Talking about bringing kids to inappropriate places, the latest anecdotes making the rounds concern parents who took their tykes to see ultraviolent “Halloween” this past weekend.
When I was watching ‘The Hitcher,’ the pleas from the child sitting behind me (“It’s scary. It’s scary. It’s really scary. Can we go and come back when it’s not scary.”) nearly broke my heart. But the reaction by the kids behind me during “Halloween” were even worse — because they seemed to be enjoying the film. One kid even laughed (along with most of the rest of the audience) during some of the more outlandishly violent scenes.
It’s not exactly new, however. I remember back when “Jurassic Park” came out in 1993 that the people sitting behind had an approximately 6-year-old boy with them. During the scene where the T-Rex eats the lawyer, I heard the guy (dad?) lean over to the kid and say, “Now you know what Barney’s really like.” That guy just bought himself a year’s worth of middle-of-the-night wakeups from nightmares.
What’s even scarier though is the kids who aren’t scared by the violence, but entertained. Are they savvy enough to know fake violence when they see it or are they just inured to empathy? Only time—and a potential juvenile criminal record—will tell.
[Link via Dadsmacker]
