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Monster House Previews Misleading (1 Viewer)

Brook K

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Also "scary" images and sequences is an incredibly broad adjective that can describe movies from Toy Story and Babe to The Creature from the Black Lagoon and Seventh Voyage of Sinbad.

My son saw those movies when he was 4. But does saying Monster House also has Scary images and sequences really tell me anything about the suitability of the movie for him? I'm probably going to take him (after all at 5 he's seen all the Star Wars, HP movies, POC: DMC, quite a few Godzilla movies, Bride of Frankenstein, and The Wolfman) but this thread has certainly given me pause.

No way would I take my 7 year old daughter, who's much more squeamish than her younger brother, even if she wanted to go. (She refuses to see anything with monsters so the title was an immediate turnoff.)
 

Robert Anthony

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Since when is scaring children a bad thing?

terrorizing children? Bad. Torturing children? Bad. Scaring children? Healthy.
 

Inspector Hammer!

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Sorry, but I simply don't agree with that at all. Scaring a kid to the point where he or she begins to cry and is obviously uncomfortable isn't healthy.

I wouldn't subject my son or daughter to this film if they didn't want to be there, I wouldn't keep them in the theater under the dubious banner of "ah, get some thicker skin, kid, you need to learn about fear sometime".

That's just insane to me.
 

Jerome Grate

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If you have children and that's apart of how you raise your children, well that's up to you, but purposely scaring children or allowing them to be scared when you can do something about it I think is extreme. There are some fears that you wish your child would work out but to introduce something that you now will scare the heck out of them like a movie, well... as I said before my children will not be seeing this movie. Don't get me wrong jumping from behind a door or around a corner to surprise your child is different even if the child says daddy you scared me, I see no issue with that but the other thing nah.
 

SteveJKo

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As someone without children let me say that I applaud you John. At "Lord Of The Rings" (the first film) my then eight year old cousin was squirming quite a bit during certain sequences. I told him I needed to use the rest room, sure enough he asked to come along. After we were done our business, as I suspected he would, he suggested we just hang out on one of the couches in the lobby for a while "because they were so comfy". When he was ready we went back in to the theatre. I think the fact that my lap was available when needed contibuted to "Rings" becoming one of his favorite films. At the other end of the spectrum, I couldn't believe the amount of adults bitching at their obviously frightened children because they were missing the movie.

At my showing of "Monster House" there was a father and son sitting two rows or so behind me. They talked through the entire last two thirds of the film. No, I'm not complaining! It was the exact right thing to do. The boy was better able to process his fright by talking to his dad about whats taking place on screen. In my opinion a MUCH better course of action than telling the child to "get some thicker skin".
 

Lucia Duran

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My father let me watch horror movies at a very young age. So I pretty much grew up loving those types of films. I was not easily scared, but not all kids are that way.

I honestly cannot imagine letting my girls watch the kinds of movies I did at their age. It's up to the parent, if you think your kid can handle the subject matter, you know best.

I just feel that even though YES, parents are ultimately responsible for what they allow their children to see, studios need to use caution when choosing who to market to. It's just common sense.
 

Raasean Asaad

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I don't understand the need for this thread really, it is a PG movie. That means Parental Guidance is Suggested. That means you as a parent need to research what the film is about and its content and make your judgment accordingly. You cannot fault the filmakers or the MPAA because you slipped up this one time. You also can't use other parents as a guideline because frankly I'd be surprised if 5 percent of parents do more than a cursory glance at the ratings. Chalk it up to not going into the depth of research that you usually would... I've done it too.
 

george kaplan

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I think that this is a case where some children are going to be scared and others won't (at least not in the extreme sense being talked about). My guess is that to either assume it's just too scary for kids, or not, without having seen it will be inaccurate.

Now, I haven't seen it, but my 6 year old son did today. I must admit I was a bit nervous about his going on the field trip with his class given this thread. But I asked him about it, and he said the film was funny. He did say the music was spooky at the beginning, but not scary. I probed, and he said some of his class (ranging from about 6 to 10 years of age) did get scared but most liked it. He wants his mother and I to take him so he can see it again.

So, bottom line, this seems like it's a movie that's going to be too intense for some kids, and certainly those shouldn't see it, but perfectly fine (and at least according to my son, very funny), for many others.
 

Robert Anthony

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Whoa. Who said I was all "Get a thicker skin, brat" and smacking him upside the head during the movie? Don't attribute that shit to me. Scaring kids at movies is good because it's a SAFE WAY to introduce the concept. It's why I made a distinction between torture and terrorizing. If the kid is pissing his pants, I'm getting him out of there, yeah, but there's nothing wrong with being, as Steve said, the guy two rows back and explaining the difference between FICTION AND REALITY to his kid, a lesson that people seem to not want to teach their kids too much anymore.

I'm not talking Nightmare on Elm Street stuff, either, but there's nothing wrong with a jolt of spookiness every now and again.

Rounded edges are sanding down the society something fierce.
 

BrettGallman

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I think I've said this before on here, but I saw Elm St. when I was about 4. But that was late '80's when Freddy was pretty much a pop icon, and there was nothing scary about him. ;)

But to be serious, I think it all depends on the kid. I could handle stuff like that when I was young (Jaws was also one of my favorites, and it's the first VHS tape I ever got). But if I ever had kids, there's no way I'd just show them something like Jaws unless I was absolutely sure they wouldn't be scared. It's weird really. My girlfriend's little cousin got scared watching Tremors a few years ago, and he was 8. I found it hard to believe he was scared by that, but that just goes to show everyone's different.
 

dpippel

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I think Lucia's point is that despite this film's content the marketing was targeted SPECIFICALLY at children, and I agree. I can't count the number of times the teasers and trailers for Monster House have been shown during the primetime programming on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network that my 10 year old son watches. While the responsibility for movie screening ultimately lies with parents, responsible marketing is the burden of the studio releasing the film. IMO there's certainly been some deceptive advertising in the case of Monster House.
 

Adam_S

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exactly, I would even say this film is A LOT less terrifying than ET, which I was completely unable to watch until I was about eleven. I simply couldn't handle it when they found ET all pasty and then Eliot got sick, said they were dying and suddenly their house it attacked by giant men in white astronaut suits trying to grab everyone and there's no way they can run away or escape. never failed to get the vcr off and me out of the room and outside to recover. The only way I ever actually got through it was that we watched it for a friday/holiday school party one afternoon in fourth grade.
 

DaveB

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I agree and think you raise some good points, but again, I hope a lesson has been learned. Place your trust in the studios and the MPAA at your own risk.
 

JediFonger

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i'm going to have to second pluggedinonline.com. it's very good in weeding out the good, bad, ugly. while i don't have kidz, i have often utilized it to see if there is enough swearing, sex and violence enough for me to watch, i kid, i kid. =). talk about total misuse of technology.

the point is,

 

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