What's a movie that you were probably "too young" to see, when you first watched it, but you're glad you did?
My personal one was the shining. I ended up watching it over 20 times before I was 12.
I'm spending a lot of time babysitting my nieces (9 & 11). I'm cis male and I would love to hear what women would answer or suggest for me to show them in a cool uncle role.
I saw Event Horizon on my 13th birthday in theaters with some of my friends.
Damn, that would have been a hell of film at that age.
Cheesus Ricest dude! I watched it as a 30 something year old and I felt disturbed with scenes in the third act.
Now you have to fill us in. Did you have nightmares and for how long?
Earlier that summer my father had made me clean a deer that had been shot in the gut and he did some hollywood style child abuse when I barfed about it, so I was pretty numb to the gore. What really bothered me was some of the dialog. I shudder 30 years later when I think about the line, "where we're going we don't need eyes to see."
My stepdad was horrified he'd taken his stepdaughter to see something so graphic and made me and my friends promise not to tell anyone what we saw and to downplay the gore.
Saving private ryan at 13 was a bit horrific. The slow knife scene....
I'll always have a hard time watching the knife scene.
Pink Flamingos.
What the fuck.
I wasn't old enough but am glad I saw it (kinda). What is old enough for that movie anyway? Has anybody lived that long?
Lol, you're glad about it?
Spaceballs! When I was maybe 8 or 9.
I asked my mom "What's a 'virgin alarm' and what does it mean that it is programmed to go off before you do?" and she said ask me again in thirty years.
Reminds me, I forgot to ask her.
I miss the days when silly slapstick was mixed with subtle adult humor to make a family film for all ages.
My youngest introduction to Mel Brooks was Robin Hood: Men in Tights. I never fully understood the chastity belt bits at first. Call the locksmith!
The Big Lebowski. I wasn't a teenager yet, barely understood why anything was happening but damned if it wasn't the hardest I'd seen my dad laugh.
This one ^
The physical comedy alone is gold, Also you won't leave their parents dealing with the nightmares like some of these movies...unless they really fear someone breaking in to piss on their rug.
Generally agree though I suppose it depends on how the parents feel about swearing and how likely the youngins are to repeat the approximately 700 fucks in the movie.
"Do you have to use so many cuss words?" "The fuck you talking about?"
That nightmare really tied the room together, man.
I watched that as a kid with my brother!
Awesome brother!
Probably Monty Python's Life of Brian
I was one of those Holy Grail kids, I loved the movie and memorized the lines. Wanting more, I looked up other Monty Python works
I was in 7th grade or something, raised in a very religious home. I was not expecting what Life of Brian was, and I know I wasn't old enough to understand all of the jokes they made
Hilarious movie
Trainspotting. I do feel like it kept me away from drugs though.
I saw this one in my late teens, and it was good, but it was way better as an adult.
It wasn't too early for me to see it but Requiem for a Dream is also an excellent cautionary movie about heroin, addiction, and mental health.
Choose a life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television. Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers... Choose DSY and wondering who the fuck you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit crushing game shows, stucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away in the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourself, choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that?
"It's shite being Scottish. We're the lowest of the low. Some people hate the English. The English are just wankers. We, on the other hand, are colonised by wankers. We can't even find a decent civilization to be colonised by. It's a shite state of affairs and all the fresh air isn't going to change any of that, Tommy."
That was from memory, let's see how I did!
"It's shite being Scottish! We're the lowest of the low! The scum of the fucking Earth! The most wretched, miserable, servile, pathetic trash, that was shat into civilisation! Some people hate the English, I don't! They're just wankers! We, on the other hand, are colonised by wankers! Can't even find a decent culture to be colonised by! We're ruled by effete assholes! It's a shite state of affairs to be in Tommy, and all the fresh air in the world won't make any fucking difference!"
Not too bad after a few decades.
Nightmare on Elm Street. Don't think I was quite 10 yet.
