Your under-age film viewing experience

mike65

HavoK wrote:

I'd love to hear of someone who never actually saw an 18's rated feature until they were actually 18...

Paul Schrader

Jesus I'd rather any potential children of mine to sit through a marathon of Romero films then see a certain five minutes of that film. It'd be more or less akin to saying 'I saw hardcore porn as a child'...

Have to agree, very X rated that one.

Mike.

Boston

Ok, in fairness i was about 12 - 13 when I saw it, and i didn't really understand the fisting scene.

mike65

Which version did you actualy see? Channel 4 screened a version minus the Penthouse porno stuff and with the animal 'violence' scenes edited (awkwardly).

Mike.

Boston

Channel four, my parents wouldn't bring that type of filth into the house.

The Gnome

Watched a good few things while I was under the legal age for them. Terminator, Predator, Mad Max, A Clockwork Orange etc. and I don't think the effected me in an adverse manner.

Critters, however, is a completely different story. For some reason it gave me horrific nightmares as a kid and I still refuse to watch it. Seen a brief clip of it a while back and the terror came rushing back.

LoGiE

I saw Aliens far younger then I should have along with some martial arts flicks like Kick boxer and best of the best

Deliverance

In the 80's before the ban on really bad horror films us early teens used to gather on film nights to watch really bad horrors, mostly gore and mutilation by evil and so on. It was a ritual which we really enjoyed because the girls used to get freaked out and score with the guys they liked. It was a great medium for pre /post pubescent dating we loved it none of us turned out to be psycho killers.
I think these films lend to the imagination though, which might account for some damage if you want to call it that. I once met 'Graham Masterson' in a pub and we got on quite well, his wife 'Fishka' was another matter, she was one crazy girl. I know where he gets his inspiration from.

CrazyTalk

I remember seeing Alien 3 when I was tiny. It had a bittersweet effect on me, as it turned me into a fan of those movies, but it also gave me nightmares for a few nights.

Predator 2 was the film of my childhood.

Hugh Hefner

aurel wrote:

I love Film and am very grateful for the film education I received at such an early age and feel it has lead me down creative and intelligent pathways.

I feel being exposed to complex ideas and images at such an age has aided my development in many ways... and of course it was great craic!

Both of these quotes ring quite true for me.

I saw a lot of 15s/18s films between the ages of 9 and 12, mostly horror or violence. I don't remember seeing any hard, sexual stuff until the early teens, though my first sightings of boobs were in films.

I remember being proud of seeing The Exorcist when I was 11/12 because I new that it was considered one of (if not the) scariest films ever.

The other note of worth was Pulp Fiction. I tried recording it on Sky One on three different occasions. Each time I would sit down to watch it the next day and find out that my Dad had stopped the recording just after the adrenaline injection. I never new why until the third try was successful. I was able to handle it though, so no biggie.

Jack B. Badd

Hugh Hefner wrote:

though my first sightings of boobs were in films.

A bottle baby, were ye?

Makaveli

I don't really remember when I started watching 15s and 18s films. I do remember the two films I was not allowed to watch were Platoon and Predator. That was until I saw Terminator when I was 8 or 9 and then any attempt to stop me from watching a film was met with "sure I've seen Terminator this can't be any worse". After that I watched most things without any protestation. The thing is, I was mainly interested in watching Kickboxer, Commando and the like so it was for the most part over the top violence or action.

I was afraid of Alien at that age so never watched it until I was 12 or so. As for sex scenes, well I never really watched many films with anything more than the odd boob shot so it never came into the equation. Anyway, even now I don't particularly like watching sex scenes in films.

Edit: Spelling

Roen

The teachers in my primary school got hold of a VCR and some kind of projector system when I was 10. Of course none of them had a VCR, which meant they had to ask us if we had any of us had an account in the rental shops. So two of us headed down to the vid shop on loaned bikes and returned with the newly released First Blood and ET.

First Blood went on first to the packed auditorium, the entire school was there, first 1st class all the way up to 6th. I absolutely loved it. One kid started crying when they were torturing John Rambo and he promptly got a hiding for being a wuss. ET was up next, I thought it was ****e and still do.

That was the start of the era of the VCR so from then on in it was a diet of Cannibal Ferox, The Hills Have Eyes and all sorts of video nasties before they were banned. Never saw what all the fuss was about to be honest.

