I remember a TV listing in Dredd, many years ago, that had The Evil Dead as a kids' film.
Now, as ever, Dredd reflects real life. My 7 year old wants to see Army of Darkness. He's played the iPad game to death (pun intended) and is confused as to why I won't let him see the film.
I probably would. But... but... but... should I? The missus says, "no way". I say, "but is there really anything in it that is worse than a cartoon?"
Thoughts?
I'd say no probs with Army of Darkness, its more goofy than terrifying, not even very gory IIRC. Now Evil Dead 1 & 2 i'd have to say pass on, those things scared the piss out of a 13 year old me.
CU Radabcker
Evil Dead 1 and 2 are pretty gory, but Army of Darkness was more slapstick, like a big Tom and Jerry cartoon where the violence is shrugged off by Ash and played for gross laughs. I recall many hardcore gore geeks were complaining Sam Raimi had sold out with AoD because it didn't have any tree rapes in it or something, but the basic gist was that it was mainstream and normal people could watch it so it was automatically a bad thing rather than a movie-maker growing up and wanting more people to watch his films.
I recall Channel 5 showed it years ago in the same slot they showed Goonies and Back to the Future, so that gives you a rough idea what actual censors think of it these days - though fair play there's attempts at child murder in Goonies and a rape attempt in BttF. Might be best if you just vet it first.
Quote from: Radbacker on 21 September, 2012, 09:44:33 AMNow Evil Dead 1 & 2 i'd have to say pass on, those things scared the piss out of a 13 year old me.
I would give the qualification that even with all the dismemberment and self-mutilation in those films (which were more funny than scary), the scariest part was the camera snaking through the woods going "rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" as it came towards Ash. Scared the bejesus out of me - and then we saw it in the flesh at the end of ED2 and it was just a big rubber face like you'd get in a pound shop that you put your fingers in the back of to make it move.
I can't remember anything particularly nasty in Army of Darkness. Should be alright, though there is a bit where Ash pours boiling hot water down his own throat, straight from a kettle. That's probably the sort of thing the BBFC would cut from a film meant for kids.
There's also bit of boobage, depending on how strict you want to be.
Quotethe scariest part was the camera snaking through the woods going "rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" as it came towards Ash
Well thats the part, after watching them at a mates house i had to ride my pushbike home. It was midnight and windy and every god damn fricken tree looked like it was chasing me, I shat me self and rode that bike faster than it was ever rode before.
Cu Radbacker
It depends on your seven year old. MY seven year old loved both Army of Darkness and Evil Dead II, neitheof which- in my opinion- were unsuitable for him of his slightly older brother. Both have Army of Darkness action figures (large and small- large ones thanks to locusts of this very forum) and AoD is still a rainy day request.
There's a single "fuck" in AoD, which is easily mutable if you're handy with the remote (it's after ash rides back to the castle after the graveyard sequence. He mutters 'fuck off!' to the knight who approaches him. There's no gore, and just a lot of slapstick and stop motion. It's a three stooges movie crossed with jason and the argonauts, and to my mind is absolutely harmless for little kids. But, as i say, it depends on your youngun. My two live in a house surrounded by horror, they have been brought up with it and love horror movies. My wife, being canadian, takes no notice of our stupid and restrictive ratings system and argues that in her country kids can legally see (cont)
(cont) anything, as long as they are accompanied. It's only in our pathetic and ridiculous country that the government and fake psychologists who dont know their job reckon such movies have a negative effect on kids.
That said, you have to be sensible, and wall have our limits and things we dont want our kids exposed to. I use imdb's parental guidance feature, the bbfc website's expanded information (which is usually useless, as is the organisation itself) and a hilarious website called capalert- which is a christian review site that, while obviously mad, goes into very fine detail so allows me to filter some movies for specific things i find problematic.
I'd not give them Evil Dead, due to the tree-rape. But both ED2 and AoD are, to my mind, harmless comedies.
SBT
I'd think the witch stuff at the start of Army of Darkness would be pretty scary to small children although he Army of the Dead stuff that came later was mostly done for laughs.
As SBT says, it depends on the 7 year olds. I think the Evil Dead films are arguably my favourite horror films (particularly the second) but as a kiddie they would have freaked me out. Come to think of it, I was quite nervous seeing Evil Dead 2 for the first time a young adult, and I would flip the channel during during that part just after dead Linda does her little dance and flies off screen, just knowing she's going to pop up...
And that bit with the mirror really made me jump a couple of times, although it would shock a laugh out of me.
Och, I'm gonna buy it for him. Just as soon as I figure out what version - there seem to be loads.
Double disk version has both the (very kid friendly) cinema cut and the UK version (downer ending).
I prefer the cinema cut myself. Not just because that ending is so iconic, and personally I think worked better, overall it just feel like a tigher cut of the movie too.