this horror film poster is too scary to be put up in general view on the street?

[theaub]

So as presumably you wouldn't take your preschool age child to see a 15-cert horror film... shouldn't they also be safe being frightened by an image from the film on a massive advert put up in their local street? It's a poster for a violent horror film called 'The Purge'.

The poster is here. ( www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/purge-2013-1) You might not find the grinning skull/mask pic too frightening as a little thumbnail pic but trust me, my husband and I were scared by it when walking past it when blown up to full size on a phone box! Luckily our DD happened to be asleep in the pram at the time. Also the strap line is really scary for kids that are old enough to read: ' for one night, ALL crime is legal'.. or something along those lines.

To me, showing this poster image on the street is valuing the commercial interests of cinemas showing scary films to adults, above the rights of kids (and adults like me who don't watch horror) to use our local streets without being frightened?

That horrible skull mask face is plastered full size all over a phone box on our local main road. its in full view of several bus routes, the ad is in front of residential blocks of flats which line the road, right near our local preschool and en route to the local primary. Lots of kids/people will not be able to avoid seeing it. As it is I will have to take a different route to my local shops to avoid freaking out my kid. I am livid- we have to go out of our way (literally) to avoid this.

I have complained to the Advertising Standards Authority via their website over the weekend, and await their reply. Just feel like ads on phone boxes in particular tend to stay up for months and the harm is being done already. Cant understand whoever passed this one as OK thinking its reasonable in a public environment. I know what is scary is subjective but surely where there is any doubt, protecting kids should come first?

I saw the trailer and it frightened the life out of me. DH and I both said who wants to watch this stuff. Too close to home, these horrible things happen to people in RL.....we didn't like the trailer or the poster. However, I agree with Ilove.

It's not that scary. I remember when insidious was released and the picture of the scary boy was plastered all over buses here. Dd saw another one the other day on a bus, I think it was for The Last Exorcism. There was a man with scary eyes

I personally cannot imagine that any of my children, or myself for that matter, being so scared by that poster that we walked out of our way to avoid it.
And I suppose that's the whole point, isn't it?
Different people are scared by different things. I don't see how anything would ever be advertised if you had to take into account everyone's phobias and personal taste.

My ds2 is scared of butterflies (long story involving being "trapped" not really in a butterfly run on a school trip.

But I don't walk out of my way to avoid pictures of butterfly's.

And yes, I know that's not the same thing. But the point I am trying badly to make is that whilst the poster scared you there are 10 people who say it doesn't bother them at all. So how do you decide what is advertised in public, on the street?

Seriously?

I am amazed at the responses. I read your post, fraught with over the top wailings and hand wringings and "Won't someone think of the children!" type laments. Unbelievably apparently half of mumsnet share your delicate sensibilities.

If you are genuinely scared by a poster to the extent that you must plan your daily activities around it to avoid it then there is some other deep seated issue here that I suggest you explore with a therapist.

Hello

Thanks for the posts on this. Sounds like I'm probably closer to the 'sensitive' end of the scale, pretty much as I'd suspected. Fine with that.

I don't watch horror films bec I hate all the violence and killing (often sexualised, glorified and usually aimed at women) . Sorry Stuntgirl if you think that requires me to see a therapist to overcome it.

Its just not entertaining or fun for me and what i have seen just worries me afterwards when I've watched it. i also can't escape the thought that watching (fictionalised) women suffering is a bit too entertaining/inspiring for some creepy people in terms of what they want to do in RL, but that's a debate for another thread. I fully accept that for others, horror films are just purely entertainment. I'm certainly not arguing that such films or their ads generically should be banned, Branleuse.

My point is- when something has made us jump, as adults we can rationalise between reality and (lets be generous in this case) the creative expression in a film. But a lot of kids can't do that and they will be scared by this kind of image.

It's plainly different from other matters of taste like food, sorry Ilovemyself. I've not heard yet of nightmares caused by lumpy custard or whatever..

It's just annoying me because this advert's chosen picture is unnecessary. It's lazy advertising to reprise the scary images in the film, in the poster that all of us then have to see on the street.
This, www.movieweb.com/news/the-purge-reminder-poster promo poster for the same film explains its premise without using any scary visuals. I think its totally fine to put that all over a phone box or the side of a bus. Presumably advertisers had this option. So why inflict (what some/many kids and adults will inevitably view as) scary posters on ALL of us?

The purge idea wouldn't work. I would saythe vast mmajority of murders are not premeditated.

However what is to stop a well armed group cleaning out a bank etc? The damage done on that one night a year would be catastrophic.

It's a poster. It's not a scary as the giant shiny headed David Cameron ones.

I don't think the poster is particularly scary. I doubt my wee boy would either if he ever see's it (he's 7). I'll be going to see the film when I get the chance.

