So, I watched this with my eight-year-old sister...

I had already seen the film, and loved it, so when it was on again, I started watching it. My eight-year-old sister comes in around the time when the spaceships come out of the ground and start vapourising everything and she was hooked. She started asking all sorts of questions about the aliens and what did they want and how were the good guys gonna defeat them.
A little background; she's not an uber trendy pre-teen; her favourite film is Disney's Snow White; she likes Gene Kelly's dance sequences and One Direction.
I was quite pleased that she liked the film, I have to say.
When it reached the scene where Clayton and Sylvia were trapped in the farmhouse, sister turned to me, her eyes popping out of her head and asked what was going to happen. I told her to wait and see.
When the photoelectric eye started searching the house, she gasped, starting repeating, "oh, my gosh, oh, my gosh," over and over again with her hands pressed over her mouth. "I can't watch," she said, covering her eyes. "Oh, don't let it find you!" When it disappeared, she was relieved, but the gasping returned when they eye did. "Oh, no, oh,no! I don't like that eye!" And when she saw the alien, that was it, she announced that it was too scary and left the room.

I think that's pretty cool, that this film still has an effect on some people today. I kinda wish I had recorded her, it was the cutest thing ever.

We recently bought the DVD, and when my sister saw the cover, she announced that she was not watching it again.