Same age, buying a Freddy glove for Halloween, asked my dad if we could rent it and he said yes. I was scared when the boyfriend pranked them in the backyard, but I thought the scene where she got cut to shreds and floated was awesome. I wanted to rewind and see it again and this time Dad said no. Wisely.
I thought Nancy was so hot!
Same, asked my mom if Freddy Krueger was real and she said " I guess he is..." She had no idea who that was and I lost my sleep for who knows how long :D
Gremlins! Loved that movie as a kid haha 😂
That was one of the movies that led to the creation of the PG13 rating, wasn't it?
I second this. It’s lightly gory and morbid but mostly a comedy. And a cult classic that will help them feel “in” when it’s referenced. But not too inappropriate for kids that age, in my opinion.
Oh they're way beyond that lmao. They both watched it 5 years ago and like it but they LOVE gremlins 2.
They've seen It and the newer Halloween movies. I want to show them stuff that will challenge them intellectually, without being too far over their heads. With minimal sexual content.
Pan's Labyrinth
Killer Klowns from Outer Space. I was in kindergarten and had a very inattentive babysitter.
Boy, that movie will seriously stick with you when your typical fare was Barney related. It's really the grounding for me having any memories of that period of my life at this point, lol.
I read the Godfather when I was about 10. My shoebox diorama was the horse head on the bed. It was frowning because it didn't like having its head cut off.
Way too many to list. It was the era of VHS and my father had a very large tape collection. I definitely saw movies I was not supposed to see.
Let's try a short list...
Emmanuelle
The Story of O
The Empire of Senses
Black Rain
The Rambo Trilogy
The Alien Trilogy
The Predator (1 & 2)
The Bridges of Maddison County
The Blue Lagoon
That will do....
Emmanuelle
😏
The Blue Lagoon
Shit, that was a Brazilian afternoon staple for the whole 90s. No idea how much the tv channel censored/cut for the afternoon, but considering we had "banheira do gugu" during sunday afternoons... (if you don't wanna look for it on youtube, it was a piece where 2 celebrities, a man and a woman, would get in a bathtub and try to get as many soaps out. One of them would be tasked with getting the soap, the other was tasked with not letting the other do so. All of that live for the whole country, of course)
RoboCop, the Alien movies, Hellraiser. Honestly a lot of the old Jean Claude van Damme movies are fairly hardcore for kids, looking back. Probably a lot of movies because I was allowed to stay up until whenever on weekends from pretty young.
I didn't realize it until now, but same for me. That scene where the toxic sludge man disintegrated after being hit by a car haunted me. Actually, it was how he was calling for help that did it. I realize this is counter to OP's question, haha.
Yeah, same lol. My dad liked to rebel against my mom by letting me get movies he knew she'd hate from the [ancient wheezing] brick and mortar VHS rental store so I saw, like, the Alien series, Terminator and T2, and so on
The Blood on Satan’s Claw
Why? A nude Linda Hayden.
Is it any good?
I was gonna answer Grave of the fireflies, which I watched in my twenties. Then I read the 'but you're glad that you did' so I can't say that movie.
But maybe Fullmetal Jacket? Tough movie for a 14 year old
Fun fact: Grave Of The Fireflies was originally a double feature with My Neighbor Totoro.
OG Barbenheimer
Interesting note. Thanks for this! :)
What the fuck, that had to be a trip! Either watch order would suck: ruin your mood before Totoro or get blindsided by the second feature.
I watched Full Metal Jacket this year at 34 and it was still pretty rough.
Trainspotting at 11
Re: Shining
Mom dropped me off at the movies to see Star wars (again). As I walk in the screen showed elevators doors open and a waterfall of blood pour out. I found an usher because I thought I was in the wrong room.
Trailers, man.
