Children Beware!

<p> How does a culture respond when the limits of childhood become uncertain? The emergence of pre-adolescence in the 1980s which is signified by the new PG-13 rating for film disrupted the established boundaries between childhood and adulthood. The concept of pre-adolescence affected not only America's pillar ideals of family and childhood innocence but also the very foundation of the horror genre's identity its association with maturity and exclusivity.</p><p> Cultural disputes over the limits of childhood and horror were explicitly articulated in the children's horror trend (1980-1997) a cluster of child-oriented horror titles in film and other media which included <I>Gremlins The Gate</I> the <I>Goosebumps</I> series and others. As the first serious analysis of the children's horror trend with a focus on the significance of ratings this book provides a complete chart of its development while presenting it as a document of American culture's adaptation to pre-adolescence. Each important children's horror title corresponds to a key moment of ideological negotiation cultural power struggles and industrial compromise.</p>