I have mentioned before that I like a good scary movie once in a while. No, I am not referring to those "gore fests" that are for people who actually enjoy death and mayhem; I am speaking, rather, about those stories where someone is in a scary situation (supernatural, science fiction, etc.) and has to work to overcome it. Of late, there has been a clear increase in the number of "scary movies" that portray children as the "bad guy" in them (either because they are possessed, or insane or otherwise). If we go back just 30 years, there were almost no children even seen in scary movies, and now there are children who are the main antagonists; something has changed.
Aside from the fact of what is happening to the souls of the children involved in the filming of these movies, there is clearly something wrong with this. What is it that Hollywood is saying in doing this? Unless it is a "Freudian slip" and is expressing the fact that those who are making these movies think their own children are evil, I cannot figure out what the motivation is. It is true that our entertainment is often a reflection of what is going on in society, and sometimes it is even a encouragement from the movie-makers about what they want to have going on in society (like with the push for the normalizing of sodomy back in the 80's and 90's).
So then, what conclusions can we take from this? At the very least it appears that we are seeing stories that show us that parenting has failed. Parents are supposed to teach their children to be good (which all would agree with regardless of their definition of what is "good"). This is not a blame game, but the numbers of people with children who are "out of control" while in the home, who have lost their faith after moving out, or who have left the Church and become protestants is staggering! The parenting techniques used by the vast majority of people (including Catholics) today (which can be summarized as a basic refusal to discipline) has failed; miserably. Something went wrong, and we are now reaping the consequences of it.
Hollywood's surge of movies about "evil children" could very well be an attempt to shove the blame somewhere else. There was a comedian back in the 60's who used the excuse "the devil made me do it" and made people laugh with it. Today, it seems that we can take from these movies that people are wanting to say "the devil made THEM do it" (i.e. their kids). It comes across as "don't blame me for my kids behavior". As a parent, I know that I have made mistakes; I know that I have not always done what was the absolute best for my children, and have not always made the best decisions in every instance. The only hope for success that parents have is the grace of God (no matter how good they are at parenting). Parents fail, and that is why they need to trust our Lord Jesus to help them in their task. Blaming someone or something else never helps to make things better (unless all you care about is your own feelings).
Coupled with this "evil children" surge in movies is another surge which is clearly related to it. If we have degenerated so much that we see it as acceptable for children (who used to be considered innocent and pure) to be the main "bad guy" in our entertainment, then we can just take the next step and have no good guys at all. How many movies are there that are just stories about one bad guy fighting against another bad guy (you may be surprised at how common this is)? How many movies have the police portrayed as the antagonists in the story? How anyone can watch an entire movie or series where everyone is evil, with no movement toward the good and holy, is amazing. Some stories will have a few "good guys" but they are just insignificant background characters (as I have heard about the series called "Game of Thrones"). It takes an incredibly calloused heart for someone to be comfortable with watching stories devoid of what is "true, good and beautiful".
The only way that we can get this far down the scale of moral compromise is if we step away from the godly norm of what family is supposed to be. One of the purposes of the Catholic family is to raise children in a safe environment and train them in how to deal with the world. In other words, teaching them the difference between "good guys and bad guys". Yet, if we are teaching them through entertainment that it is OK for us to cheer for the bad guys, and that children can become the source of evil, then we are not properly training them. Are we surprised in a culture like this that we have children wanting to kill other children at school?
For many in the world today, commitment to family has dwindled down to almost nothing. Many children actually desire to move far away from their parents and relatives (usually for a bigger paycheck or some kind of self-fulfillment!). Fewer and fewer people care about the importance of family, and even fewer understand what a family actually is. Godly family order is becoming a rarity, and it appears that most people do not really care about that either, because they openly express that they do not have a desire to restore it. The family, ordered and disciplined according to the word of God, must be restored. It must be something that we are willing to fight for.
How much are you willing to do to reject the world (and especially its immoral entertainment) so that your family can be faithful? Fathers, are you ready to sacrifice your own desires for the sake of your wives and children? It is what every dad is called to. The Church has, unfortunately, not done a great job of supporting families in recent years, but the means of doing so are firmly planted in our Traditions (cf. the encyclicals, Casti Connubii, Humanae Vitae, Evangelium Vitae, and especially Familiaris Consortio). Parents, have you read them? Do you know what truths they contain? Get copies now; you can download them off the web freely and easily. Know them, learn them, and teach them to your children. This is who we are as Catholics.
