You know, Fantasy Island terrified me on a regular basis when I was a kid. I don’t remember anything specific, but I distinctly remember feeling as a child that it was a deeply effed up show.
I was scared of the Incredible Hulk TV show. I’d run to my room whenever it was on. I seem to recall that there was a still shot–perhaps used when going to a commercial or at the end of the theme song–that showed one half Bruce Banner and one half Hulk. Creeped me out. I was also creeped out whenever he would change into the Hulk.
My father remembers being terrified of the movie “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein”. His grandmother took him when he was a little boy. (According to the IMDB, it came out in 1948, so he was about six years old.) It’s supposed to be a comedy, but Dad says he spent most of the movie trying to crawl under his seat!
I’d have to say I heartily agree with Millers orignal and second post. I remember being saddend by the violence in Watership Down when I saw that at age six, but I really couldn’t get it out of my mind. Not in a macabre or disturbing way mind you. Maybe it’s just that it was one of the first instances in my burgeoning worldview that wan’t just the typical techno-color-everyones-happy stuff that kids are saturated with. Or maybe I just felt like I wasn’t being talked down to, that there were larger issues to address in life, if that makes any sense.
Wow, that’s incredibly sweet and sensitive of him. Great story!
My 2 1/2 year old wasn’t too scared, but I think she didn’t really understand many of the scary parts. She sat on my lap during the movie, and I held her a little tighter during the points where the screen went black and during the shark and explosion sequences, but otherwise she was fine.
The only part she questioned was in the beginning when
Nemo’s mom gets killed. She asked, “Where’s the Mommy?” I told her, “She’s all gone,” because I really didn’t want to get into a long explanation in the theater, and she was fine with that.
Truly I think she was more interested in the Raisinettes than the movie, but she sat through the whole thing and Mr. Elf and I got to see a really fun movie.