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I may have posted this once before but I'm looking for some input.  On Friday, I had a long conversation with the producer of a New Hampshire Public Radio show called Word of Mouth and I've been booked to appear on the Halloween episode to talk up a few of the top 10 horror movies you could show your kids and not feel bad about.

The premise is pretty simple.  Most spooky movies these days with kids in mind is insipid and heavily marketed but back in the day, when I was 7, I discovered the Creature Double Feature on Saturday afternoons and was recruited into the horror fan club very early on thanks to Godzilla, Christopher Lee, Vincent Price and Roger Corman.  Sure, these are goofy movies, but they're also unapologetic horror movies. 

So I ask you this:  You're going to show some horror movies to a bunch of 10 years old.  What do you show them? To save you some time, I am disqualifying the following titles since they're already on my list.

Godzilla vs. Monster Zero
The Monster Squad (EVERYBODY replies with this one. The language is pretty salty.)
The Raven

Think cheesy, old and new.  It doesn't matter.

It depends how old they are, under 10, yeah Monster Squad. About 10+, stuff like poltergeist, the lost boys and halloween. Saying that though, my dad let me watch Hellraiser when I was 7, so I'm pretty screwed up!  :teddyr:

This always an interesting perspective because I came up in a house where that s**t was verboten so I had to find it on TV (which was more common than you might think in the early 80's).  I saw Poltergeist on TV back when I was 10 and the guy tearing his face off scene scared the s**t out of me.  I may include it, though, because the rest of it is pretty inoccuous and spooky.

The Midnight Hour
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Something by William Castle - perhaps "The House on Haunted Hill."

My mom's a werewolf  :thumbup:

Yes! Noted.

Hmmm...
Maybe the first Nightmare on Elm Street movie.

It's not too gory and it'll give 'em nightmares.
I watched it when I was 11 years old. 
Scared the hell out of me?  Yes.  Screw me up?  No.

Kind of a wierd situation when you think about it really, horror movies are supposed to be scary. But I see what you mean I'll be enjoying plenty of horror movies with my kid but I wont be starting with Evil Dead.

I'd go with the old Universal monsters from the 1940's Frankenstien, Dracula, stuff like that. But the I do recall seeing a tv preview in early grade school for the Mummy and there was a scene where they were wrapping a guy up and it scared the hell out of me.


Just thought of  a newer one my niece likes its an Eddie Murphy flick: The Haunted Mansion Its more of a kids movie about a haunted house than a horror movie thats safe for kids but it might fit the bill.

Either of the Ghostbusters movies would be a decent choice.   :thumbup:

They're not really horror, but they both deal with scary themes.

Yeah. When I was a little kid and caught up to some of these movies, I was petrified by them but in a fun way.  I was pretty adventurous as a kid but I really don't think I could have handled something like Nightmare.  Pictures in Fangoria and ads for Return of the Living Dead left me with nightmares, so...

You can definitely ease a child into this culture, though.

I've been tossing this idea around a bit.  I definitely want to include a Universal, but which one?  I think that Dracula and Frankenstein move a little too slow to hold a kid's attention, but The Mummy or The Wolfman seem to be paced a little better.

I think THE WOLFMAN might be the best of the Universals.  I think that today's kids won't relate to them well, though.  My ten year old nephew hates black & white movies and refuses to watch them.

I remember THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON caught my attention as a kid.

More in the horror/comedy vein, what about WALLACE & GROMIT IN THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT?  Also, the LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS remake would probably engage youngsters, and might be guilt-free if a few four-letter words were edited out (the dentist scene will totally go over the little ones' heads).

When i was little, my parents showed me THE BLOB. I was TERRIFIED.

I'd put as number one Val Lewton's "Curse of The Cat People"(1942) --
It invokes The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, has a child protagonist, and has a spooky ghost/shadows in the staircase, the threat of death, but love triumphs over all & it has a happy ending.  Plus it touches on how adults and children view the same world in different ways.  Just about a perfect horror movie for all ages.
peter johnson/denny crane

The Universal Horrors you refer to all date to the 1930s, and yup, that scene in THE MUMMY is kind of intense.  The "Universal Horror Cycle" as collectors refer to it, does continue into the '40s, but the best and important ones are from the '30s.  DRACULA (1931) is really creaky... The original FRANKENSTEIN (1931) might be a bit too much, aside from being creaky, it has the death of a child in it which might be a nightmare harbinger... however BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935) is spooky, funny, moves quickly, is easy to get into, and it is not necessary to have seen the first film to thoroughly enjoy the far superior sequel. 
If you want a damned fine scare with nothing untoward, try THE HAUNTING or CARNIVAL OF SOULS.  I think it's possible, though, that those could lead to wet pants. 

