#90 Fright Fest: How Kids Handle Scary Movies
n this episode, we are turning on devices to explore youngsters, as young as 5 years old watching paranormal/horror movies designed for 15+ and yes it happens more often than you think. I will talk about the effects of psychologically challenging and horrific graphic scenes on young minds and how they can possibly damage their psychological, mental and emotional health from my perspective as an energy worker and my and client-based experiences.
A client experience : Horror viewing tainted my 7 year old
After working with Angela, a house-clearing client who was rather shocked to read her report She confessed that her husband and she have a love of graphic paranormal horror movies and aren’t always sure that the kids are in bed asleep when they are watching them. When I energetically tuned into her home, I found a large population of demonic-level energy beings loitering in the loungeroom where they both sat for their nighttime viewing and also at a bookshelf that housed paranormal books and DVDs. The entities have now been removed for now but could return if they continue to watch the disturbing viewing. The entities are drawn to the vibration the shows are pumping out and also the emotional reactions created by those reacting to the content.
Before I started Angela’s energetic house clearing, she asked: Can my children be affected long-term by watching paranormal or paranormal horror movies from an early age? This innocent question with underlying worry gave me an inkling as to why there were so many paranormal happenings in Angela’s home. One of her sons was having constant nightmares, screaming in the middle of the night and wouldn’t go to the toilet by himself down the dark corridor. She said this hadn’t been a problem until recently.
Going to her other young son’s bedroom one night to read to him before bed, she was concerned after witnessing her son acting out scenes from one of the Child’s Play movies where he asked one of his toy figures to kill someone in his class at school,’ If you do it right, no one will know”, she heard her 7-year-old say to the toy. Angela was shocked and stood there silent and stunned. Her husband had let their son watch the Child’s Play movies 1 and 2, one night while she was at work without her knowing and they would indeed be having words.
And this just came to mind: When I worked as a teacher’s assistant, I often heard the prep-ones 5-6 years old boys talking about movies like Chucky and saying how they loved this bloody scene and how it was so cool. I was stunned and totally shocked. These kids were being desensitised to killing and human suffering. Not allowed to comment, I ignored the boy’s chatter and distracted and directed them to finish their work and that I was there to help. I changed the subject and they soon forgot about the horror talk for now.
I watched a child psychologist on YouTube one night who said that young minds should not be exposed to movies other than a G or PG rating until they are around 12-13, when they have a more realistic sense of what is real and what is fantasy, but what family follows those rules. Does graphic horror and paranormal shape young minds to dumb down empathy for human suffering? Are some people born with more empathy than others or is empathy a learned behaviour or response?
Children have a really hard time understanding what is real and unreal. The worst-case scenarios and paranoid fear-based drama are drummed into us from an early age and most often on the top of the list instead of using rational thinking, decision making and calm responses that train you from a young age to observe and not create instant drama responses but to be more relaxed and think first, act or react second.
Do kids have people they can talk to about their viewing or their parent’s viewing – questions, worries, anything really? Depending on age and temperament, kids (and adults) need to be able to process information in a healthy way. Personality and lifestyle can come into this as well. Some kids will have a firm understanding of reality and fictional content from around 8-10 years old, while others will not, even into their adult lives.
Two of my kids loved reading and at the age of 8 and older, I would read to them and they would read the Goosebumps books and some of the characters like Slappy the ventriloquist dummy were pretty scary but didn’t cause nightmares, night terrors or mental or emotional issues as I have seen with children watching MA15+ rated paranormal or horror movies.
Kid’s brains are really malleable at the young age of 4 – 9 and do they have the necessary mental and emotional development and coping mechanisms for understanding that graphic horror and supernatural themes are fiction? Do they need to be processing this type of information at a young age? Do they know what is fact and what is fiction or does it all just meld together and mess with their sense of reality?
What about kids who are psychically open and do see spirits or dark shadows? I have worked with parents and kids as young as 10 who fit into this category. Would they most likely go straight into fear and be scared out of their wits if they had parents who don’t care and let them watch whatever they want? Or would they observe and ask adults questions about what they see? I do wonder if it comes down to a child’s mental and emotional stability, resilience and level of fear as to what triggers them or what doesn’t.
I had a few students over the 10 years that I was a teacher’s assistant who was very psychic and would openly talk about spirits and ghosts in their homes. I often worked one-on-one with kids with speech and literacy needs. Unable to comment, I would listen and let the kids have their say… an adult who listens is important and they feel heard even if I couldn’t be involved in the conversation for work related reasons.
Another point to consider, kids often don’t understand at a young age that movies are made and they have actors, a script, special effects, and movie sets or fake locations.
Here is a prime example: There was one instance when watching a movie about a young wizard with round glasses, you all know who I mean, that actually helped a 4-year-old child tell her parents what was scaring her in their house. While watching the movie one night, she pointed to her room and said ‘Mort, mort” and the parents looked at each other astonished.
A friend of mine lived across the road from them and visited on occasions and had mentioned in the past, ‘I think you need to talk to Anna, there is something here that needs moving on”, so the dad called me and we openly discussed Mort and the spooky goings on in the home. The home had a negative energetic history which I found as I spent 3 days unpacking all the happenings over the last 45 years. The build-up of negative emotions, addictions and dark behaviours had drawn a dark entity into the home and specifically into the now little girl’s bedroom. Once, Mort was identified and his energetic food removed from the bedroom and the whole house, Mort moved out, never to return again.
I can say from working on many homes over the years that had ‘Detrimental viewing’ as I call it, that any movie that creates a negative response or emotion in someone if intense enough can and will attract dark and demonic level energy beings into the locations where the movies are viewed and also to shelving holding massive amounts of paranormal horror DVDs.
Remember everything creates a vibration and DVDs are no exception.
Before I finish up for today, I have one last recent paranormal story to share I think is connected to watching spooky movies or maybe not. You can make up your mind about this one…
Our experience: Spirits in my house
I went to Emma, a friend’s house to watch a paranormal movie one afternoon, Emma can’t watch spooky movies when the kids aged 5 and 8 or hubby aged 30 something are home and today she had the house to herself, so it was a spooky girl’s afternoon.
Well, we sat down with our snacks and fizzy mineral water and turned on the movie… no more than 10 minutes into the movie, the room went cold, I mean really cold. I thought I saw the outline of something or someone walking through the wall behind my friend as she suddenly shivered. And it wasn’t one being but many… we looked at each other as Emma grabbed a blanket from behind the couch. ‘I think we have visitors”, I said and we laughed. Maybe they came to watch the movie with us or they were observing us as I kind of draw spirits and other entities to me wherever I go.
Well, the room stayed icy cold until the movie finished and it was strange because Emma turned up the heat pump on the wall above the TV right in front of us and it was still really icy. After the movie finished, it was’ get the kids from the bus’ time and I went to the kitchen with our bowls and recycling for the bin, while Emma went across the road to wait for the bus. The coldness followed me to the kitchen sink and all around the kitchen and then it dawned on me do these spirits want help? And indeed, they did, they saw me park the car at Emma’s and came to get my attention – the icy cold was their way of letting us know they were there. I went through the transition process with them there and then and away they went, happily going to be with family and friends on the other side.
Did they come into the home because of the spooky movie vibe (initially this is what we thought), or was it us talking excitedly about the movie, or had they been patiently waiting for me to visit Emma so I could help them? What do you think?
I grew up in a family that didn’t necessarily shelter me from horror but I don’t remember my parents ever watching those types of movies or TV shows. My dad kind of ruled the remote so we pretty much watched what he liked – Dr Who, Westerns, Star Trek, documentaries, comedies, Benny Hill show, Faulty Towers, The Goodies… they were a lot of fun. I don’t have memories of graphic horror until in my 20’s when I lived with someone who relished watching horror/ paranormal and psychological graphic movies and the effects that they had on me.
So, the following questions came to mind:
- Do kids think they will be judged or laughed at by family or peers if they don’t like or watch paranormal and horror movies?
- Are kids individually wired to watch and not react to these types of movies or do they even find them entertaining?
- Do these types of movies make some kids paranoid about being attacked or murdered in gruesome ways or stuck in a haunted house with dark entities?
- Do the irrational behaviours and actions in horror movies make the actions seem to be possible solutions for children’s and adults’ extreme traumatic life issues?
- If kids want to experience this type of entertainment, are paranormal or horror-type books like the Goosebumps series for example, better for kids? And my thinking behind that is individual minds will craft the images to suit their level of life experience and understanding, most likely not as scary or detailed as what you see in the movies.
Overall, I don’t agree with kids watching paranormal and horror-type movies, this is just my opinion as an energetically sensitive person and a parent. I know from personal experience, that graphic horror or frightening paranormal images are imprinted into your mind forever when you see them in movies, you never forget it… it lingers in the background. I am 56 now and still remember watching a movie about a silent boy with black eyes that stood at the end of my bed for years. It doesn’t affect me now like it did when I was younger, but it is all still there.
This episode sure opened up more questions than I even thought possible!
Check out some of the threads or topics on Reddit where people openly discuss being frightened out of their wits as kids watching paranormal horror and how the effects have lasted into adulthood.
Type in questions such as: Will my children be affected if they were to watch horror movies at an early age?
Want to share a paranormal experience? Send me your paranormal questions and your stories to:
spiritualbeing44@gmail.com
For information about paranormal house clearing, you can visit the ‘Services’ section:
House, business and property clearing:
https://www.spiritualbe-ing.com.au/
I look forward to sharing this spooky space again with you next week,
And remember, life is perfectly paranormal.
