How to Make Live-Action Movies Not "Scary" For a Kid?

[Kestra]

Agreed with the others ... give it some more time. Some people don't like suspenseful, actiony, or gory movies even as adults. I'm not saying that you're showing him R-rated stuff but he's really quite young. My parents took me to see Jurassic Park in the movie theater and I couldn't handle it even though I was old enough to. Show him more family-oriented movies rather than hand-holding him through other ones.

 

[Christopher]

I actually had more tolerance for violence and gore in my teens than I do now. There was one year, I forget which but sometime within a few years of 1990, where I just saw so many movies in one year with protagonists who killed without mercy that I just got sick of it. Contrary to the conventional wisdom/hysteria of the time, I was made more sensitive to violence by overexposure, not less.

EDIT: Actually it was 1990-91. 1990 had a spate of violent films like Total Recall, RoboCop 2, Dick Tracy, and Predator 2, and I think that was what made me feel that cinematic violence had become too pervasive and excessive. By 1991 I found myself uncomfortable with the hero's casual killing in The Rocketeer, and refreshed by John Connor's refusal to kill in Terminator 2.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Except that that is exactly what immersion therapy requires. One has to face it.

Right, but a person undergoing immersion therapy has made a decision that they want therapy. They are old enough and competent enough to know what they're in for, why they're doing it, and to consider it enough of a priority goal that they themselves are willing to put themselves through that.

I'm with those suggesting taking smaller steps, and starting with live-action movies that aren't so realistic, then maybe working up towards something like Back to the Future, which has action, but still has a "cartoony" element to it, and only then IF he is ready and IF the movies are age appropriate, to stuff with much more in the way of action scenes, like Star Wars. (Do watch out for certain scenes, of course...it might not be easy for a kid to watch Anakin burn on Mustafar.)

But I don't think there's any need to push if he's not interested.

I mean, even as an adult, I don't watch most scary movies. Oddly enough I can watch war and action movies, but not scary horror movies. But I would resent it if someone were to pressure me to see something I don't want to see, such as the Saw franchise. Hell, I didn't even care for CSI, because it seemed gorier compared to a show like Criminal Minds (though even that has scenes I have to look away from). And in ANY movie, if there's a vomit scene, I absolutely cannot look or I feel like I'm about to throw up.

I also have very, very vivid dreams and I know that's a "risk" beforehand. I mean, last night I saw The Bourne Supremacy for the first time, and guess what, I dreamed part of the movie. That didn't bother me. However, when I saw I Am Legend, while it was a good movie, I ended up--as an adult--with some unpleasant nightmares as a result.

I think individuals should be treated as individuals. What goes for me doesn't go for someone else, and what goes for the OP shouldn't necessarily go for the OP's kid.

 

[FPAlpha]

Dude.. let him develop at his own speed.

Some kids can watch splatter gore movies at age 5 and then have a nice nap while other's can't.
I can imagine that the Green Goblin from Spiderman can be scary for some kids.. he's supposed to be scary.

So let him watch age appropriate movies.. sooner or later as age progresses he'll watch other movies too, no big deal and why hurry or worry he's not watching the same movies as other kids?

When i was 6 the first movie i saw at the theatre was E.T. That's the kind of movies i would let a kid watch and not these overstimulating Hollywood blockbusters.. there's time for that later.

 

[thestrangequark]

Except that that is exactly what immersion therapy requires. One has to face it.

Right, but a person undergoing immersion therapy has made a decision that they want therapy. They are old enough and competent enough to know what they're in for, why they're doing it, and to consider it enough of a priority goal that they themselves are willing to put themselves through that....
But I don't think there's any need to push if he's not interested.

Seriously. Immersion therapy? We're not talking about a grown man with paralyzing claustrophobia or a debilitating case of social anxiety, but a little boy who doesn't want to watch action movies. The notion that he needs immersion therapy, or indeed, that there is anything wrong with a 6 year old being scared of action movies is utterly ludicrous. And why is it assumed that he's "missing out" on these movies when he doesn't like them? I don't like baseball, and I certainly don't feel I'm missing out on anything by not watching baseball games.