MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > Movies you saw at a too-young age (and i...

Movies you saw at a too-young age (and its effects on you)


I saw a lot of movies that I probably shouldn't have in the eighties as a little kid, mostly because my father was a huge movie enthusiast. As a parent myself, I think about waiting longer to introduce the same movies to my kids, even though I believe it had no long term effect on me (how someone can truly make that conclusion about themselves may be questionable, but I believe so).

But there are cases where it causes problems. We know a kid at school who is 6 and is into Hellraiser, Pennywise / It, Freddie / Nightmare on Elm Street, Jason / Halloween, etc, and he has a few tendencies to get violent when he doesn't get what he wants. He has made threats to other kids about cutting their throat, putting plastic bags over their heads, strangling them and so on.

The only thing I can recall from watching scary movies as a little kid is freaking out about flashing lights in the sky during thunderstorms because of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and being afraid to go into a dark room because of Alien. I was also afraid to watch An American Werewolf in London again until my 30s because I saw it just as a little kid and remember it vividly - the stalking scenes in the field at night, the transformation, the subway scene.

Those things wore off soon enough but I'm curious to know what other things affected others at a young age?

reply

Unfortunately I didn't get to have any such experiences. My parents were ridiculously strict about what I could watch when I was little. So I didn't get to see any of the classic horror movies when they would have been most effective on me. For example, I only saw Poltergeist when I was in my 20s, and I didn't find it scary in the slightest. Ever since then, I've regretted that I didn't get to watch it as a child, because I'm pretty sure it would have scared me good if I'd seen it then. Recently I also watched the movie "Child's Play" for the first time. Found it pretty creepy at some parts, but it would have been way more effective if I'd seen it as a kid.

reply

Cujo

reply

The Godfather. I watched it at my cousin’s house when I was 8. All I remember was a horse got killed, the guy who kicked a guy into the trash cans got killed, and the nice old man died on his tomato plants.

Kind of a wasted experience.

reply

Jaws at age 10. I grew up on the shore in Southeast CT and the beach was forever ruined for me.

reply

OZ tv show.
It fucked with my head long time. I watched it when I was 14 or 15. Too many disturbing scenes in every damn episode.

reply

[deleted]

I saw "Labyrinth" at a young age, (10, maybe?) and didn't like it very much. It wasn't until I was 20 that my interest in it came back, and I was able to appreciate the movie a lot more.

reply

I just remembered that Poltergeist (the original) creeped me out as a kid, in regards to TVs being on but just showing static. And the kitchen scene.

reply

I saw Halloween in the theater when I was ten and it hastened my desensitization to horror because it was an intense experience. Today the movie doesn't seem like a big deal but back then people were leaving early, screaming, and jumping out of their seat (me included). My 'date', she was eleven, put her jacket over her head and laid on the floor.

reply