I don't think the poster is that bad. The Saw posters on buses were worse.

I'm not even being facetious, if that poster provokes such a strong reaction from you then it would seem there's some other reason behind it you should probably look into.

I'm scared of spiders, won't even stay in the same room if I know there's one in there. Remember the film Eight Legged Freaks? The posters gave me the heebie jeebies but I just looked away when I saw them. I certainly didn't plan routes around them to avoid seeing them. I've not been scarred for life.

I think most children can differentiate between real and non-real. My dd watched the final Harry Potter in the cinema with me when she was 3 and I had to explain that Voldermort was not real and that it was a story. I only told her once, and that's all that was needed.

Children are not stupid.

"Scary" is really subjective. To a certain type of child that poster will be disturbing - it would have disturbed the shit out of me when I was little. One of my earliest memories is of being in a bookshop and being utterly terrified by the covers of two horror novels I saw, to the extent that I can still picture them perfectly now: one was of some sort of cannibal in a cave surrounded by bloody bones, and the other was called "The Pariah" and showed a woman's bloodied face.

I actually love a good horror now, and think this does sound like a potentially interesting premise for a film (although the one review I've read of it so far was unenthusiastic), but I don't think images like this should be displayed in public. I wouldn't want my DC to see it.

But Fakebook, distinguishing between fantasy and reality is not the issue, it's just not as clear-cut as that. Films, stories, ideas and images can be deeply frightening EVEN THOUGH we know they're not real. That's the point of horror fiction. I'm an adult and there are a few scenes from books and films that I have to block from my memory because they disturbed me so much - I know they're not real, but fear isn't always logical and rational.

It just depends on what kind of a mind you have, I think.

Theres on of these posters down my road.

I can't quite understand the OP though, did she and her husband actually jump at this?

I think had I felt scared walking home, and for some bizarre reason the street lights were off and not one soul was about, I might get a shock if I glanced at such a poster but I cannot believe 2 adults jumped at this. Bit weird of them surely?

I HATE rats and mice, I don't demand that our streets are eradicated of the little arseholes even though the sight of them makes me feel very sick, I just don't look. I don't not use the tube I just press on regardless, its only a poster of a man in the dark with bad teeth.

I'm a bit of a wuss but I don't find that poster scary at all. I think in general, YABU.

I've just seen the actual poster in question, IRL.

Mountain. Molehill.

I think to say that you have lost the right to walk the streets without being frightened is a bit over the top, sorry.

One of the scariest and most disturbing films I have ever seen is a PG.

I've seen the phone box adds. As a grown adult,YABU to be scared by it.

I can see why a child would be frightened though. So Yanbu in that respect.

Whoops, clicked the link and 6 year old DS saw it. He said it wasn't scary, it's just a face. Apparently I'm scarier.

Looks like a good film, can't wait for the DVD release.

Poster maybe scary for some children, but not all.

Its on our local phone box, neither I or my kids found it scary at all.

My dd used to be scared of fish, made a trip to the garden center quite stress full... She got over it and now loves them.

Ds4 is five and seems to have a new fear of cats, fgs there are loads locally and he is all 'I am allergic'....he is NOT allergic to cats and I have no idea why he thinks he is.

Kids and adults can be scared of allsortsm the poster isn't graphic or offensive,

The premis of the film seems quite good, I don't like scary films but am tempted to go see this.

Fakebook, that's absolutely great that it works that well for your kids. However, not every child is like that. I certainly wasn't. I had an extremely overactive imagination and found horror imagery extremely difficult to deal with. When I was 11, I read the back of the video box for Nightmare on Elm Street and had hideous nightmares for several weeks afterwards. That was my own silly fault for reading the box.

These adverts are plastered all over billboards etc. It's fine to advertise adult films on internet sites read by adults or on tv after the watershed, but I just don't think this image is appropriate to be on public display, when it is potentially so scary to children.

I personally don't think it's that scary & my nieces weren't bothered when they saw the poster (4 & 6) they just thought it was a funny looking face. Each to their own though obviously.

I actually saw the film yesterday & it was pretty good. I mean there was definitely room for improvement & more story detail, but no more than most films. It wasn't a gratuitous gore fest & actually quite thought provoking.

I thought it was scary and I don't like seeing it every day, but thinking about it, it was the concept more than the image that scared me. Because it is a frightening concept and that, in tandem with a not-actually-that-alarming image, made the poster frightening.

My dcs (5, 8 and 10) weren't at all alarmed. When the 10 year old asked me about the tag line, she said "sounds great, would we be allowed to take sweets from the shop".

Exactly Iwould. Children aren't going to view it from the adult perspective of rape and torture and murder.