Badmovies.org Forum

ok, now by no means am i a bible beater. i love horror flicks as much as the next guy/gal. got my own little site, etc. but i saw something that bothered me today at cabin fever.

a kid who couldn't have been more than seven. so young in fact that he was carrying a stuffed animal of some sort with him.

to make matters worse, the apparent mother got two cell calls during the flick

so after the movie, there they all were outside the theater (except for the dad, who i guess they were waiting for---but i didn't know that at the time). i commented to the group in general "nice movie for a little kid."

after i got about 12 steps away, the lady goes "i'm the parent and i don't see a problem with it."

to which i turned and commented "that's sad."

now, while cabin fever wasn't nearly as bad as some other R-rated flicks, i just can't understand bringing a child under ten or twelve to them. i mean, as adults, we should try to keep children as children as long as they should be. and the fact that this kid laughed at parts that should have been shocking at that age didn't make it sit any better with me. i couldn't enjoy the flick. i wanted to shake the parents and find out what was wrong with them. i mean, they could still be the most loving parents in the world, there's just still something wrong with it i think.

am i nuts? or am i just getting old (30)???

This is why my girlfriend and I leave her kid chained outside when we go to an adult movie!!

People are too lazy to get a babysitter. My theater experiences with children....

"scary movie" - some VERy innapropriate scenes for kids (one sexual scene in particular comes to mind) and some couple brought their entire gaggle of kids..about 5-6 of them ranging from ages 2-9. Front row.

Another was a woman who brought her 3 year old to see "se7en". It was just us in the theater and a man up front. 1/4 through the movie she fell entirely asleep while her kid watched the entire movie..and then at one point ran off without her even knowing.

Then there's the wild child incident where a man brought his 4 year old who had ADD hyperactivity toddler syndrome and ran up and down the aisles screaming "I WANT TO GO HOME. I WANT TO SEE MOMMY". The man did nothing but sit there and let his kid go wild. He finally said "come sit down" and the kid ran off to the front row and shouted "NO! I WANT TO GO HOME NOW!" and someone in the audience replied "SO DO WE!"

Compared to the time I saw NATURAL BORN KILLERS and there was a couple in front of me with (just guessing the age here) 7-year old daughter, CABIN FEVER is nothing. I saw small kids in the theater for BASIC INSTINCT and 2 FRIDAY THE 13TH movies I saw in the theater too.

On the flipside of this argument, maybe I'm just too young, but I don't really see a problem in letting little kids watch bloody stuff like Cabin Fever if they're cool with it and are mature enough for their age that they can handle it.
I see it as more of a public courtesy issue.  If the kid is 7 but acts like he's 15 and is well-behaved (if 15 year olds can be considered well behaved, but you get the point) and understands that it's just a movie and knows what's up, that's cool.  If the kid is asking "what's that mean mommy?" really loudly every 2 minutes and freaks out at scary stuff, that's not cool.  
Maybe this is just me being a dick, but I had an experience like that with an adult once, a blind woman.  A man had brought her to the theater to see Mothman Prophecies (not that it mattered that it was interrupted because it sucked ass) and proceeded to give her a loud-conversation level play by play of the ENTIRE MOVIE.  WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU TAKE A BLIND PERSON TO A MOVIE THEATER?  Just wait for the video release so you don't bother everyone else.

Brother R

I think there is maturity factor in kids - however when i was 5 I never watched the texas chainsaw massacre. I was ready for that kind of blood and fun when I was 12..but there are certain ages where kids just simply do not need to see that kind of stuff (particularly since movies today have progressively gotten more graphic than just the splashing of blood) My parents were fairly liberal (somehow they thought stuff of a sexual nature was more harmful to my innocent little mind). But they appropriately adjusted the types of movies I could go see with them according to my age.  Age 5 I watched kid movies but I also saw king kong, monster movies, godzilla stuff..lots of scary movies but on a whole different level of scary...they were not loaded with intense violent graphic scenes.

 I think when I was 11 I was really ready for the american werewolf in london movies and so forth. But i was raised on non kid movies, I lived overseas and we didn't get all the disney films catered for us ..i had to watch whatever was on the tube so yes - my maturity level wasn't the average 5 year old. But thank GOD I never had to sit through films where people are getting hacked up.  I'd really begin to wonder why an intensly graphic violent film would capture a 5 or 7 year olds imagination. That's just parents being too lazy to get a babysitter and make it 'adults night out". As you get older you begin to realize that you just can't drag your kids to ANYTHING when they're under 10.

Cabin Fever rocked!! unfortunatly i am still a year away from being able to buy my own tickets to R-rated movies. Instead i had to give my five dollars to Dickie Robberts and sneak into Cabin Fever. Once in the theatre their were 2-3 toddlers sitting with their parents!! Jeez, 16 and I am not alowed into the theatre but two year-olds thats ok. Needless to say it wasn't a movie for the unpotty-trained.

I don't think mr henry was over reacting, I mean I was shown PG-13 movies like Ace Ventura and Street Fighter when they came out, and I saw Evil Dead when I was 14 and I've played PLENTY of vilolent video games  but I' not a violent person. To me a violent person is someone who starts fights with no reason or starts shooting people, hell maybe I just got lucky that I didn't turn out that way. But If I have kids I'm gonna be careful, I'm not saying my mom is irresponible but I'm a cautionish person.