I showed my nephews and nieces (11-13 years old) The Blair Witch Project when it came out on DVD (around Halloween 1999 if memory serves me right). They never catched any of the hype so I told them that the footage was real. It worked. They were all pretty spooked  :teddyr:

Horror movies I would show my own kids:

The Others (2001)
Poltergeist (1982)
Troll 2 (1990)
Gremlins (1984)
Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)
Lady In White (1988)
Monster House (2006)
Ghost Chase (1987)
Paperhouse (1988)
The Gate (1987)

My parents probably take great pride that, even though I was an 80s child, I really didn't see more than half a dozen true horror movies before puberty.

I'm still making up for lost time  :teddyr: yet I can't recall a single movie-induced nightmare. Seriously. There must have been one or two, but I really can't recall them.

What must have come close, and what my parents let me watch, I think, as an exception in the name of rare quality...

was ALIEN

I would only let a 10 year old watch Alien if I had a nice screen/viewing set up. 30 years later that movie is still amazing. Hopefully the VS predator movies haven't already ruined the creature's mystique.
 

 

I've seen quite a few I liked as a kid, and a few I've showed my kid sister that she enjoyed quite well, but for the big public audience I can only think of a few.

Nightmares - Not too much objectionable material, plenty scary, especially for unsuspecting horror n00bs (kids) on 1st viewing

The Old Dark House - Lots of great visuals and creepy characters without too much actual violence, plus it's a Universal like you wanted, and to boot one they're not likely to have seen

The Fog (Original) - Rated R, but (Like the case is with Nightmares) I seriously can't imagine why. I think the Curtis and Atkins characters may have been in bed at one point, but I'm pretty sure they weren't doing anything. The gore is pretty tame, and basically amounts to some blood (Not even splattering on anything) and I think 1 decaying face.

Hmm...

.ABBOTT and COSETLLO meet FRANKENSTEIN !!!!  :smile:

10 year old kids today, aren't the 10 year old kids I grew up with ... they seem to be more desensitized to violence and gore via video games. And they are more savvy to special effects.

So I'd say about anything prior to 1960 would be kid safe today, my girls saw many early horrors films before age 10 that I watched and said they were cheezy, goofy, silly, funny, etc about every adjective but scary and frighting.

So consider the times we are in, most early movie have sappy f/X and no foul language and they might have been scary to those if us older folks in our youth, but I doubt they are to kids today.

I think the biggest concern for me in sharing films with my daughters is language.  They are remarkably clean in their speech and I am very proud of that, I don't want to debase their vocabularies any more than I can help.  We watched TREMORS a few weeks back and I had forgotten that Kevin Bacon dropped an F-bomb when they killed the first big worm.

The Kharis Mummy movies from the 1940s that came after the Universal films might be good and to me are fun although some may wonder why the Mummy moves so slowly. Scooby Doo on Zombie Island is a kids movie no doubt but is surprisingly good and watchable even to adult eyes.

Most movies I've watched until 11 years old have been mentioned, but I'd like to agree on some I have very fond memories of:

Abbot and Costello meet Frankenstein
Creature from the Black Lagoon
Frankenstein (1940?)

I know I've watched "Them" at age 11 and enjoyed it alot. "Tarantula" a bit earlier.

Nightmare before Christmas and Wallace and Gromit and the Were-Rabbit are good starters, as well as the Shop of Horrors remake.

What really scared me as a kid was "Arsenic and Old Lace".

I know I've seen "American Werewolf" at a very young age, but that one cracked me up a bit at that time...

I would say that House (1986) would be good. That one is scary without being too gory.

Probably the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers is good as well. The 78 remake is good, but has some nudity so that is your call.

I'm another guy who watched adult movies at an early age and I am not deranged. LOL. So it really depends on the maturity level of the kid.

(I'm assuming kids 10+ for most of these)

-The Lady in White (I love this one... very underrated little flick)
-The Monster Squad
-My Best Friend is a Vampire
-The Lost Boys
-JAWS
-Dracula
-The Mummy
-Something Wicked This Way Comes
-Poltergeist
-Garfield's Halloween Adventure (Okay, so it's not a horror movie. But it's my favorite Halloween cartoon of all time and has a special place in my orange and black little heart.  :teddyr:)

Must have been a quick scan.  FRANKENSTEIN is 1931.
Still gory and scary and a bit intense for the pre-teen set.   :teddyr:

"Lost Boys"?? -- No way would I show this to kids -- I still remember the opening of the surf-nazi's head like a beer can --
peter johnson/denny eeewwww

MAD MONSTER PARTY!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dJUbv6h4_s

MAD MONSTER PARTY Little Tibia and Fibias :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfDPcqGw14E

Thanks for all the recommendations, guys.  This is good stuff.

I'm not taking into account the context of kids today vs. kids when I was a kid.  I'm pretty much aware that most kids wouldn't sit still for a lot of this stuff and I'm being a little naive about what they might actually be into but it's NPR, so these sorts of recommendations are perfectly okay.

Be sure to tell us what you finally choose for the list, I'm curious.

My 10 year old really enjoyed the original 'Little Shop of Horrors'.

I cannot believe I did not think of it before, but how about "Invaders from Mars?"  In many ways, it is from a kid's perspective.

