Fond Remembrances of Cinematic Child Abuse

[aox]

Wow. My parents let me watch anything I wanted to at any age unless it was outright porn.

I remember watching Porky's and National Lampoons Vacation when I was 3. We were a very open family and talked about everything. And anything that would be objectionable to most people was discussed. It was explained to me why I shouldn't repeat a bad word, or recreate an act of violence.

[GringoTex]

This probably qualifies more as cinematic grandparent abuse, but I sat my grandmother and two younger brothers down for a screening of Tie Me Up! Time Me Down!.

[bigP]

It shames me to recall, but at around the age of six, when I was just littleP, I picked up a shoe box and scrawled Paul's Horror Box across the top, and placed in it my first trophy; An American Werewolf in London (which I had recorded off the T.V.). My mum was always very lax about what I watched, providing it wasn't one of "those she had heard about", whilst my dad was always a little more reserved and disapproving, but I was a little sod as a kid and it wasn't worth hearing me scream. Over the years it grew with some lovely stuff such as The Video Dead, The Long Weekend (with it's whale noise that still haunts me today), The Omen, the Nightmare on Elm Street series etc etc. To top it off at the age of 7 or 8 my mum took me to Harrod's, and I wailed and screamed my little heart out until she relented and bought me a £60, two foot latex Jason Vorhee's model, which I subsequently glued together, painted and left guarding my box like a tacky warden.

As an aside, I also feel a little scarred from thinking that watching The King of New York and Bad Lieutenant at around 10 years old was a good idea.

[Sloper]

The first 15-rated film I saw was Monty Python and the Holy Grail, when I was seven – a pretty good intro to sex and violence for kids, I think. I remember being really excited about it, as if I were being allowed to break the law.

It was only a PG (or old-fashioned A) when I saw it in the cinema at the age of about ten - I think there were a couple of tiny cuts for language, but certainly nothing major.

Wow... I still think of that as a really violent film. I remember being amazed that Jaws was a PG. If anything I've become more squeamish over the years, and I almost turn into a Daily Mail reader when I see what gets into the latest 12A-rated film. Honestly, with children seeing things like that in the cinema it's no wonder there's so much violence, disrespect, cannibalism, joy-riding, baguettes, etc...

[Murdoch]

I remember specifically that the way ED-209 moved in Robocop scared the shit out of me.

Holy shit, yes! There was something about stop motion as a kid that would terrify me, I remember watching Ray Harryhausen films as a kid and I found the way the monsters moved to be so unnatural, I don't know why it scared me, but it was just so eerie.

[Perkins Cobb]

Poltergeist, seen on VHS with my mother at age nine or ten in the middle of the afternoon, because I decided I was old enough to watch a "really scary" movie. Well, I was wrong. I couldn't sleep for an entire summer, convinced that the tree outside my window was going to kill me. It didn't help that my grandmother died later that evening.

(Actually, that sounds like the kind of thing I might be conveniently misremembering, but it was close enough that my parents attributed my inability to sleep to her death; so then I felt guilty that no, it wasn't Grandma causing my insomnia, it was the tree).

A year later, somehow I convinced my father to take me to Beverly Hills Cop II in the theater. I guess he didn't realize it was R-rated, or thought that it would "just" be violent, but when the nude scene came up dad was deeply embarrassed and withered under the disapproving stares of every other adult in the theater.

And National Lampoon's Vacation was the first time I heard the word fuck.

[J Wilson]

My dad starting taking me to R-rated movies when I was 12 or 13; I recall seeing Creepshow, Revenge of the Ninja, Robocop, and a couple others. Better than that in some respects was messing with the cable pay-per-view we had, which allowed you up to two minutes of preview time before you were charged. Consequently, I'd check what time a softcore movie started, flip in and out, and determine where the nudity was for further sampling in subsequent screenings. Young Lady Chatterley 2 is the only one I recall by name, mainly because a) Adam West was in it (I recall thinking "Batman is in this??" and b) I accidentally went over the two minutes and we got billed for it. My mom asked when looking at the bill "Who watched "Young Lady Chatterley 2?" while I feigned total ignorance.