-the first rule of fat club-

I belive if the kid wants to see it you take them so you can explain things to them... Though if they didn't ask you are just a glutten for punishment cause you must explain what these moveis are really about to a  kid or else they are gonna have problems.  And to the woman getting phone calls during the movie.. hey I talk through the movies alot.. I get excepted and always have to coment.. but if they are getting more then one cell call and still don't turn thier phone off....I say  POW!

I don't believe that Mr. Henry overreacted in the least.  I would have told the mother the exact same thing.

I have a five month old myself, and there is absolutely NO WAY that I will take her to see any graphic film such as Cabin Fever until she is atleast 12-13.  As someone said in an earlier post, let kids be kids.  Children need to see animated happy films, not blood and gore horror flicks.

Much like you others, I have had an experience with this.  I went to see Freddy VS. Jason in it's opening wkend.  Sitting about three rows up from me was a mother and her two year old daughter.  Needless to say, the girl was screaming her head off most of the film.

As for myself and my wife, we will be seeing Cabin Fever.  Our daughter however will be staying with her grandmother.

Glad to see somebody is willing to actually speak up to an irresponsible parent. Nice going, Mr. Henry.

Been giving this a lot of thought lately, since my wife and I have been talking about kids. I've been thinking mainly of when kids would be old enough to comprehend my favourite movies enough to enjoy them, but I've also considered at what age the movies would be appropriate.

I think it's all right for kids to watch movies that are a little above their level of maturity, since that encourages them to grow. Something loaded with sex, brutal violence or gory horror, however, is out of the question. And I don't buy the notion of it being all right for kids who are mature enough to handle it. Regardless of how well behaved they are (and I think little kids who act like they're older have problems of their own), those are formative years, and what they are exposed to will affect them, regardless of what kind of brave act they put on. Fact is, if it doesn't shock them, that's because they're already pretty messed up.

>> think it's all right for kids to watch movies that are a little above their level of maturity, since that encourages them to grow. Something loaded with sex, brutal violence or gory horror, however, is out of the question. And I don't buy the notion of it being all right for kids who are mature enough to handle it. Regardless of how well behaved they are (and I think little kids who act like they're older have problems of their own), those are formative years, and what they are exposed to will affect them, regardless of what kind of brave act they put on. Fact is, if it doesn't shock them, that's because they're already pretty messed up.<<

well said.

I also wish parents would encourage their kids to watch non-animated films for a change, and old stuff. most kids are weaned on nothing but disney and pixar. It's no wonder they grow up and don't watch old movies or obscure titles. Alot of those animated films cater to the short attention span and nurture it.

Susan wrote:

> I also wish parents would encourage their kids to watch
> non-animated films for a change, and old stuff. most kids are
> weaned on nothing but disney and pixar. It's no wonder they
> grow up and don't watch old movies or obscure titles. Alot of
> those animated films cater to the short attention span and
> nurture it.


True. I had the experience last year of hosting a B-movie night for the kids at my church. Granted, the whole "so bad it's good" thing requires some maturity to grasp, but many of these kids were rejecting movies simply for being in black and white. After the first one, that was the first thing they asked about the others. On the other hand, they liked Hercules in New York. It was no better than the rest, but it was in colour and had a star they recognized.

Kids need to be exposed to more variety in entertainment. I can still remember a few years back, when I was asked to put in a movie for my neice and nephew, when they were much littler. I can't remember if it was my brother's kids or my sister's, but that's probably irrelevant. I grabbed 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea from my own collection and put it on. A classic Disney film of a classic Jules Verne story, with James Mason, Peter Lorre and Kirk Douglas (singing Whale of a Tale). A solid adventure and good family entertainment. I was told, by the other adults, that the kids wouldn't like that, and I should put in one of the new overcommercialized kiddie films they've seen 20 times over. Unreal.

I suppose the problem is twofold. There are the parents who show their kids movies that are simply unfit for children to watch (no doubt because they are only thinking of themselves), and there are the parents who are careful about what their kids watch, but never give them enough credit to show them something different. In both cases, there is a lot of shortsightedness.



Post Edited (09-17-03 15:12)

Sigh!  Ah, yes, the inappropriately young at films.  This is a nuisance during school holidays in the UK, when you can bet there will be at least one gang of rustling, muttering, laughing, mobile-using kids in the cinema.  

Last year my wife and I went to see a film - forget what it was now - and a group of boys on the back row kept throwing popcorn at her.  When we left, they got the sharp edge of her tongue, and as we walked away they got progressively lippier and braver about what they said to her.

I turned and ran up the cinema stairs to them at speed; they panicked and all but wet their pants.  Little did they know, I'm big and look mean but possess all the toughness of a soft-boiled egg. Still, having the floor shake while a man in steel-toecap boots comes at you can't be pleasant.

So being young and stupid may also affect your life expectancy!

As a kid (16) I can say that kids are becoming dickheads younger and younger.

That is a pretty astute observation. As a grup (32), I'm noticing more and more that even the most careful parents can subtly mess a kid up for life through the simplest mistakes.

Considering that I could be a father within the year, that scares me.

I blame the disney channel