Tweakophyte

Hi-

My 10 yr old son is obsessed with scary movies, even though he has never really sat through one. In part it comes from reading about "Saw" in a Ripleys book where it talked about a top grossing film. Older kids have told him about Freddy and Jason and Michael Meyers... Chucky... you get the picture.

I haven't really shown him any scary films because in the past he's had bad dreams based on what he's heard about the rated R films above. Godzilla movies and the like were too campy and slow for him, so no traction there.

I think he's old enough now for a little scare. Any thoughts?

I have some of the Universal classics, and I've also recorded Abbot and Costello Meet the Monsters. Poltergeist freaked me out... but he already hates clowns. :-)

Thanks!

Cardsfan111

Gremlins might be a good choice.

Ash Ketchum

In theaters I saw DEMENTIA 13 when I was 10 and PSYCHO, HERCULES IN THE HAUNTED WORLD and HUSH HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE when I was 11. On TV, much earlier, I saw a bunch of the Universal classics.

I wonder how your ten-year-old would respond to anime horror. BLEACH is pretty mild and has been a long-running hit on the Cartoon Network. VAMPIRE HUNTER D would be appropriate. DEMON CITY SHINJUKU and BLOOD: THE LAST VAMPIRE might work also. There are tons of others.

BobO'Link

Horror is very subjective. What bothers one 10 year old can leave another yawning. I grew up watching a Friday/Saturday night horror host program. That channel also ran a non-hosted horror film almost every Saturday afternoon. I watched all the afternoon films and could usually talk my parents into letting me stay up for the first feature of the night films (it typically went off at midnight with a 2nd that ran until around 2am). I saw *lots* of titles I'm sure I was not quite old enough to handle and there were *lots* of "bad dreams". I saw most of what I've listed between the age of 10 and 13.

I'd start him with some of the Uni Classics although he might find a few slow going due to the way they build suspense (something the majority of current films don't seem to understand):

Dracula
Frankenstein
Bride of Frankenstein
The Wolfman
The Mummy
The Creature from the Black Lagoon

My 9 year old grandson loved all of those. We first watched them when he was 8. He'll be watching some of the list below this year.

Other 50s/60s classics also make good starters:

Cat People (1942)
The Body Snatcher (1945)
The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)
House on Haunted Hill (1959)
The Tingler (1959)
Donovan's Brain (1953)
X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (1963)
Them! (1954)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
The Thing from Another World (1951) (save the Carpenter remake for a few more years)
The Fly (1958) (again, save the remake)
The Last Man on Earth (1964)
The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
The Blob (1958)
Village of the Damned (1960)
The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
The Gorgon (1964)
The Horror of Dracula (1958)
The Mummy (1959)

Those earlier Hammer horror titles are farily safe as far as gore and skin is concerned. They *do* amp up the gore factor over the Universal titles and the nudity didn't appear until later. I'd screen most of those produced after 1965 or so before showing them if that's a factor. Here's a Amazon link to an excellent low cost primer set of Hammer Horror films. I believe TCM is running several of them in October. They have quite a few classic horror titles airing in October and might be a good place to watch a few. Here's a link to the October TCM Schedule.

I'd probably stay away from the A&C films until he has seen the films of monsters making an appearance simply because they're more fun if you're familiar with the monster's history.

rbrown498

BobO'Link offered some excellent choices. One of them, THE BLOB, is perfect, as long as you have the Criterion DVD.

I work in an elementary school, and our 4th-grade gifted teachers did a unit a few years back on THE BLOB. After showing the movie, they spent some time going through the supplementary materials that showed how the special effects were achieved. This took away the nightmare factor for the students, as they could plainly see that it was all done by people in a studio. The teachers then let them re-enact scenes from the film, and they even made their own mini-blobs, which they then laid atop pictures of the school and rephotographed, so that it looked like the blob was devouring the school.

The students had a blast.

Cardsfan111

Reading the above post makes me realize I didn't do anything fun in 4th grade.

sracer

I agree with the commendation of BobO'Link's suggestions. (as well as Ash Ketchum's non-anime additions. IMO, keep him away from anime)

I would add:
FIEND WITHOUT A FACE (1958)
INVADERS FROM MARS (1953)
CORRIDORS OF BLOOD (1958)
HORROR HOTEL (1960) (aka CITY OF THE DEAD)

and then later on, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968).

Groucho

Hostel 2, why not.

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

My Teacher Ate My Homework

orangerunner

I would say Beetlejuice, Gremlins, maybe the original Night of the Living Dead.

I saw Halloween on network TV when I was nine and I don't remember it bothering me too much.

A year later I saw My Bloody Valentine, Graduation Day and Friday the 13th Part 3 at my older brother's birthday party. Those movies caused a few sleepless nights!

I guess it was a rite of passage at the time but in hindsight as a parent myself, it was totally inappropriate to see those movies at that age.

Lokimok

I like the Gremlins recommendation - as long as Santa isn't an issue at 10. If he likes it, you've got a decent sequel as well.

