To think parents didn't bother about film certs back in the day (early 90s)

[19lottie82]

Was watching Pulp Fiction on Netflix last night and have a memory of my dad letting me rent it from Blockbuster when I was 12? WTF? Luckily most of it went over my head I think!

Also remember whenever my friends and I had sleepovers at about the same age, parents happily supplied 18 cert horror movies!

I remember watching a nightmare on elm street aged about 8 and being traumatised. There were always lots of horror and crime books around the house, so grew up reading those. Remember reading it at about 11/12, was very shocked at the gang bang scene when I read it again as an adult, that bit had obviously gone over my head . We used to watch grease/hairspray/rocky horror/dirty dancing akids, loved them all. When I was 12 I broke my leg and was off school for a year, also had a TV in my bedroom, I developed a bit of an insomnia thing and saw many interesting things on ch4 , also learned much from the open university progs on bbc2. I have a feeling that year basically defined my personality

Mine did. So did a few of my friends parents. One or two didn't care about checking.

I didn't get to see more highly rated films until I was much closer to the film rating.

I am similar with dd. She's 14 now and has only seen some 15s in last year and we are careful about which ones.

my parents did bother. dirty dancing was out shortly before my 12th birthday. I really wanted to see it but wasn't allowed. but by the time of my birthday it wasn't on anymore.

My parents were pretty lax once I got to senior school age, however I was far too scared to watch horror films not my thing at all, but I watched a lot of 15's.

I am the same with my DC I let them watch 12's even though they are not. They have seen the odd 15 too but things like karate kid which is fine imo. You can google online these days to see why it has that rating so I read that first before I make my decision. We have a pin code on sky movies so they have to ask first.

However if they have friends over they stick to U's/PG's only and if they wanted to watch anything higher I always check with the other child's parent first. If I can't get an answer they don't watch it.

When I was younger I had a friend who at 14 wasn 't allowed to watch 15's. Her parents used to pick her up before we watched the film. We used to feel embarrassed/sorry for her - God knows how she felt.

Ratings seem to be all to cock though- I rarely use them when I try to decide if something's suitable for my 10yo. Drop Dead Fred is the same rating as Blair Witch!

I watched Elephant Man when I was about 8- it upset me for years

I was born in 1980 and largely agree. Age 12 we pretty much always watched 15 rated movies or higher at sleepovers. This was across a range of different houses, so not just down to one set of lax parents.

Misery, Childsplay, Hand that Rocked the Cradle, Sleeping with the enemy all featured in our watch list.

Mind it was also the sort of place you could go into the pub in your school uniform on and get served!

I remember sneaking into a 15 rated film (Beverly Hills Cop 2, I think) with a friend when when were both 13 (late 1980s)..we both felt ever so grown up and sophisticated!

Completely unwarranted given the choice of film, of course .

It wasn't just parents that had a relaxed view of certificates. A friend of mine used to live next door but one to a cinema. This was in the days when you couldn't pre book so there would be people in a queue outside her garden most evenings. The cinema always gave the family free passes every year as a way of saying sorry for the inconvenience. My friend and her sister went to the cinema every week and saw absolutely every film regardless of its certificate.

My parents were pretty relaxed - I remember watching Aliens when I was very young - it was with primary school friends so would have been late primary/ very early secondary. And I definitely watched films like The Shining in my early teens (although I am very surprised to see that it's a 15!). I suspect with them, if it was considered a classic they weren't that bothered.

Mind you - no film has ever affected and shaken me up as much as The Watcher in the Woods and that is by Disney and a 15 - I don't think I could watch it now!

I also remember my friend's Mum being a bit worried about letting us watch Flatliners at her 14th birthday but we all persuaded her that our parents would be fine with it.

My mum would let me watch an 18 when I was 12 but banned rug rats from the house haha. She didn't like the older girl in that cartoon lol.

My DD (3) does watch films way too old for her. She loves star wars and the superhero. She isn't allowed to watch game of thrones or deadpool though. Anything we think could give her nightmares we draw a line at. Anything that does after than we didn't think would would later be banned but that hasn't happened yet.

I was a single mum without a VCR and remember all kinds of films I wasn't able to see because I couldn't take my dd to the cinema to watch them, only to find out two weeks later that she saw them at her friends' houses. So annoying

My mum actually bought me all the nightmare on elmstreet videos for my 10th birthday as I loved them so much! I still remember watching Stephen Kings creep show with her when I was about 6.

I bothered, I selected videos and films very carefully.

My dad did not see the harm in letting me watch any video I wanted. Jaws, Spaceballs, Crocodile Dundee and nightmare on Elm Street when I was 4. Bottom when I was 6. My mum didn't like me watching those things though.

I was very excited when Jurassic park came out in the cinema, as I loved dinosaurs. My mum thought that it would be too scary for me, and took me to see Bambi instead. I had to wait for Jurassic park to come out on video.

Ah yes, watcher in the woods. I'm sure that used to be on in the daytime. I'd love to see it again to work out if it really is as scary as I remember.

I wonder if the fact that in the early 90s films that were a 12 at the cinema ended up being a 15 on video had anything to do with attitudes?

Not the 90s but in the 80s, when videos first came out, I watched some very unsavoury films, so called video nastys. I was about 13.
My parents were quite strict, I wasn't allowed to watch "The Exorcist", as they had heard of that film and it was an 18 cert. but I think, in general, they associated horror films with Hammer horror, not " Driller Killer", etc. So I rented anything I wanted, the video shop let us have them, if you said it was for your dad they were ok. Things got more regulated/tightenned up later on.
My mum also watched a bit of a film I'd rented and I got stopped from renting films.