[domino harvey]

An American Werewolf in London

When I was probably eight years old, my mom was having trouble setting up the VCR and once she finally got it going, she popped in An American Werewolf in London for me to watch. I let most of the movie run while she milled around in the other room. As soon as the porno theatre scene came on, I was too stressed out about my mom coming in so I turned the tape off. My mom comes in shortly thereafter and I'm like, "Whew, dodged a bullet." She says, "Oh, the VCR stopped working again?" and walks up and pushes play. She watches a few seconds and goes, dryly, "Do you have to watch this now?"

[luridedith]

One of my earliest movie memories is becoming obsessed with The Rocky Horror Picture Show at age 4. My parents always fast forward through the section in the middle from Brad & Janet going to bed up until the end of Touch Touch Touch Me though.

[bigP]

An American Werewolf in London

When I was probably eight years old, my mom was having trouble setting up the VCR and once she finally got it going, she popped in An American Werewolf in London for me to watch. I let most of the movie run while she milled around in the other room. As soon as the porno theatre scene came on, I was too stressed out about my mom coming in so I turned the tape off. My mom comes in shortly thereafter and I'm like, "Whew, dodged a bullet." She says, "Oh, the VCR stopped working again?" and walks up and pushes play. She watches a few seconds and goes, dryly, "Do you have to watch this now?"

Haha thats a fantastic story =D> I had so many of those "too nervous to actually watch" nudity on the box moments (in particular, watching Pulp Fiction with my mum when I was 13 maybe, and the Zed / Marcellus rape scene providing one of the most horrendously embarrassing moments of my life, I just picked up a book and feigned no comprende). On the occassions I dared, I'd position myself so my finger was on the stop button and my eyes were darting from T.V. to doorway, t.v. to doorway etc etc until I heard the slightest rustle from the room she was in and my panic would instantaneously shut it all off, and i'd jump back on the sofa shaking and trying to look idiotically nonchalant.

When i watched Uzak a couple of years ago, all those moments came flooding back in the scene where Yusuf (I think... its been a while) channel surfs with Mahmut behind him in the room and for a fraction of a second he lands back on the porn he had just been watching, and his playing it cool and his expression is just wonderful, and i'm sure very similar to my "oh god, she knows" face.

[Saturnome]

My boring life: I managed to avoid anything rated above my age. I only started watching R rated film when I got into films ( I was 18 years old I think), starting with Orange Clockwork if I'm not mistaken. yay!
I should note, in Quebec films aren't rated above 13 as often as in the USA, or even the rest of Canada.

[Mr Sausage]

I should note, in Quebec films aren't rated above 13 as often as in the USA, or even the rest of Canada.

Ontario also has much laxer rating standards than the US, so I was able to see a ton of R movies in theaters when I was 12 and 13 because they were rated 14A (basically PG 13, just a year up), and it's pretty easy to convince a bored ticket seller that you're 14.

[domino harvey]

I have like a lot of these kind of stories, because I grew up with a mom who taped everything. You guys think YOUR DVD unwatched pile is bad, you should have grown up in my childhood. My mom had somewhere in the area of four to five thousand films recorded off cable (or, often, rented VCRs) back to back to back in EP on VHS. I still remember the tape that got the most play: Original Sideshow Bob Episode of the Simpsons --> the Wizard of Oz --> Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte --> Crocodile Dundee --> Extended version of the Rescue Rangers introductory credits that aired in syndication one time to advertise the series. Take that, with your fantasy double features, that was a real and full Saturday family night right there.

One time around the same time as the earlier incident, my mom was so amused by the title that she let me stay up to watch Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-o-rama up until someone got naked. It wasn't an accidental discovery that time though-- her exact words to me were "You can stay up to watch it until they get naked."

[flyonthewall2983]

One time around the same time as the earlier incident, my mom was so amused by the title that she let me stay up to watch Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-o-rama up until someone got naked. It wasn't an accidental discovery that time though-- her exact words to me were "You can stay up to watch it until they get naked."

That begs the question, did you?

[domino harvey]

As I recall, one of the titular college coeds got into a shower within a minute or two of the opening credits. So, not for long.

