The Good Dad Guide by Charles Marshall
Author:Charles Marshall
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780736965293
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers
A father must do all that is within his power to protect the innocence of his children.
25
The Film Fear Factor
It seems so corny now. Laughable really. But when I watched Earth vs. the Flying Saucers on TV when I was nine years old, it flat-out scared the living bejeebers out of me. Most of the movie wasn’t all that bad. I could handle the flying saucers zipping around the sky. I was okay with the battle with the aliens on the military base. But the part that really got me was when the group of earth people entered the saucer. When that glowing, flower-shaped communication device slowly descended from the ceiling and (spoiler alert!) drained the brains of the general and policeman, for some reason that did me in. I remember being afraid to look around corners for days afterward for fear of aliens jumping out of the shadows and sucking my brains out. Not that I would have lost too much. If my grades back then were any indication, it might have even added a couple points to my IQ.
I had the same experience when I first saw the Wicked Witch of the West’s flying monkeys on The Wizard of Oz. Man-a-livin’, that’s scary cinema. Again, the witch herself wasn’t that bad, but you throw some wings on a few dozen monkeys, and you have yourself a real horror flick.
When I was a little older, I watched a Dracula movie that shook me up so much that I was afraid to go to sleep afterward. I finally gave up around four a.m. and said to all the hidden vampires in my room, “Okay, if you’re going to get me, go ahead. I’ve got to get some sleep.”
It’s amazing how terrified I was watching all of those goofy movies with such weak special effects, but I can assure you—weak or not, those effects did the trick. The fear I felt was real enough.
And all of that is nothing compared to the stuff in movies these days. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen adults walking into PG-13 or R-rated movies with their three- or four-year-old kids. People defend this kind of action by saying things like, “Oh, it doesn’t bother my kids! They love it!” But I wonder if it might be closer to the truth to say they haven’t noticed it bothering their kids. There is a big difference between something not existing and you not noticing its existence. Just because you don’t notice a snake in the grass at your feet doesn’t mean it can’t bite you.
Yes, there comes a day when a child is capable of handling scarier images, but why do we need to place them directly in the path of fear?
The effect of fear in a person can be profound. It is a subtle, hidden force that can bend your perspective and weaken your will. Fear isn’t the opposite of faith. It’s inverted faith. The mechanism of believing is still at work when you fear.
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