Victor Lams comments on a Mark Shea article about parents who expose their kids to scary movies. He mentions 6 and 8 year olds going to see Eminem’s 8 Miles and kids even younger going to see Harry Potter. I’d add that taking kids under 14 or so to see any of the Lord of the Rings movies, as great as they are, is a mistake.
It reminds me of an incident when I first saw Jurassic Park back in 1992, I think. In the scene where the T-Rex—I hate it when people over-abbreviate, but in this case I’d rather do that than spell it wrong—or look it up—anyway, where the T-Rex eats the lawyer. In the shocked silence afterward, I hear the guy behind me whisper to the 5 or 6 year old with him, “Now you know what Barney’s really like.” If that was his dad, he better be prepared for years of nightmares and having the kid crawl into his bed at night.
