11 Movies We Watched As Kids That We Truly Had *No* Business Watching
One person remembers telling her parents The Craft was about friendship.
The ‘80s and ‘90s felt like a bit of a lawless land for parents. Not only were we allowed to ride our bikes wherever we wanted and drink tiny plastic jugs of sugar water and call it “juice,” we were also pretty much given free rein on what we watched. We were told to sit back from the TV lest we ruin our eyes, but it’s rare to find a kid who grew up in the ‘80s or ‘90s who didn’t watch something incredibly inappropriate — either with their parents or on their own.
Sure, some movies were a bit more obvious to parents that we couldn’t watch (Showgirls rings a bell for a lot of my friends), but chances are, everybody got to watch whatever they wanted as a kid. And sometimes that meant we watched a movie that we truly had no business watching. From horror movies to dystopian films with traumatic scenes to movies way too focused on sex, plenty of us had our tiny minds scarred — and enlightened a little, let’s be honest — by movies we truly shouldn’t have seen.
Whether you caught a film at your best friend’s sleepover (again, no parent supervising the movie choices there) or grabbed a Blockbuster case off the shelf one Friday night and just handed it to your parent, you undoubtedly have that one film that really seared itself into your brain. We all do.
And our parents had no idea.
Jaws
“Why on earth my parents not only let me watch Jaws, but called me into the living room to watch it with them, I’ll never know. I think maybe they thought they were showing me some important piece of cinema, but I was 7, and I did not go into any body of water except for a pool until I was 18.” — Brittney W., 40
Cruel Intentions
“My parents and I were huge Buffy fans, so when Cruel Intentions came out, they didn’t think twice about letting me rent it. I mean, what harm could Sarah Michelle Gellar do? Oh my God, so much harm apparently. I think I was about 13, so not super young, but that was not the movie I should’ve got at Blockbuster that weekend.” — Hannah J., 39
RoboCop
“When RoboCop came out, I was 7 years old. I was really into robots and science fiction, and I think my parents just thought I would love it. They took me to the movies to see it, and I ran out during the face-melting scene. Scarred me for life.” — Alex F., 45
Alien
“I covered my eyes for 80% of Alien, and still my parents never thought to tell me to leave the room. I was 5. And then we went to Disney World and one of the rides had an Alien scene in it — it was that old movie ride they used to have — and I screamed bloody murder as soon as I saw it. Traumatized forever.” — Valerie A., 38
Full Metal Jacket
“I wanted to stay up past bedtime one night, and the rule was that if I came out to the living room after bedtime, I couldn’t play or read or draw or do anything I wanted to do — I had to do what my parents were doing. And that night, I was 8, and my parents were watching Full Metal Jacket. I sat right in between them on the couch, delighted to feel like a grown-up, and then I quickly realized this was a mistake. But I didn’t want to go to bed, so I just sat there and watched the whole thing. I don’t even think my parents noticed that I was in actual shock from the movie.” — Stephanie J., 40
The Craft
“I really wanted to watch Scream and felt like the only kid who hadn’t seen it yet, but my parents were firm. (As a parent now, I agree with them. I was only 10.) So I bargained with them to let me rent The Craft instead. I told them it was all about witches and friendship (I thought it was!), and I think they were just glad I wasn’t begging for Scream anymore. To this day, The Craft still freaks me out, and the end scene with Fairuza Balk thrashing around on the bed is so creepy.” — Rachel F., 40
Rocky
“I was 6 the first time I watched Rocky, and I just think maybe it was a little too much for my tiny brain. Incredible movie, and not really ‘bad,’ but I really don’t know why my parents let me watch it.” — Natalie C., 45
The Last of the Mohicans
“I watched this with my mom when I was 9 years old, and I don’t remember one moment during the film where she acted like maybe it wasn’t a good idea. Not only was it incredibly violent and sad, but I just don’t think I needed to watch a movie with my mom where she so obviously had the hots for the characters. I blush just thinking about how into Daniel Day-Lewis she was after this.” — Hayley R., 42
American Pie
“This was like the most popular movie at the time, and I asked my mom if we could rent it one weekend. I don’t think she even looked at the case, just waved me off and said yes. I was 11 and truly had no business watching this kind of raunchy movie. It really did mess with my perceptions of sex for a bit there.” — Jennifer P., 37
Girl, Interrupted
“I do really think Girl, Interrupted is an important movie for anyone to watch, but I think 10-year-old me should’ve waited a bit. I think my parents just saw the word ‘girl’ and Winona Ryder and assumed it was OK, but oh man. Angelina Jolie’s character was terrifying to me.” — Maggie R., 36
The Sixth Sense
“I begged my parents to let me watch The Sixth Sense. I was in fourth grade, and it was all anyone at school was talking about. If you were around when this movie came out, kid or adult, you know that everyone kept saying ‘I see dead people’ constantly. So I told my parents I wanted to watch it, and I even knew the twist ending with Bruce Willis. I guess they assumed that was the only ‘dead person’ the kid saw, and I was not prepared for all the creepy ghosts and jump scares throughout the movie. I still don’t like leaning down and looking under a bed for fear I’ll see Mischa Barton playing that poisoned ghost girl.” — Sarah T., 35
