Are kids desensitized to Horror Movies

[StrangeVisitor]

another low budget movie that spooked me (I forgot the title) was the one staring Kim Darby and there was evil trolls living in her chimney.

That was "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark". G. del Toro is executive producing a remake, I believe.

[Mikey]

For me, being at that age in the early 70's ......... Weird low budget movies scared me more then big budget ones .......

A few examples .......
The Shatner as priest in jetplane movie.
I think it was called Horror at 20,000 feet.

another low budget movie that spooked me (I forgot the title) was the one staring Kim Darby and there was evil trolls living in her chimney.

Them kind of movies scared me a lot more then Omen, Exorcist or whatever.

[garagesale]

Creature from the Black Lagoon HORRIFIED me at age 8. The Exorcist gave me nightmares at 16. The day after I saw The Ring, I stepped into a dark classroom that had a TV on at age 42 then had to turn on the light to make myself feel better, then immediately turned it off to keep from having a hear attack. My kid are bored by Saw 8.

JamesD

[mego73]

I always thought it was indecent and bordering on evil of the producers to leave the Vic Morrow story in Twilight Zone -- with or without the footage.

Whenever I watch that movie, I always have to fast-forward over that story.
It makes me feel creepy and dirty watching it.

I'm not talking about the footage of them dying -- I mean the entire Vic Morrow story.

I agree.

[Mikey]

I always thought it was indecent and bordering on evil of the producers to leave the Vic Morrow story in Twilight Zone -- with or without the footage.

Whenever I watch that movie, I always have to fast-forward over that story.
It makes me feel creepy and dirty watching it.

I'm not talking about the footage of them dying -- I mean the entire Vic Morrow story.

[mego73]

>the really disturbing thing is that kids don't seem to be as affected by real violence they see these days either

I think that's 'cos it doesn't register as real violence. It LOOKS like the fake stuff, and most people aren't too good at extrapolating, so it all gets filed the same in the ol' brain.

We get a lot of encouragement these days to NOT look deeper into things....

Don C.

Sometimes real violence can look more phony than the real thing since the camera doesn't usually catch the most graphic part of it.

Case and point is the Vic Morrow (and the 2 child actors) death Twilight Zone footage. I remember the big deal when the footage was actually released and when I finally saw it, all you see is prop helicopter crashing into these three little figures and disapearing.

Of course, what that film really showed (but you can't really see) is that all three of them are decapitated.

This footage shows three actual deaths but it's not graphic like it would be if it were faked.

[ctc]

>the really disturbing thing is that kids don't seem to be as affected by real violence they see these days either

I think that's 'cos it doesn't register as real violence. It LOOKS like the fake stuff, and most people aren't too good at extrapolating, so it all gets filed the same in the ol' brain.

We get a lot of encouragement these days to NOT look deeper into things....

Don C.

[nvmbrsdoom5]

Hmmmm....

I dunno. When I was a kid me and my friends watched all sorts of stuff, and other than one kid we weren't bothered by any of it. I think part of it nowadays is that so much attention is put on how things are done that kids watch movies acutely aware that they ARE movies. You never see anything clean; you always go in with a head full of who directed, what their last film was, how much this cost, who did the programming, thirteen different reviews, one of which probably included the ending, and four of which have already listed out the plot holes.... It's not an event, it's a film school essay. Even for younger kids.

It's hard to be scared of something that was dismantled before you got to see it.

Don C.

Very good points there. But as mentioned earlier, the really disturbing thing is that kids don't seem to be as affected by real violence they see these days either. I have heard kids talking about how they watch video clips of real people getting hit by trains and executions and stuff online, and they think it's "cool". Maybe because it's so readily available to watch online and they don't know the people involved, they aren't able to truly grasp the seriousness of it? It's one thing for kids to watch a horror movie and just kinda laugh at the fun of it because they're aware it's all fake and know all the behind-the-scenes stuff....it's another thing all together for them to sit around watching reality videos of people dying and think "wow that's brutal, that's cool!" That kinda worries me a bit

I've mentioned this before but man, the one movie that still gets me psycologically is The Exorcist. Especially now that it's Halloween, it's everywhere, and I keep seeing that damned face in ads, commercials, etc., and it drives me nuts! I first saw it when I was about 9 I think, maybe I was too young because it deeply affected me ever since. That being said, I think it's a fantastic movie. But if you're the kind of person that is sensitive to things like that, and suspect you shouldn't see it (such as kryptosmaster) then yeah, you're probably better off not.

