I’ve been a horror film fan since the age of 5. I was fortunate enough to grow up in a major metropolitan area with several independent TV stations, so there was no lack of horror movie programming. Now, I’m a bit older (50) than most of the posters so far, so my initial horror movie experiences consisted of the old Universal monsters and '50s “B” sci-fi. To this day, they are still my favorite films in the genre.
How young is “too young” is a difficult question since films became more explicit in their depiction of horror and gore. While I believe that a good scare never hurt anyone, I would probably have a problem with young children watching “serial-killer”-type films. Unfortunately, outside of DVD, there aren’t many resources for the older films. I sort of stumbled upon scary movies when I was a kid; I dare say that’s how most of us became interested in them.
Bairn , it sounds like you have nothing to worry about. Your daughter appears to be intelligent and well-adjusted; if she likes scary movies, there’s nothing wrong with that. You don’t mention exactly what films she’s watching, but why not give her some DVD’s of the older monster films for Xmas? Then watch them with her–it’s never too late to become an “aficionado”.
Same here for the modern slasher era, although I was a fan of early horror/monster flicks since 7 or 8 years old (Elvira, Commander USA “Groovy Movies”, etc)
My earliest scares came from an old Twilight Zone episode (not even a scary one- it was about patterns in wallpaper and things), the original Night of the Living Dead and an ad for Child’s Play. All under the age of ten. Of course, I also read a lot of R.L. Stine and the Scary Stories series (those illustrations still give me the creeps!). and Elvira was me hero.
I agree with what other posters wrote about keeping her from graphic violence. Still, some kids are just odd and dark and fantastically morbid.
My parents took me to some cheesy flick called “Galaxy of Terror” when I was 4. My dad says he looked over at me in the middle of the movie and saw that my eyes were huge and I was sweating. He was sure he’d traumatized me. But I don’t remember the movie at all, or being scared by it.
I was 5 when The Thing came out, and it’s still one of my favorite movies.
I didn’t have an R. L. Stine phase; I jumped right into Stephen King and Clive Barker when I was about 12. Quite a contrast from the Sweet Valley High books I was also reading.
Graphic violence never bothered me. I thought things were scary and gross, but that’s what they were supposed to be. Fortunately, my parents figured that if I kept watching these darn movies, then I must be 1) enjoying them, and 2) able to handle the scary stuff. I’m glad they never censored what I watched or read.
Interesting flick – Roger Corman was ultimately in charge, and a pre-Terminator James Cameron worked on it. It features people having limbs chopped off, being crushed by vines (on-camera), and a woman raped by a giant caterpillar.
The John Carpenter The Thing that came out a year later was rated R, mainly because of bloddy mayhem (mostly to an imaginary creature, but with chopped-off hands and bullets through heads, too).
Your parents were pretty liberal in exposing you to pretty ooky horror stuff that early.
The same summer The Thing came out, Poltergeist did, too. I saw it at a theater that had been abandoned by porno films as too dilapidated. They had a staff of two, I think, to sell and take tickets, sell refreshmrents, and run the projector. They locked the doors when running the movie, which must have violated lots of fire laws. At one point in the film, people screamed because of somwe fright, and a little boy of 7 or so rocketed out and to the theater doors, which he tried to get out through. It was the closest I’ve seen a kid come to having a heart attack.
Oh, at 7 or 8, I guess. This would be around 1968, and I’m talking about the Universal classics on teevee, as well as crappy 1950s horror and SF. I didn’t go to the theaters for the sexy Hammer stuff and other contemporary films until I was in my teens (and had to go to revival houses). I also attended a few marathons in the Cleveland area – 24 hours-plus of whatever the local universities could get their hands on, from *A Boy and His Dog * to The Innocents to Schlock.
I went to college in New Haven, Connecticut, which was famous for having more movie screens per square foot than any other city in the nation, so I saw a LOT of obscure/foreign horror movies between 1978-82.
Cleveland was famous for its independent TV station horror movie hosts, starting with Ghoulardi, continuing with Big Chuck & Houlihan, and The Ghoul. You hadda watch these guys if you wanted to be Cool, and eventually everyone turned into a horror flick buff.
Let’s see… the first that I can recall, was at age 6 (born in '68) going to the drive-in with my folks to see Texas Chainsaw. Sometime shortly after that, I saw Boggy Creek, The Town That Dreaded Sundown, Jaws and after that hated having to hear if my mother caught something on mid-afternoon TV that I’d have been happy to scare my pants off too, but missed. Like for example, Who Slew Auntie Roo or Baby Jane, the first which I watched pretty quickly thereafter and the latter I finally saw recently.
As a point of data, I also hit most of the biggies (to me) before age 12. There was Friday the 13th, When A Stranger Calls, Phantasm, Amityville and some other slasher types that I mostly forget now (Happy Birthday To Me anyone?). So, I too am now hopelessly obsessed. Don’t know if that’s a positive thing to offer up for your situation or not. I think I’m doing okay though.
[ ::: twitch ::: ]
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve misplaced my ax and at least one victim’s head. Pardon.
I have a very vivid memory of seeing The Day the Earth Stood Still at the movie theater. It really scared me. I wanted to go see it again the next day. We only went to the movies on Saturday so I didn’t see it again until years later, but that started me on the scary movie road.
The Day the Earth Stood Still was released in 1951. I was 5.
It’s funny, WRT The Thing, the scariest moment I remember isn’t the scene with the dogs, it’s when Kurt Russell’s character says he’s going up to his trailer. When asked why, he says because he turned off the light there when he left earlier. Then the camera pans to the trailer, and the light is on. It was probably the first time a movie made me feel real fear, and not some stupid jump-out-of-my-seat reaction that some horror moviemakers seem to think is the same thing.