One time, again around when I was eight or so, my mom had me run into the video store to return her copy of Wild Orchid and she laughingly told me to be sure the clerk didn't think I watched it. Thinking this was a direct instruction, I ran into the video store, handed the video to the clerk and said "I didn't watch this!" To which he replied, "I bet your mom told you to say that." And I was like, "Uh, NO." And then I ran out of the store.

[Mr Sausage]

As I recall, one of the titular college coeds got into a shower within a minute or two of the opening credits. So, not for long.

One time, again around when I was eight or so, my mom had me run into the video store to return her copy of Wild Orchid and she laughingly told me to be sure the clerk didn't think I watched it. Thinking this was a direct instruction, I ran into the video store, handed the video to the clerk and said "I didn't watch this!" To which he replied, "I bet your mom told you to say that." And I was like, "Uh, NO." And then I ran out of the store.

We need to give you your own thread.

[domino harvey]

I have a lot of these stories. I remember fondly the video store we used to go to before I got us thrown out. It had the most amazing selection of children's videos. You never saw so many obscure VHS copies of animated favorites. I'm about a hundred percent positive that I never realized why I wasn't allowed in the other half of the video store though. I remember one time running after my mom and her freaking out that I dared to enter the Adults Only section. It's really too bad that one day while waiting in line to check out some videos and an extra VCR, I said, quite loudly, that I couldn't wait to make a copy of the movie I'd selected. Apparently this was the one independent video store that heeded FBI warnings. Our account was terminated.

[flyonthewall2983]

I saw a lot of R movies when I was a young kid, so those traumatic moments described in detail here aren't as fresh in my memory. I remember seeing the first half of Full Metal Jacket when I was 4-5 years old. The bathroom scene in particular stuck with me, the look on D'Onofrio's face when he's describing the weapon is still pretty clear in my memory.

[colinr0380]

"You can stay up to watch it until they get naked."

I was working with the same theory while watching the Sarah Palin debates last year. Surprisingly she kept her clothes on throughout so I had to suffer the terrible acting and inane dialogue from start to finish.

My particular childhood memories are of the video store we used to go to in Cornwall with floor to ceiling narrowly spaced shelves stacked with all sorts of wild titles, which were kind of creepy and fascinating at the same time. Perhaps it was only being seven or eight at the time (I think that was the correct time since I remember posters for Superman IV and The Lost Boys hanging above the counter!), but those shelves seemed impossibly high to me! I particularly remember the rickety back stairs to get up to next floor of the store, and finding myself traumatised by the posters plastered over the walls there, one in particular that I vividly remember (but cannot remember what film it was advertising) was of a rotting corpse in a park keeper's uniform. I used to give that particular poster a wide berth on the stairs!

But having said that I also remember being fascinated by looking at the overly explicit video covers. Scanners, The Lift and The Stuff are the ones I particularly remember. So I must have had an interest in the wild and weird end of films even then!

I also remember optimistically taking a copy of that Kenny Everett film Bloodbath At The House Of Death to my dad asking if we could rent that one! In the end my parents did rent the film but I wasn't able to watch it (seeing it for the first time two decades later it turns out that it is truly horrifying, but not in the way I had imagined at the time!)

I remember finding more than enough material to traumatise me as a child anyway, even without 18 rated films. I particularly remember the zombie cab driver in Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Gremlins (for some reason, perhaps because it was generally a comedy, albeit a gory black one, my parents let me watch that one around eight or nine after it had been shown on television for the first time), but the thing that I found particularly upsetting was that robot scene in Superman III of all things.

The only film I remember my parents turning off part way through was that Tobe Hooper remake of Invaders From Mars. I think it was past the part of the teacher eating the school pet and just as tentacles were sprouting from the necks of killed soldiers when my mum decided it was all a little too much. I’ve never seen the film since but remember the little I did see fondly. I hear that the film falls apart near the end anyway, so perhaps watching it only halfway through left more of an impression than if we had just stuck it out to the end!

