Times change, and so does the age that it is appropriate for children to watch horror movies. During an interview with ComicBook, A Nightmare On Elm Street stars Robert Englund and Heather Langenkamp shared their take on when it is “OK” for children to watch the story of a hideously scarred, child-murdering dream demon.
Even in the ‘80s, children had a strange obsession with horror movies. Whether catching a glimpse of a movie before being chased out of the room by a parent, or perusing the memorable VHS covers in the local video store, there were ways to get a fix of these forbidden movies even in an age before everything was available everywhere. However, when it comes to what age younger audiences should watch A Nightmare on Elm Street, the response of the movie’s stars may surprise you.
Langenkamp
: Well, I mean, I used to say like 14 but now, when I see so many young kids seeing it, now it’s more like eight. I don’t know.Englund
: I think, here’s the thing: the ante has been upped in horror, science fiction, and fantasy films. Kids are watching Game of Thrones. There’s some serious stuff in Game of Thrones and, Nightmare on Elm Street, which we still remember as being controversial, is pretty mild, comparatively speaking, to some of the new stuff that’s out there. So I think I would say, well, you’d be safe at 12.
Robert Englund Believes Freddy Can Be a Good Teacher to Small Children
While there are some parents who will never allow their children to watch movies like A Nightmare on Elm Street (like they haven’t already), Englund believes that there is a good reason for children to be terrified out of their little minds from being exposed to Freddy Krueger at a young age – to make them away of “stranger danger.” He continued:
“You’d be safe at 12, but here’s the thing: younger kids accidentally see it sometimes, and these are the kids that haven’t been taught about “stranger danger” and the evils of the world yet. And they watch it as a dark — it scares them, but they watch it like a dark fairy tale, almost like a Brothers Grimm. They don’t watch it as this could be part of society, right? They see it as a cautionary fable.”
A Nightmare on Elm Street recently saw its classification in the U.K. being dropped from 18 to 15 for the first time. While the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) came under fire from some quarters, they explained that the fantasy violence of the movie was “tame” when compared to most modern horror movies. For this reason, they felt it was time to lower the certificate of the movie to match modern standards.
A Nightmare on Elm Street
is currently available to stream on Apple TV+, and will be getting an all-new release on Digital on October 1st and on 4K Ultra HD on October 15th.