I'd probably start with action or comedy with horror elements rather than straight horror:

Has he seen the Indiana Jones movies?
Ghostbusters
Gremlins 1 & 2
Army Of Darkness
Aliens (save Alien for later)
Eight Legged Freaks
the Mummy Daddy episode of Amazing Stories
a few of the classic Twilight Zones like Nightmare at 20,000 Feet
Predator
King Kong
Frankenstein
Creature From The Black Lagoon
Jaws
Little Shop of Horrors
Swamp Thing
Legend
Beetlejuice
Lost Boys
Hellboy
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Big Trouble in Little China
Sleepy Hollow
Young Frankenstein
maybe some Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes
& since I've got a marathon on in the background, maybe some episodes of Doctor Who with the creepier aliens like the Weeping Angels or the Silence...

Trevor

Watching thread with interest as my 10 year old step-daughter constantly bugs me to watch scary movies.

Great suggestions there Lokimok.

mike7162

Another vote for the Universal Monsters - the mythology, fairytale aspect and poetry of these movies will last with him forever. Let him know how fun this stuff is, before hitting him with the hard stuff. There will be plenty of time for that later.

Beetlejuice, Gremlins, The Incredible Shrinking Man - also good choices.

Children of the Damned scared the hell out of me when I was a kid, I guess because I was the same age.

Fiend Without a Face was another one that scared me as a child as well.

I'd also like to suggest Lord of the Flies (1963) for some existential horror for preteens.

Good luck.

Spottedfeather

I'd start with the disney movie, Halloweentown. Then, Halloweentown II. If he can handle those, then try Darby O'Gill. From there, try the tamers Universal classics like Dracula or Creature From The Black Lagoon. It all depends on how realistic your kid is. I've watched really scary movies my whole life and they really aren't scary at all. I just can't get scared by movies with situations that couldn't possibly happen.

EdTheRipper

Ultimately, it all depends on how your child handles things. My son is 9 and has watched quite a few slasher flicks with no problems whatsoever. He liked them, but at the moment, he has no real interest in horror stuff.

BobO'Link

I thought hard about recommending both Horror Hotel and Night of the Living Dead. IMHO Horror Hotel is just a bit intense for younger kids, just like NOTLD. I'd tend wait a couple of years before showing those depending on how "tamer" horror is handled. Horror Hotel has a re-rated PG-13 which might be a bit much for a 9 year old considering the subject and that it's horror. I tend to take the ratings somewhat more serious with horror films due to the psychological trimmings present on many films in that genre. Often times those factors cause you to more closely examine how you feel about yourself *and* the world as a whole. The more you think, the more frightening the subject can become.

The films that scared me most as a 9 year tended to be those about supernatural things and the psychological type horror. The stuff you *really* didn't know about for sure or that really made you *think*. Those are *still* the type of horror film I enjoy the most.

BobO'Link

Very true. Some kids just can't handle intense horror films. I'm odd in that I don't really consider slasher flicks as true horror. They are more violence, gore, and jump factor type films. Yes, they can be scary, but those psychological/supernatural horror films will give far more nightmares. There are many R rated slasher films I'd show a 9 year old before many of the PG-13 psychological/supernatural films. Most of those R rated slasher films got the R rating for violence, nudity, and/or profanity. Stuff many 9 year olds have already seen/heard in school or on TV (especially if you have cable and they have unfiltered/unblocked TV access in their room).

Like rbrown498 indicated, you can show kids how the special effects are done with those, and other creature based, horror films but the psychological/supernatural ones hit home harder as they are more difficult to explain away. My kids were given lessons by me on special effects and how things are done to scare you and as a result they look at those type films differently than psychological/supernatural films.

WOODPRODUCTIONS

I would let him watch whatever he wanted to determine how much he could tolerate. Of course I would talk to him about the degree of horror and possible nightmares, and would watch the movie together. Also if you throw in a variety of other type of movies, it would be a great way to share the love for film and spending time together, talk about other lifes issues etc. I was around 10 when I had my first nightmare after watching a horror flick. It was great.

Darkgod

I saw ANOES at 4 years old, saw Pt. 2 in the theatres, ran through most of the main Halloweens, ANOES, TCM, and Ft13ths by the age of 8. I am not a parent so it might be different, but I see nothing wrong with seeing them that young.

coyoteblue

Perhaps some Doctor Who? Classic stuff, like Pyramids of Mars or Brain of Morbius, The Dæmon, The Ark in Space, The Seeds of Doom, Image of the Fendahl and The Talons of Weng-Chiang for instance. New Who, how about, The Empty Child, The Doctor Dances and of course Blink.

SterlingBen

I agree, the faster you get them started out the quicker they stop having nightmares.

shredking9000

I watched The Ring when I was eleven and couldn't sleep for a week. The first Child's Play was pretty scary, and the comedy kind of offsets the scares a little. If you can find it, Dolls was about ten times better than Child's Play for a killer doll-type movie. All of those have some swearing, but nothing else that was too bad. If you want something a little milder, then Monster Squad might be a good one.

As for classics, Psycho, The Birds, THEM!, Night of the Living Dead, The Blob, etc.

indiephantom

I was eleven when I started into horror with Ghost Story. It was a great choice.

wm lopez

Jaws
horror of dracula
alien
night of the living dead

shredking9000

The Haunting (1963) is another one that I watched as a kid that scared me. Highly recommend that one