Gosh, other memories are of accidentally seeing the opening chest buster fantasy from Aliens without prior knowledge of the film one evening when it came on television without warning (the first three Alien films were given to me by my parents on my 13th birthday, probably because by that time I’d seen so many bits and pieces of all the films that there was no point hiding them from me! I think I’ve still got my VHS copy of Alien somewhere – one of the first wave of films Fox released on video in their correct aspect ratios along with Die Hard and the Star Wars films).

Watching Psycho (and a few years later The Birds) without awareness of the plot twists beforehand was a fantastic experience.

All the above experiences made having to haggle with the lady behind the counter to be allowed to rent Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure rather annoying, and kind of an anti-climax when sitting down to watch the film after all the trouble it had caused!

I think my parents, while relatively strict on what I could see early on (I still remember noticing and being annoyed that ‘forbidden fruit’ films like Cocoon and Caveman were placed on the top shelf of the bureau out of my reach but still with their boxes in tantalising view!), pretty much left me to my own devices with regard to what I was watching at around 13 or so. In a way that was probably a good thing as 13 or 14 is probably the best time to experience Robocop, Aliens, Predator, Die Hard or Commando for the first time, and to think that they must be the coolest films in the world! So after a couple of years I could move on to searching out more mature, rather than just gory or sexy, films to be interested in (even if the immature part of me is still around and often has to be pandered to as well!)

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

Extended version of the Rescue Rangers introductory credits that aired in syndication one time to advertise the series.

Time for a "Fond Remembrances of Childhood Animation" thread.

[bigP]

Gremlins (for some reason, perhaps because it was generally a comedy, albeit a gory black one, my parents let me watch that one around eight or nine after it had been shown on television for the first time)

The soliloquay by Phoebe Cates about the untimely death of her father, who dressed up as Santa Claus and broke his neck while descending the chimney really traumatised me, and still lingers. Surely one of the darkest moments of 80's black comedies, and kudos to Cate's deadpan delivery.

[jbeall]

My dad is a sci-fi nut who took me to see Star Wars in theaters when I was only a year old, and Blade Runner when I was a seasoned lad of six (I recall liking it, but couldn't understand at the time what the hell was going on). So I got to see a lot of R-rated sci-fi/fantasy. Like others in this thread, I became hard to shock as a result. Then, somewhat inexplicably, when I was ten or eleven, my parents wouldn't let me watch Fatal Attraction when they rented it on video. I had to stay upstairs, hearing the occasional scream, but had to ask permission to come downstairs to get to the kitchen, and my parents stopped the movie until I was back upstairs. As a result, FA became a mystical holy-grail of movies, so shocking and adult that I couldn't see it until I turned 17. Needless to say, it was a colossal letdown when I finally did get to see it.

[jsteffe]

My mom used to take me to some very intense PG and R-rated movies when I was a kid. In particular, I remember "The Savage is Loose" starring George C. Scott, with its overtones of incest. But the one that really upset me was "The Sugarland Express." It was bad enough that the male lead got shot in the stomach at the end of the film--they also tossed the child's teddy bear out the window! It looked exactly like my own teddy bear...

[myrnaloyisdope]

I watched The Running Man when I was 6, and my parents had no objections. I think I was fascinated by Sub-Zero...I was a huge hockey fan at the time.

I also got my brother to rent Friday the 13th pt 4 or something for me, simply cos Jason had a hockey mask.

Otherwise my only memorable yet shady cinematic experience was when a friend's dad took us to White Men Can't Jump when I was 11. Not especially objectionable save for the constant swearing, which was pretty awesome and daring to us at the time.

[MichaelB]

One time around the same time as the earlier incident, my mom was so amused by the title that she let me stay up to watch Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-o-rama up until someone got naked. It wasn't an accidental discovery that time though-- her exact words to me were "You can stay up to watch it until they get naked."

My wife is a midwife who is so utterly unfazed by onscreen nudity that she barely notices it - while aghast American parents were switching off Kirikou and the Sorceress in droves, she was buying copies for all her friends.

I'm greatly looking forward to giving my kids the run of my extensive exploitation library - possibly not just yet (they're only six and four), but certainly well before they turn eighteen. After all, I saw most of these films myself in my mid-teens.