.
Intensity and violence do not bother me or concern me really. It is actually interesting sometimes to look at it from an special effects perspective. I'm not opposed to supernatural horror -- we watched Amityville Horror recently -- but things are a little *too* close to the truth I have steered clear, if that makes sense. For example, I enjoy Supernatural but it has a lot to do with angels and demons and portrays angels doing bad things, opposing God, etc. At this point, I don't feel like she is mature enough spiritually to know that's not how angels would behave and didn't want to have to spend every episode correcting Supernatural's theology for her. I think it would give a great opportunity for some "relevance score" but it is so prevalent in that show I would rather avoid it at this point.
I also want to avoid excessive foul language. Some is fine and to be expected, but I just don't want to build up that callousness to foul language just yet. She is old enough to know she is not to use those words, but ... she's still my little girl and I want to preserve some of that innocence still.
I had seen Cabin in the Woods and remembered it being not that intense of a scarey movie so I fired it up. I had to turn it off within the first 15 minutes or so because they had already dropped several f-bombs; and we hadn't even gotten to anything intense...that was just casual conversation. I pay very little attention to foul language so had not remembered that aspect from when I had watched it, but I was sensitive to it with her.I don't want excessive nudity or strong sexual content either. I know girls are affected by this differently than guys, but it goes back to preserving her innocence. I don't want her thinking this is normal and acceptable for her to do. When we run across content, I often call attention to it and point out "uh, oh... they're not married!" I kind of make a joke out of it whenever we see anyone kiss (in any movie) and I tell all the kids to cover their eyes if they two kissers aren't married.
She has held up surprisingly well so far. We have watched The Ring, Pet Semetary, and others that I thought would get to her. Probably the one that really got to her the most was a recent one called The Call. It's not even a horror movie, but rather more of a thriller. In the movie a teenage girl gets kidnapped and I think that struck a little close to home. Afterwards we talked about some self-defense and things she should try to do if she were in that situation.
So with all that background to let you know where my mind is as for qualifications...what suggestions do you have for us to watch? A few movies we have watched besides the ones I've already mentioned:
- Orphan
- Sixth Sense
- Mama
- The Village
- Poltergeist
- Gremlins
- When a Stranger Calls