Bodhidharma

First film we ever rented was "Fright Night" (on tomorrow night on rte incidently). I was about five at the time. Didnt affect me at all. Except i now think a vampire lives across the road.

Someone mentioned Eddie Murphy, i remember doing an Eddie Murphy "bit" in primary school. It was the joke about dropping ice cream in s**t, cant rememder if it was Raw or Delirious. Anyway i had all my 9 year old classmates in stitches, good times!

jimbling

I saw the poltagiest when I was 5. Was living over in middle east and hanging out with some older American kids. All I can say is YES, it had some seriously adverse effects. Not long term, but def in the short term. Would barely sleep in a room on my own at night for nearly two years. Constant nightmares.... troublesome times

weird... hadnt thought about that for years......

aurel

That doesn't sound too hot alright. Can you remember what element or elements really got to you in the film?

This reminded me of how I got freaked out when I was 5 when my brothers took me to see Teen wolf in the Cinema. I had to leave the cinema when his first transformation ocurred cos for some reason the nails freaked me out.

Worked out alright cos the nice woman at the sweet counter gave me free stuff. My brothers still take the piss out of me for this.

Didn't affect me as much as yours obviously since it was feckin teen wolf.

Sad Professor

My mam was never strict about film ratings. Unlike my friends, I can't ever remember not being allowed watch a film because it was a 15/18 etc. It wasn't that she didn't care, she certainly took note of the rating but I guess she trusted me enough to turn it off if I found it too upsetting or disturbing. It was just never a big deal in my house. I wasn't negatively effected by it either.

If I were to have kids I'd be the same with them. I don't see any reason to hold back certain movies as taboo, the kids will just be drawn to them like a moth to the flame.

And the whole rattle about movies/games corrupting kids is bulls**t, a easy scapegoat for bad parents.

BAZM8

Sad Professor wrote:

My mam was never strict about film ratings. .....If I were to have kids I'd be the same with them. I don't see any reason to hold back certain movies as taboo.........

Rambo and Poltergist is in the halfpenny place guys...When i was about 9 or 10 my older cousing who were older got a copy of "Paidia tou diabolou, Ta" (the island of Death)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0188527/

This was one of the original video nasties with pretty much everything that was banned on film (and in real life) up there on the screen. It was an experience i can tell you but i don't think it screwed me up completely.( that's for others to judge)

However i don't think I will be showing it to my 8 year old. Ratings are there to guide parents not to protect children. A sticker can't do a parents job.

chalkitdown1

I saw Con Air in the Cosey cinema, Kanturk(North Cork), when I was 12. The first of many movies I saw ther while underage. One of the guys who works there(the owners son, I think it was) even told me to enjoy it and that it was brilliant. They don't give a sh*t there, to be honest. At least they didn't. Maybe they're more strict nowadays, I dunno, I haven't been there since The Matrix Reloaded in 2003.

I'm not the sort to get mentally traumatised by movies. I saw Nightmare on Elm street on Sky when I was about 10 or thereabouts, and I haven't turned into a serial killer.....................yet.

constitutionus

i think i was about 7 when i saw a pirated VHS copy of "the evil dead". scared the **** out of me. particularly the "we're gonna get you" scene and had nightmares for weeks. same for the FOG , both of which have me creased up in laughter now the former cause it quite funny and the latter cause the effects are so crap compared to my imagined memories.

after that i remember being "rewarded" by a teacher along with one of my mates by being taken out of our class and invited into a viewing of a film in another sixth class (so i'd be about 12) to see a video they'd rented out. so there we were in a room of 30 twelve to thirteen year olds watching, the thing.
still dont know how the hell the teacher didnt get in trouble for that and must admit to pissing myself laughing at the more absurd looking parts of it (the dogs head "flowering" for one part) but have to confess to being afraid to go for a crap after that incase something came up out of the jax to eat me
have to say out of all the films the thing acually holds up quite well as a horror, particularly the more psychological parts like when theyre doing the blood tests to find out which ones an alien , that part still gets my heart racing today!

as to the detrimental effects of this as far as i can tell its just a few nighmares at the time. i honestly think censors dont give kids the credit they deserve in seperating fiction from reality, and hey you have to get desensitised somehow