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This week, the Bumbles have changed it up a little for us. They have asked us to close our eyes and reflect back to that fragile moment in our lives when we lost a little of our innocence...when we saw our first rated R movie. Chances are pretty good we weren't "legal", and we knew we were getting away with something a little naughty.
I usually have very vivid memories of my youth. In fact, I can remember conversations I had in first grade with my friends, but often not what I had for breakfast. So I'm a little vexed that this important moment in my life doesn't readily come to mind. In general, my childhood was heavy on the slasher films and light on the sex films...I bet my sister, cousins and I saw Friday the 13th and Halloween a couple dozen times on VHS throughout high school. With a little research on dates, here are my best guesses:
Saturday Night Fever (1977)
I distinctly remember going to see this movie with a group of friends in the Attica (Indiana, not the prison) theater. Attica showed movies that had been released for awhile, like a dollar theater, so it is possible that we saw it in '78, which would have made me 12ish. Julie Reynolds' mom took us, and as we were walking up to buy our tickets, she made a comment under her breath that she hoped the black underwear on John Travolta wouldn't freak us out. I almost wet myself right there on the spot. Did my mom know I was seeing this? I have to imagine she did, but then again, who knows?
The Shining (1980)
I think this was the first scary movie I ever saw...this one came out the same year as Friday the 13th, so I don't know for sure. What was memorable about seeing this movie was that my dad took me, of his own free will. (My sister got to see a Disney movie with my mom.) We'd both seen the trailer, and I'd read the book at this point, so we were pretty excited to see it. Frankly, the book was pretty terrifying, so I was well-prepped for the crazy dead lady, the murdered twins and blood coming out of the elevator. After my initiation with this film, it was an all-out barrage of Friday the 13th/Halloween/Nightmare on Elm Street movies and their inane sequels. I saw them all.
If anyone from my childhood remembers something different, please let me know. So what rated R movie memories do you have?
I usually have very vivid memories of my youth. In fact, I can remember conversations I had in first grade with my friends, but often not what I had for breakfast. So I'm a little vexed that this important moment in my life doesn't readily come to mind. In general, my childhood was heavy on the slasher films and light on the sex films...I bet my sister, cousins and I saw Friday the 13th and Halloween a couple dozen times on VHS throughout high school. With a little research on dates, here are my best guesses:
Saturday Night Fever (1977)
I distinctly remember going to see this movie with a group of friends in the Attica (Indiana, not the prison) theater. Attica showed movies that had been released for awhile, like a dollar theater, so it is possible that we saw it in '78, which would have made me 12ish. Julie Reynolds' mom took us, and as we were walking up to buy our tickets, she made a comment under her breath that she hoped the black underwear on John Travolta wouldn't freak us out. I almost wet myself right there on the spot. Did my mom know I was seeing this? I have to imagine she did, but then again, who knows?
The Shining (1980)
I think this was the first scary movie I ever saw...this one came out the same year as Friday the 13th, so I don't know for sure. What was memorable about seeing this movie was that my dad took me, of his own free will. (My sister got to see a Disney movie with my mom.) We'd both seen the trailer, and I'd read the book at this point, so we were pretty excited to see it. Frankly, the book was pretty terrifying, so I was well-prepped for the crazy dead lady, the murdered twins and blood coming out of the elevator. After my initiation with this film, it was an all-out barrage of Friday the 13th/Halloween/Nightmare on Elm Street movies and their inane sequels. I saw them all.
If anyone from my childhood remembers something different, please let me know. So what rated R movie memories do you have?
8 comments:
Too funny. They didn't have movie ratings when I was young. I think they came into existence when I was a junior or senior in high school. I was carded when I went to see a Clint Eastwood movie with friends. Maybe Dirty Harry.
Coming Home with Jane Fonda. My mother took me, which is just so wrong on so many levels. My father would not allow us to see Jane Fonda movies, but my mother loved her. So she had to sneak us all into a matinee rather than hire a sitter Dad would find out about. There's a scene towards the end that no 13-year-old should ever see with his mother. ick!
Oddly I don't think I saw The Shining until I was in high school which was many years after it came out. The violent slasher flicks never tormented my fear nerve as much as the psychological ones that Steven King created. I still don't like to watch that movie by myself.
I swear I cannot remember my first R movie. I guess it wasn't that notable, eh? I seem to have super vague memories of my sister (12 years older than me) writing some sort of note so I could go see Stripes, I think.
It came out in 1981 so that would have made me 13. But I don't really remember being shocked at the movie and I was very naive. I think it all went over my head, if I'm even remembering correctly.
I did see The Shining much later than Stripes, maybe at 18 or 21, and I remember being super, super freaked out when the kid was in that labyrinth in the snow and he had to walk backwards to retrace his footsteps so he could escape from Jack Nicholson.
This is a very interesting post. I cannot remember for sure, but my first r rated flick was probably The Exorcist. I went to a bunch of my chums...and some of us had to block our eyes!
When I was really young in the 60's my dad and I would watch late night horror movies: Frankenstein etc. (no ratings back then), but I do have fond memories of that!
When all of my girlfriends turned 17 we decided to go to a Rated-R movie to celebrate. We chose some horrible zombie flick. I think we were the only girls in the theater! It was hilarious. To this day we still talk about that and of course try to assign blame to someone for choosing that film :)
But my favorite horror film in high school was Nightmare on Elm Street.
This is a great topic, but a difficult one. My father loved movies and we watched whatever he wanted to watch, regardless of ratings. So, it's hard to pinpoint the first R rated movie I saw. I do remember feeling sneaky about seeing a couple of movies at a slumber party once--my first real slasher horror movie and sex related movie. The Basket Case and Private School.
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