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Horror Movies, Bring ’em On
DUBAI — When 15-year-old Ali was shown Alfred Hitchcock’s classic thriller ‘Psycho’, his reaction was grim: “Is this it? Where are all the gory scenes?” he asked.
Ali’s decision to watch the ‘Psycho’ was fuelled after he overheard his father praise the film that had kept him awake for three nights. But kids such as Ali hardly find the once spine-chilling horror film scary anymore. At least not in front of their friends.
In a study released by the American Psychiatric Association (APA-1998), by the time a youngster reaches the age of 18, on an average, he would have seen 16,000 simulated murders and 200,000 acts of violence.
Media violence can be hazardous to children’s health, and studies overwhelmingly point at a casual connection between media violence and aggressive attitudes, and values and behaviour in some children (Congressional Public Health Summit, 2000).
Dr Mohanned Sirdare, head of Psychiatry Department in Gulf Medical College (GMC),
“In my eight years of practice, a lot of parents have approached me for guidance and counselling for their children who have been traumatised by a few movies they had seen,” said Dr Mohanned.
“Children are exposed to a lot of violence today, to the extent that it has become amusing to them. There are cases when two-year-old children laugh when they watch fight scenes on television. Most children succumb to peer pressure when it comes to choosing the movie they want to watch. If the friends think it’s cool, then it becomes the must-watch movie,” he pointed out.
Khaleej Times spoke to a few children aged between 12 and 17. Surprisingly, most of them said they enjoyed watching horror films.
Rahul Narwani, 11, watches at least one movie in a week. The last movie he saw was the horror film ‘The Exorcist’. “I saw it with my friends and I didn’t think it was scary,” said Rahul. On the contrary Rahul’s mother, Vanitha Narwani, said he saw the movie with his sister and walked away when it got too scary. Rahul also enjoys watching romantic comedies and animation films.
When asked about reading habits, he said, “When my teacher forces me to, I read books.”
Vanitha said, “I do not restrict him from watching a lot of movies. If I tell him not to watch he would end up downloading it from the Internet or find other ways and means to watch it. I keep a track of him and if I know the movie has an adult rating he is not allowed to watch it.”
Dr Mohanned strongly advised parents to control, set limits, explain and reprimand the child when needed. “If the child is caught watching something that he shouldn’t, the parent must advise him against it, and distract the child away from the TV,” said Dr Mohanned.
In reaction to the Bollywood horror flick Phoonk, 15-year-old Saurabh Gir shrugged it off as not scary. “I thought the movie was funny, more than it being scary. I went for it on seeing the promos, and it turned out to be comical.”
At the same time, Dolly Gir, who has two sons, Saurabh amd Kunal, is not very worried about her sons’ movie-watching habits. “I keep them busy with sports and studies, which gives them little time for movies or TV. I allow them to watch TV two hours a day and visit the theatre twice in a month.”
Saurabh who is an ace cricketer hardly has any time for watching movies. His younger brother Kunal gets one hour in a day to watch his wrestling shows. “I watch Drake and Josh, E-Junior and my favourite shows are the Wrestling Shows,” said Kunal.
Sixteen-year-old Anju Nair’s parents keep a very strict control over her TV watching habits. A die-hard fan of Hillary Duff, Anju enjoys romantic comedies, and the occasional thriller flick. “Being in the 10th grade is an age when we tend to get carried away with what we see on the TV and parental guidance is for our own good,” she said.
Anju’s mother, Asha, said encouraging children to read books is the best way to distract them from the movie or TV screen.
Dr Mohanned agreed by saying: “Parents should encourage creativity and some social skills among the children. Reading books is the best way to steer youngsters away from on-screen horror. Active participation in sports activities along with extra-curricular activities in school can help children.
“For a child who has been traumatised by anything he has seen on TV, counselling is vital. The parent must convince the child by telling him that what he had seen on TV was not true. The child must also be encouraged to talk about his fears, which will relieve him of the tension and fear.”
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