Probably not what you had in mind but West Side Story. I didn’t care about musicals or romance. My dad made me watch it. He was a tough guy who liked kung fu movies and football. But he wasn’t afraid to be soft either. He liked musicals as much as he liked Bruce Lee. Glad we watched it together though. I appreciate that stuff now.
Terminator 2 was fucking sick. I was like ten. It raised my standards for how cool a movie could be.
I think I was 7 when I first watched it. I also thought it was really cool then. Still one of my favorites.
I won tickets from the radio to see the premiere of Seven when I was 12. Glad I saw such a high quality high impact thriller so early. Watching Pitts character struggle with his decision at the end and trying to work out if his choice was right. Or consider the possibility there was no such a thing as a right choice. Amazing experience.
That being said, I wouldn't recommend that 12 year olds go see Seven.
What's in the box?
Lettuce
👱♀️
Hellraiser? Phantasm?
Requiem for a dream. I have still not used opiates.
I swore off Tylenol for a bit after watching that...
This was a tough one to watch.
I saw Midnight Cowboy when I was a little kid at the drive in theater with my parents. Didn't really understand it and I was unsettling, but I lived the song and Dustin Hoffman's "I'm walking here!"
It depends on the 9 and 11 year old, but I saw Interview With The Vampire when it came out when I was 10, and I read the book at 12...
Are the nieces interested in spooky shit, or scifi, or fantasy? That might help you refine your picks.
Good recc! Yeah they're both pretty morbid. The older one is going to have a goth phase, no doubt. The younger one wants as many details as she can get on whatever true crime stories I know. Which is a lot.
I had to hide my EMT training book from her because she was so curious about the pictures. She wants to be a cop.
What about Leon: the Professional? I don't know if that has been posted yet. But I saw that when I was however old you are in seventh grade. 12? 13? There's some cop stuff for the bb cop.
The first and second Crow movies are good for the goth one.
Five Million Years to Earth
[off topic?]
Ever seen 'Time Bandits?' The original, not the one with Kudrow
There's nothing particularly nsfw in it, but I think a couple of young girls would find it very cool.
I love Terry Gilliam, I've tried time bandits with them but they check out pretty early.
12 monkeys though..... 🤔
Little Shop of Horrors and Beetlejuice.
The dynamic of Murray and Martin as the masochist and the sadist was fucking brilliant!
I'm gonna get a candy bar I'm gonna get a candy bar!
Fire in the Sky. Oh wait, maybe I shouldn't have. I haven't watched it again since because I was so traumatized as a kid watching it. Maybe I have the guts to watch it now decades later.
Spaceballs, The Matrix trilogy (I was born in 1996), What Dreams May Come (possibly; I was too young to realize that he was dead and in the afterlife for the entire thing)
Honestly I can't think of any from my childhood other than those that might have been "bad" for a kid, other than shows that went right over my head like Family Guy and the like. I know I wasn't allowed to watch South Park until I just decided to start watching it when I was around 13.
Other movies that I really liked as a kid (other than Spaceballs cause it was kinda like Star Wars, and The Matrix) that may be kinda suggestive were Mystery Men, Galaxy Quest, and Titan A.E. They may like Lord of The Rings (Arwen and Eowyn + magic and swords) and possibly Star Wars (Padmé and Princess Leia, plus Ahsoka from Clone Wars and Hera from Rebels). Although I'm a man and had an older brother that liked a lot of this stuff, so I ended up liking a lot of it too, you may get better results from other people.
Way of the Gun
Mean Guns
I watched the wall when I was 7
And it fucked me.up form years.. constant nightmares and panic attacks..
Why am I thankful for? Not sure..the memories?
Kiss of the Spider Woman. Back I the 80s our parents left us to fend for ourselves. I was around 10 years old and my parents were at a job site in northern Canada where the only channel was CBC. Definitely an intense movie, I'd say more than the Exorcism which aired another night. My brother missed the first, but had serious nightmares from the Exorcism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiss_of_the_Spider_Woman_(1985_film)