Cinefantastique Online

The Spenborough Guardian offers up an interesting piece, “Horror Films for Parents? Be Very Afraid,” in which Adam Wolstenholme muses on his change in attitude toward horror films since growing up and becoming a parent.

If adolescence made body horror more powerful, parenthood does the same for horror films that deal with children.
The makers of scary films are shrewd sadists who delve beneath our rational defences and plumb the dark, primal swamp beneath. And they have made much use of our anxieties about kids.

The Exorcist is ostensibly about a child who becomes possessed by the Devil. But what parent of daughters cannot respond to the film’s subtext - the disturbing suggestion that your cute little poppet will one day morph into a highly-sexed, potty-mouthed tyrant?

Wolstenholme also references THE FLY, THE SHINING, and CARRIE in his brief but worthwhile essay.