Woman in black to yr 8?

[Thirtyrock39]

Prepared to be told I'm being a snowflake but I watched the old version of woman in black as a student and it was really creepy and terrifies me at 19. So I was pretty surprised when my twelve year old couldn't get to sleep last night and told me it was because they'd shown the Harry Potter version at school - they watched half of it yesterday and watching second (scarier) half tomorrow.
Apparently it's a controversial 12a and had a lot of complaints about this rating so should the school at least have given parents a heads up?
I've told dd to speak to the teacher today and see if they can find her an alternative activity but am a bit cross and surprised about it

Why are they watching it?

Are they studying the book?

I went to see theatre version when I was at school, also very creepy.

To learn about ghost stories 🙄don't know why they need to watch whole bloody thing though

Do you mean the one with Daniel Radcliffe in? Yes I'd say it's pretty scary/disturbing. Aren't there scenes where kids kill themselves?

Me too @MumUndone I was prepared to be a bit meh but was surprised how scary they managed to make it.

Yes it's the Radcliffe one - I'm really shocked it's a 12a in the first place which makes it a bit more tricky in approaching school but I wouldn't watch it myself so feel a bit shocked by a class of 12/13 year olds having to watch it

This is scary for year 8! Aside from that, some people of any age just don't like scary films so it seems a bit mean to make them watch it (they will probably get teased if they say they don't want to). If your DD really doesn't want to, you could just invent a dentist appointment to get her out of it...

I didn't find the woman in black scary at all. Don't think most 12/13 year olds would either tbh.

No idea how this is a 12a, frightened me. For context, The Exorcist just made me laugh!
(The Others gave me the creeps too, that’s a 12 as well. Couldn’t go to the loo in the small hours without thinking I was being watched for weeks 😂)

My son watched it beginning of this academic year, said it was scary and some in class really didn't like it...tbh they have watched several films in school I am a bit 🤔 about...enemy at the gates (including the naked bit!), the help, the hate you give...

Yes i found it quite disturbing as an adult, I recall a scene where there’s ghosts Of the dead children crawling out of the mud, and a rocking chair scene which were frightening.
I guess it depends on the child though, my DS at 13 watched it and was fine but my dd would be very scared after seeing it, so I wouldn’t let her. Difficult if the whole class is watching though.

I would have thought it was ok in that context and if the kids were primed over what they were looking for. It is a classic gothic story with lots of the stereotype features, so much so it absolutely revels in them, and make them really obvious, so i can imagine would be handy when teaching the gothic.

The exocist comparison is odd. I cant watch exocist at all find it quite horrific. But i enjoyed woman in black (i did check the garden gate before i slept that night).

But then i did find a part of my brain spotting gothic novel tropes...

Tbh thinking about lots of the gothic novels or films can be quite problematic, either with their treatment of women or colonial content or both. This is interesting but distracting when you are trying to just teach the conventions of the genre. Woman in Black is just a bit of fluff but it does whack you round the face with gothic conventions.

In my daughter's school they were forewarned that they would be watching it. She didn't want to and asked me to write a letter asking for her to be excused, which I did. On the day, the teacher seemingly handled it very well, giving her the option to go to the library instead. My daughter chose to stay and actually enjoyed it and now watches horror films. I'm grateful that she has a whole new genre opened up to her after watching it in that environment, as she wouldn't have got that from me as I hate them. She was in year 9.

I went with school to see it at the theatre at about the same age, I don't see the issue as it's in context not just an end of term thing

I was honestly really scared by this film...and I'm not easily scared! I'm shocked that it's only a 12a to be honest! Can't think of ANY reason that Y8s should be watching this at school and I'd definitely question it (and I'm a teacher!).

I studied this in year 8. Saw the film, read the book, saw the theatre show. Wasn't that bad.
It's a bit jumpy I'll give you that but they could be watching a lot worse.

I know that some kids of that age are more worldly and not easily scared of anything now, but I still think that's pushing it without prior warning for the kids and parents. Me and DH have both seen the theatre production (which scared me!) and then we watched the Daniel Radcliffe film when it came out on DVD. There were a couple of scenes where we both hid behind cushions, and there was a bit where DH said that the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. And he's far more level headed about ghosts/horror than I am...

Well it’s a 12a
The kids are 12
So unless you want to go to the board of film classification and get it changed I can’t really see what your argument is.
Other than your child was a bit disturbed.

Do you expect them to go through the whole of school life never being disturbed by anything they encounter !

My dd went to see the play version in year 8 as a school trip! She’d read the book first and loved it.

The book and play are terrifying. The Daniel Radcliffe film is totally lame and not remotely scary (unless you're of an extremely nervous disposition I suppose)

I was in year 8, 7 years ago and we watched it then for the gothic topic, pretty standard

Blimey! The film scared me, I found the book even worse! But I'm a bit of a wuss. I'm dreading the teen years and the minefield of issues that secondary school seems to bring!

GreenEggsHamandChips

The exorcist makes me laugh because it’s so ridiculous its just hilarious (the acting’s bloody awful too: I saw it when it first came out and thought so way back then).
Woman in Black hints at things most of the way through, which I always find much creepier and more chilling, and the acting’s much better. Saw WIB at the theatre too, that scared us stiff as well

I showed it to my two year 8 classes at the end of term as we were studying the marketing of gothic horror films. Apart from one pupil who didn't watch it everyone else loved it.