... either you like them or you don't. I think I know which camps my kids fall into. Yup, another split decision.

The other night, after watching a discussion on the TWBB about 80s movies, I decided I needed to watch 'The Lost Boys'. It's such the excellent film - a little dose of absurdity, a little dose of scary... and DH put the movie in with the kids still in the room.

They settled in to watch; I settled in to stitch while watching. In retrospect, I probably should have settled on the floor with them. DH, by the way, loves this movie but could leave most scary movies on the video store shelf - or, rather, I should say in the NetFlix queue since we never go to video stores anymore - he's not a scary movie aficionado.

I, however, am. I love a good scary movie. I was so happy to see 'Nosferatu' on Turner Classic Movies the other night, but it was playing too late into the night for me to watch all of it. Classic vampire movie - the one that started it all. I watch cheap horror too - Nightmare on Elm Street was one of my favorites. I've not watched a good scary movie in a while, though, so 'Lost Boys' filled a little pocket of need that I didn't know I had.

My mom radar went up about halfway through the movie - B was not happy, and was snuggling close to DH. She was scared, but not overly so. We told her it was just a movie and all pretend and that seemed to calm her.

The movie ended, with that fantastic ending it had (the big battle scenes) and A immediately wanted to see it again. She LOVED it. I know who my scary movie buddy is gonna be when she gets a little older. B had a blanket pulled all the way to her chin and was curled up. She needed protecting. It *was* a violent ending, but we've always been careful with the movies that we've watched with the kids and been clear that what we watch is all pretend.

I'm not advocating watching movies with violence with your children. We just temper what they watch with a warning, and don't watch movies with them that have violence for the sake of violence - it has to have a purpose as part of the story - such as the 'Lord of the Rings' movies. You couldn't have done those without the battle scenes. It wasn't violent just to be violent, but was important as part of the overall quest.

Ah, but I digress....

B was scared. We explained about movie makeup and special contact lenses, and camera effects and how things are lighted a certain way so as to make something look more scary than it is. And that sometimes people find it fun to be scared by a scary movie - I do. She understood, and then got off to bed, where she stared at the partly open closet a little longer than usual.

So I repeated my favorite statements about our house being a 'monster-free facility' and that only Sullivan and Mike (from 'Monsters, Inc') and Mr. Bumpy and Squishington (from 'Bump in the Night') were the only monsters allowed in the house - and that they're good monsters to boot. DH explained the importance of not inviting a vampire into a house and that someday she will have to read a book called 'Dracula' and learn the important rules about vampires.

A didn't help at that moment by saying that all vampires were welcome in the house, and then immediately rescinding that offer. That meant a few more minutes of reassuring B that the house was safe. Within a few minutes, however, they were both blissfully asleep. I didn't get any reports of bad dreams, no one woke me up when I finally made it to bed myself, so I suspect all was well in their dreams even though they saw a scary movie.

There were scarier parts, however, in 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban', but that's neither here nor there. We're discussing 'The Lost Boys'. I suspect if anyone had a dream about vampires, it was probably A, and she's the so-called brave one who wants to watch all manners of scary things...

... but I bet B wants to watch that movie again with a week.