I watched Alien for the first time with my son tonight. He’s fourteen. He’s been asking for a while but I’ve put it off because I thought it was too intense for him.
“It’s from 1979? Does it look like 1979?”
“Apart from a series of explosions at the end, not really. It’s just really good.”
The reason I thought it was too intense for him was because him mom recently showed him this “Criminal Minds” TV show and he couldn’t sleep at night. It terrified him. So I was leery. And I told him that.
“This is sci-fi. That’s different. I can handle that.”
“Because the TV show takes place in the real world? That’s the difference?”
“Yeah.”
We watched it on blu-ray and I walked him through it. He really liked it, but he did hide behind a pillow mulitiple times, and even watched a very scary part in the reflection of the frame of one of my movie posters. I’m not sure how that helps reduce the fear, but that’s how he modulated it.
“We can stop this anytime. I’m fine with that.”
“I’m okay. It scares me now, but it won’t scare me when I go to sleep.”
He’s sleeping soundly now. I’m just happy he bugged me to see it, knowing I would see if for this podcast, but not able to work out the timing because of reasons.
It was actually, now that I think about it, like watching The Hunt for Red October with him, which I did before the Hunter Killer podcast. I figured it’d be too slow for him, but we had fun. Me explaining submarine tech and cold war aspects. This movie was more about me explaining the ship and the company and assuaging his fears about Jonesy. It was also fun helping him get to know the characters.
“Okay…there’s Beard Man. Shaved Head Man, who is useless. That Skinny Guy. The Black Guy Who Is Very Aggressive–”
“That’s Yaphet Kotto. Careful. He’s in one of my favorite movies.”
“Okay. Also the guy from The Avengers. The Scared Woman. And Ripley.”
“Yep. Pretty much.”
-xtien
“I like griping.”