31 Days of Halloween - Day 11: How Young is TOO Young to Watch Horror Movies?

That seems to be the question of everyone I know. My earliest memory of horror films was maybe 4 or 5 years old. My father was military and a nurse, so he often worked nights. My mother worked for the sawmills when we lived in Louisiana, so she was frequently gone during the nights as well. Who was there to care for me? My prank-loving older brothers, who would show me horror films to scare the devil out of me. Yeah, they were negligent babysitters. When I tell people that I saw the original Nightmare on Elm Street when I was five years old, they would often have severe opinions of my mother and father's parenting choices. It was never that huge a deal because I knew that what I was watching onscreen wasn't reality. I knew there wasn't a chainsaw wielding psychopath who enjoyed wearing other people's faces going through our neighborhood or a guy with a glove of knives stalking my dreams. In other words, I knew the difference of fantasy from reality. However, that does bring up the all important question: how young is too young?

My parents instilled in me at a young age that what you see on the television isn't real. I remember licking this fruit decorated wallpaper in this interior design store after seeing Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory because I thought it was fruit-flavored. Yeah, the shop assistant thought I was a "re-re." My mother sat me down and had a LONG discussion with me about the difference between reality and fantasy. That's when it really hit home that the horror movies my brothers showed me were nothing to fear. However, that doesn't work for everyone.

Allegedly, I have a genius-level IQ that's "off the charts" which just means that I catch on quicker than others. I dispute those findings whole-heartily due mainly to my many bouts of extreme ditziness. Just because I understood at a young age that horror movies were not real doesn't mean that other children have that same comprehension. I disagree with showing horror films to children under the age of 13. Parents can make their own case-by-case decision, but as we've seen with some people, it doesn't require any certification to become a parent. I'm all for enforcing the MPAA guidelines with parental exceptions if you feel that your child can handle it. Especially in cases like this: