Noel Cassidy

Ms. McKoy

English II – Block 1

31 January 2013

What Happens After the Credits?

Personally, I am not a fan of scary movies, several people are like me and others love to be scared or do not scare easily, unlike me. I have always been afraid of everything, even my shadow sometimes. I hate to be scared and most people would simply say “Do not go to see scary movies”, although there is a bigger problem that has been drastically overlooked. When scary movies are in theaters, they have to be marketed to potential viewers. The main goal of the marketers is to get as many people to go see the movie as possible. The best way to hook people in wanting to see the movie is to show them the scary parts of the movie. Therefore, when creating the preview the producers take the best, or scariest, parts of the movie and edit it into a preview. Then those previews are shown on television stations all over the country. I cannot even watch these movie previews. Another area being overlooked in movies, are the ratings, most scary movies are rated R or PG-13. A rated R movie means restricted, someone over 18 must buy the tickets for the movie. In other words, you either have to be 18 to see the movie, or you have to have consent from someone that is 18, consent being in the form of purchasing the tickets and attending the movie with the minor. A PG-13 movie is one step down from rated R. This stands for parents strongly cautioned. In other words, some material is inappropriate for children under 13. The reason for the ratings is because some of the scenes are too scary for some people or the scariest scenes. Therefore, if a movie is rated R then it should not the preview be rated R too?

Research has been done to find the effects of viewing inappropriate movies. According to Barton D. Schmitt, bedtime fears, recurrent nightmares, daytime flashbacks of something frightening, disruption of concentration and study, and a fearful view of the world can all be symptoms following the viewing of a scary or violent movie. These symptoms can last 1 to 6 months if they are not treated properly. If, a child were to constantly see inappropriate movies they can be scared for life. Researchers are so worried about the effects of rated R movies on children that there has never been an approved experiment done on the effects of these movies on children. “Forbid all R-rated movies until your child is 13 years old” which is advice given to parents, from Barton D. Schmitt, to help prevent negative effects on children. As discussed earlier, if previews of rated R movies should be considered rated R, then why are children subjected to those under no fault of their own. More advice given was to “protect your child’s mental health from unnecessary fears. R-rated movies are never harmless for a child in elementary school. Use the movie ratings and your common sense to choose age-appropriate movies for your child. Never let your child see anything that frightens you.” (MD, Schmitt, Barton D.)

As research has shown this is a problem. This has been overlooked and needs to be considered serious and a problem of its own. There is a solution and if it is not found soon it can only get worse. Although this is a huge problem in my eyes, others could feel this is not a problem at all and a simple movie preview couldn’t affect a child. It is essential for something to be done in regards to this problem. There is a source to these issues and producers, advertisers, children, or parents are responsible. Once someone can be held responsible for the showing the previews to minors then someone needs to take responsibility for any traumatic event that could possibly occur in a child. As soon as people realize this is a problem then it needs to be controlled somehow. Some might think that rated R movie previews should not be shown on all television stations. Ratings might need to be improved or enforced more. Overall, movie previews are a problem and they do affect children, possibly for life.