Having nothing better to do one day a few weeks ago, I went to see "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."
The cinema was pretty much completely empty, but I was shocked when, just before the film began, a woman and her two young children came and sat down in the row beside me. One of the children was about 10 years old and the other couldn't have been more than seven or eight.
I must confess that I struggled through the film. Most of it was spent hiding behind my hands, as I sat in sheer terror of what "Leatherface" would do if he got hold of the hapless teens that were running around for their lives.
After the film was over I felt so indignant that this woman had taken her two young children to see such a brutal and violent film that I felt compelled to say something to her. I asked her if she spoke English but she shook her head. The older of the two children, however, eagerly volunteered his services as an interpreter.
I asked him to tell his mother that she shouldn't take young children to see such a film. He told his mother this in Russian and the whole family burst out laughing. She told me (through her son) that her kids loved horror films and weren't in the least scared by them. At that, they all went off, happy as can be.
My God. When I was a kid I once suffered nightmares when I watched a film in which a woman had a heart attack and died. What sort of stuff are today's kids made of when they can just laugh off the sight of someone slicing teens to bits with a chainsaw?
Films don't carry certificates here, so anyone can go to see anything. I am wholly opposed to censorship but I find it deeply disturbing that the children here seem so wholly inured to violence. Will they compare the unbelievable mauling Jesus receives in "The Passion of the Christ" with that given out by Leatherface? That is, of course, assuming that they would be in the least bit interested in watching a film about Jesus.
