Spiderwick Chronicles

[hmerritt]

We saw it today and after reading reviews I expected a lot worse and left feeling it was much more mild. My DS is 9 and DD is 6 and she actually sat with a friend a few rows behind me. I expected her to come down scared at some point to sit with me, but she never did. My son was more scared seeing HP 3 than this. In the end, good wins and it was very cute, actually comical at times.

The theater was packed and I saw kids anywhere from 4 and up.

HTH,
heather

 

[Merriwind]

I love www.dove.org for movie reviews and recommend it here often. They like the movie, but did recommend it for older kids. (I find them to be a little conservative in those ratings.) What I love about Dove is that they rank on language, sex/nudity, violence, drugs and other and tell exactly what in the movie resulted in their ratings. (All little bit of a spoiler sometimes, but I like knowing what we're walking into.) DD10 isn't interested in the movie, so I can't add any personal experience.

Enjoy!!

 

[cjackearl]

I took my 10 year old daughter. Both of us read the books last year. Both of us thought it ranked not terribly high on the scare index. Most of the monsters look like giant toads. The story is pretty true to the books, including the divorce element. I liked the way that was handled, actually. I thought it acurately portrayed how different kids handle divorce, and it was the whole defining element in Jared's anger. Of course when the producers decided to condense 5 books into 1 movie they had to take some chronological licenses, so things aren't in order. I certainly don't think it deserves a PG-13, and I'm a pretty tough critic.

By the way, the child I took has in the past 2 months been traumatized into our bed by a scene with yellow spotted lizards in holes and seeing a short glimpse of Jurassic Park at a friends house, so she's definitely part of the sensitive to visual images camp. She hasn't had one nightmare or night time fear about Spiderwyck since we saw it. I didn't take my 8 year old and I don't really think under 8 or 9 should see it.

 

[deedeetoo]

My kids saw it today with a group of friends. My daughter is 9 and son is 7 and neither one liked it. This is the first time they have ever come home from a movie and just completely panned it. They both said it was very scary.

 

[DzCrewOf5]

We seen this movie last week. My ds 9 had no problem watching it. It got a bit too intense near the end for my dd 7. I have to say me and the other mom I went with both jumped a few times during the movie.

 

[Jen414]

I took DD5 and DD5 today. It was not our first choice, but silly me, I checked to see what was playing last night and of course when we got to the theatre today, The Chipmunks were gone. They'd seen the commercials for The Spiderwicks and said they'd see that. They weren't that scared. One girl did hide her face during the big fight scene when the "dad" turns back into the goblin, but other than that, they were fine. They have also seen most of the HP and love those, so I didn't think they'd be scared of this.

 

[crzy4my2]

My parents have my kids for school vacation week and DS6 went to see it and DD4 did not. my poor DS is afraid of everything but he really liked the movie.

 

[Wit]

We went to see this with our DD9 and DD10, they both LOVED it! Big HP fans, and any fantasy really. They weren't scared at all, although *I* did squeel and jump at a certain point. The whole theatre laughed.

 

[MDTerrapin]

We loved the movie! We read the books last summer and could not wait for the movie. My boys are 9 & 7 an had no problems with it. I think it depends on the individual child. My children love all the Harry Potter movies and are very good at separating fantasy VS reality. I have some friends whose children cannot handle Harry Potter and I have told them that this movie is not for them.

Karen