Should children be allowed to watch horror movies?

Children have a tough time telling the difference between fact and fiction. Some believe that letting a child watch horror films will keep them from being afraid of the dark or the boogey man. That is a crock of hooey. I have a friend that allowed her son to watch these movies. He was only 3 years old. He still has nightmares of Freddy Kruger and Chuckie. He is only 5 now.

I always monitored what my children watched when they were younger. I did not allow horror movies untill they were older. Life itself is scary enough. I dont think we need to add more monsters to thier young lives.

There are some movies that I will allow my son to watch, but he doesn't scare easily. The only reason I will let him watch them is because he will hide and watch them any ways when we thnk he is asleep. The first time he did this I was watcing the excorcist (sp?) He hid beside the couch and watched the whole movie, I didnt know until it was over and I started to go check on him and he was laying in the floor next to me, I talked to him about it and he said it didnt scare him, and he never had any nightmares or anything, He was only 2.5 yrs old at the time. He will be 5 in March and has only had 1 nightmare his whole life and it was about being left at home by himself after watching home alone with my brother. Go Figure, lol. But I still will not allow him to watch the really scary or gory stuff.

My mom loves horror movies and I wanted to watch them too so she let me. I loved it and have been watching them ever since. She told me they weren't real so it didn't bother me.

We dont let our kids watch horror movies, obvious reason is the scary images that they remember, and now these movies are very graphic and these can really mess a kid up if they are exposed to that.