Reddit thread on what's happened to horror for kids

[froodle]

Let's have a discussion here. I'm new to this subreddit but have been a horror fan since the ripe age of 7 when my parents showed me John Carpenter's "Halloween". Horror is my genre of choice, and I have met many filmmakers that inspired me (John Carpenter, George Romero, Tom Savini, etc. the list goes on)

But let's go back to a time where EC Comics were in every boy's bedroom, or when Marvel was putting out things like Werewolf by Night and Tomb of Dracula, or even shows like Hilarious House of Frightenstein, Goosebumps (and the many duplicates), or even the animated Tales from the Cryptkeeper.

What happened to those? I feel that most kids aren't getting exposed to horror until much much later in life (late teens), and this lack of "scary" or gothic subject matter in their television programs is also affecting the decline in popularity of the holiday of halloween.

Kids (at least in my area) aren't getting dressed up as vampires, ghosts, witches, or demons.. But rather ninja turtles, princesses, and harry potter. Now obviously not every costume in the history of Halloween has been scary, but at least there was some variety. Now, horror is no longer making an impact, and most kids aren't even aware of "the rules" for most monsters, and I feel that has to do with the lack of exposure to them.

Kids know how to kill zombies (thanks to the Walking Dead), but if you ask "How do you kill a werewolf?" they have no clue. Or even "How do you kill a vampire?"

I'm not talking about making horror things cutesy for kids, I'm simply talking about exposure to the supernatural..

In conclusion I propose two questions :

Were you exposed to the genre as a child, and is that why you are a fan?

and How do we get horror back in the minds of young children?

1) Yep. My first book from the library was In a Dark, Dark Room quickly followed by the Scary Stories to Read in the Dark and I used to love Tales from the Cryptkeeper and my babysitter once accidentally let us watch Silent Night Deadly Night ; my folks were weird about entertainment. I could watch shit with blood and gore, but just no sexy stuff. That eliminates some of the "sexier" horrors with sex scenes but left a lot of gory and violent ones. Go figure.

2) Gotta have stuff for them to read or watch - they don't have shows like Are you Afraid of the Dark or Goosebumps or Eerie Indiana or any of that for kids anymore. Kids won't like what they don't know. The thing is, I'm not sure how profitable that shit is anymore so there's no reason for companies to invest or produce 'em. If they never make it, kids will never like em and then it becomes this stupid circle.