Most 1950s Sci-Fi would fit the bill nicely as most features monsters and/or aliens and some even ray guns, robots and rocketships.

cannibal Holocaust

i spit on your grave

last house on the left

the faces of death

 

i believe i killed this topic

My dad let my 11-year-old brother watch some giant creature flicks from the '50s or older. King Kong, The Black Scorpion, Them!, Mighty Joe Young and maybe one or two other ones I can't remember... (There were some intense scenes in there, but my bro was watching it mainly for the animation effects anyways. :bouncegiggle:)

In terms of monster flick anything with dinosaurs would certainly do. "The Land That Time Forgot" (unless they dislike dinosaur deaths), or "Jurassic Park" .

Any Godzilla or other daikaiju movie would be fine, including the non-Asiatic ones like King Kong, Reptilicus and Night Of The Lepus.

I wonder if Rapscallion will update us on what made the final cut...

Todd Brownings Freaks.
It'll teach kids to respect that which is different.

...and if they don't they'll be attacked by a gaggle of mud-cover freaks and turned into a chicken lady!

Well they learn it from school anyway it makes very little difference where they learn it. However it is best if they are exposed to it by you rather than their peers.

Any way my dads version of looking after the little kid. Which if I ever have kids will also be used by me.

Alien and Aliens. He fast forwarded through all the chestburster scenes so I got a speed up version of that horror. Great films to show a 5 year old. You will not have any idea of how many years I had nightmares of head huggers and chest bursters.

Critters was another I remember. Rather cute on the horror scale.

Germlins.

Now my own 6 would be.

Dawn of the dead.
Day of the dead.
Both orginal versions of course.

Christine.
Predator
Ginger snaps.
silence of the lambs. (I would like to see how my kids react to that film)

Imagine making a 5-6 year old sit through Braindead or Evil Dead  :bouncegiggle:

Poltergeist
Halloween
The Terminator...I sat waching this with my mum when I was 8 and I'd call it a horror !!!
The Fly '86
Gremlins
Tremors
The Thing '82
Alien
Jaws
Killer Klowns is a 12 certificate in the UK


Important rule!!!!!
Always fast forward sex scenes...
You'll just be embarassed.

Remember when you're watching a Bond film with your folks and Bond starts to try his luck...
Even though they're family friendly it can still be kinda gross.

Don't show children Christine it'll only bore them

It did me.

In that case I will replace it with brain dead.

That's fine because the two main characters are family friendly. In fact, I don't think they swear once.

Bet it will encourage the kids to cut the grass.

The film might give them parent issues...

I always knew my own children will be evil killing machines. Its not put me off. However studying politics has totally put me off. That reminds me I need to sort out my sig but which quotes to use....

Halloween?  Umm...yes, except for the nudity... :buggedout:

My list (in no particular order)

Signs
The Changeling
Monster House ;)
Ringu (too japanese?)
Alien (maybe)
Aliens (also maybe)


And probably a couple I can't remember.

Awful film.

Marketed totally to the wrong crowd.

They made a film about a man getting his faith back in god and marketed as a sci fi horror.

Awful film so many plot holes. I mean FFS water??? These aliens traveled an unknown distance to a planet covered by 2/3rds water when it so happened its lethal to them. An unforgivable movie by the end I was wishing that they would just exterminate the main cast from orbit and let it finish already.

Sorry but I agree its kid friendly not violent or full of swearing but it does not stop it being an awful film.

the 1993 version of Invasion of the Bodysnatchers...I think it was just called Body Snatchers is good.





If you want to disturb the child. :bluesad:

A friend of mine has an 9 or 10 year old brother, and whenever the kid watches movies like Die Hard, Gladiator, The Matrix; movies with excessive killings, he scares poopless.

I think sticking to the adventure type movies is wise. Speilberg kinda stuff. I remember awe struck and horrified during the Nazi face melt scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

But the issue is with the practical "That looks so fake! This is so boring! Why are we watching B&W?" young uns nowadays. 

:bouncegiggle: I sound like a geezer.

-Jimmybob

It really depends on the child the parent and what is review as horror...

My top 10 horror films for children ages 8 and older...


1, Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

2, The Classic B&W Monster Horror:
Dracula (1931)
Frankenstein (1931)
The Mummy (1932)
The Invisible Man (1933)
The Thing from Another World (1951)
Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
Them! (1954)

[I dont want to sound like an ass, but many kids do find Black/White a little boring because it doesnt have color, since we normally do watch color TV. Although, they do make a great starting point]

3, The Birds (1963)

4, Creepshow (1982)

5, The Blob (1958)

6, Clownhouse (1989) [unless you dont want your child to see this movie because of Victor Salva]

7, House of Wax (1953)

8, Lady in White (1988)

9, Army of Darkness (1992)

10, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1973) (TV)


Why I'd didnt list Psycho or Jaws?

Psycho is an adult horror film, that's best when the child could understand its content. I dont see Jaws as a horror film, although it's musical score is quite spooky.