[ctc]

>I think it's just a trend that will eventually change AGAIN.

Hear hear! The entertainment industry is like kids playing soccer: no strategy, just a huge wave of people following the ball. Case in point; movies nowadays are a lot LESS violent than they were say, in the 70's. The all important PG rating ensures a larger audience. BUT that's been slowly changing for the last couple of years. (Right after "Saw" made a lot of money. Get that ball!!! GET IT!!!!)

Don C.

[Mikey]

I think it's just a trend that will eventually change AGAIN.

Centuries ago whole towns used to come out and watch people being hanged in the town square.

Then came the prissy Victorian era...

Then came the roaring 20's into WW2 ....

Then came the innocent 50's era.

Then came the "desensitized" era .

Then came ......................?

There's nothing new here.

[vulcan2074]

As a Society in General, I think were all getting a Little Desensitized. Were starting to get used to seeing Crazy stuff on a daily basis. Eventually no one will be surprised by anything. The things you can see on Tv and Hear over the Radio now a days Amaze me.
Sammy

[mego73]

Hmmmm....

I dunno. When I was a kid me and my friends watched all sorts of stuff, and other than one kid we weren't bothered by any of it. I think part of it nowadays is that so much attention is put on how things are done that kids watch movies acutely aware that they ARE movies. You never see anything clean; you always go in with a head full of who directed, what their last film was, how much this cost, who did the programming, thirteen different reviews, one of which probably included the ending, and four of which have already listed out the plot holes.... It's not an event, it's a film school essay. Even for younger kids.

It's hard to be scared of something that was dismantled before you got to see it.

Don C.

Man, that is so true. Half the power of The Exorcist was the mystery surrounding the making of the movie and it's overpowering images at the time. The studio prohibited pictures of Linda Blair in full makeup in magazines or TV (either Time or Newsweek got into trouble publishing pictures of a fully made up Linda Blair taking off the movie screen to accompany an interview of Linda Blair). The studio was pretty cagey about how the special effects were done (William Friedkin famously said that the levitation scenes were done with some sort of device using magnetization when in reality it was simply wires) and it built this whole mystique around the movie.

[mego73]

I was just thinking about this today.

I think I was 13 or 14 and my parents let me stay up one night and watch Carrie on tv (so it was the edited version). I was so scared at the ending scene that I couldn't sleep. I kept waking up thinking a hand was going reach out of the couch and grab me.

My 13 year old watched the tv version and seemed totally unaffected by it. My other son at 6 could watch Jaws and no scare.

I am just wondering if all of the violent video games and things that they see via youtube or even on the movie screen is so different from what we watched and are a bit desensitized to movies that scared the living daylights out of me.

I think it's less to do with desensitization than it has to do with movies copying that same trick out of Carrie again and again. So, your 13 year old has seen variations of that scene that when you were young you saw for the first time.

In other words, your kid expected to see a shock moment when you did not when you first saw it.

Once upon a time, a shock ending was a new and different thing. Now, all horror movies have shock endings. Carrie was one of the first.

Remember, the stuff that made an impression on us in the horror movies of our youth have been worked into so many other movies since that they can't do the same job on your kids.

For me, the movie that ever the the most to me (and still does) is The Exorcist.

[ctc]

Hmmmm....

I dunno. When I was a kid me and my friends watched all sorts of stuff, and other than one kid we weren't bothered by any of it. I think part of it nowadays is that so much attention is put on how things are done that kids watch movies acutely aware that they ARE movies. You never see anything clean; you always go in with a head full of who directed, what their last film was, how much this cost, who did the programming, thirteen different reviews, one of which probably included the ending, and four of which have already listed out the plot holes.... It's not an event, it's a film school essay. Even for younger kids.

It's hard to be scared of something that was dismantled before you got to see it.

Don C.

[MIB41]

I think alot depends on what kids are exposed to but ultimately I believe they will have a higher tolerance than what we kids of the 60's and 70's had. You have to remember everything that was considered taboo in those days are considered common place today (even by television standards). There are things on TV today that you couldn't have gotten into a theater to see in the 70's without an adult. As a parent I can say that any child can still maintain balance even with that higher threshold. Times may change, but values don't.