Starring in a Horror Movie leaves Kids Scarred

A common trend among teenager, and adults alike is to watch horror flicks and see who's got the "most guts"! The truth however, is those starring in the film are the bravest as they have to physically face the situations in the movie that leave the audience gripping their chairs in anticipation of the next scene, emotions balancing between scared and curious.

But, if the cast may be slightly weak hearted, they could actually associate the scene and the sets and basically scare the hell out of themselves. This is rarely the case with adults, but what about children?

Most horror movies and psychological thrillers have children set as either those who are haunted or those who haunt. This is a really convenient set up for the director and producer- Children can easily act scared, or really be scared, and their realistic expressions captured on the camera exaggerate the power of the opposing 'evil force'.

Not to mention, in some stories, the fact that it's the helpless children who are being targeted by the 'evil force' make the story line more cold-hearted, implying the power of the 'evil' to be indiscrete in selecting victims.

And in other scripts, it's the children, generally believed to be 'innocent' who are either 'possessed' or somehow develop inherent evil, and go on a unemotional heartless spree.

But the children who act in these scenes- are they mature enough to decide that these scenes they are filming are not true? For the general population of kids, horror films usually cause psychological effects like anxiety, fears, obsession and nightmares. Most of them tend to avoid similiar situations in their own lives, as they associate the stimulus of fear with that situation. For example, if a child watches a scene depicting, say a 'monster' coming out of a pit in a forest, the child will generally associate any pit in a forest, with a 'monster'. So, it is perfectly understandable, that the child will prefer to avoid pits in forests.

But for the children who act in these films, they have to face the scene physically, i.e. be present in the scene along with the other character that they have to run away from. So, they do not really have avoidance as an option. They cannot run away from the scene as it is part of their job contract. Some of them face harsher psychological problems, and in severe cases, it gets harder to get back to living a normal phobia-free life.

All the money earned from acting in such a movie goes to the child's parents, and is given to the child only when he/she has officially attained adulthood. Doesn't this make parents responsible for the side-effects of starring in such flicks? What kind of a parent would knowingly hurt their child, or make them endure pointless hardships?

And yet, there is a large amount of enthusiasm in parents, especially in our country, to have their children acting, inconsiderate of the genre of the movie.

What can be done to avoid scarring these children? Prohibition of the casting of children in horror movies is of course, a good prospect, but maybe too drastic a change for the film industry. If perhaps the scenes were to be designed taking the age and sensitivity of the child into consideration, it might prevent any future phobias. And for the flicks where children are centered as main characters, maybe advanced 3D animation techniques could be useful?

This is now a common trend in some countries, but not in India. But isn't it about time?