At what age would you introduce a child to "Stranger Things" and similar horror movies/shows?

I watched horror movies with my kids from an early age (before age 8) and always talked to them a lot about the films in terms of special effects, whether or not the special effects were believable, whether or not the movies succeeded in being scary, which parts were scary and why, etc. The kids understood that the point of the movies was to be scary and that being scared by a movie is fun, so they watched the movies as movies and judged them by their scariness and believability. A friend of mine recently was surprised that my 9 year old watched The Babadook and loved it, because it's the kind of film that you might think would terrify a child, but my kid actually found the child-focused storyline especially interesting and relatable.

So, at least in my experience, if you watch from an analytical standpoint and talk about the film, and the kids understand that the point of the movie is that it's trying to scare them (and they're into that), then kids will be totally enthusiastic about the fear factor and not be freaked out by it. I have three kids and they have all loved horror movies from an early age.

/r/horror Thread