| Summary: | This thesis is a study of the children’s horror trend of the 1980s and 1990s focused on the transformation of the concepts of childhood and horror. Specifically, it discusses the segmentation of childhood to include the pre-teen demographic, which emerges as a distinct Millennial figure, and the ramifications of this social and cultural shift both on the horror genre and the entertainment industry more broadly, namely through the introduction of the deeply impactful PG-13 rating. The work thus adds to debates on children and horror, examining and questioning both sides: notions of suitability and protection of vulnerable audiences, as well as cultural definitions of the horror genre and the authority behind them. The thesis moreover challenges the reasons behind academic dismissal of these texts, pointing out their centrality to on-going discussions over childhood, particularly the pre-teen demographic, and suggesting a different approach to the PG-13 rating, its origin and its present-day status. Structured as a comprehensive outline of the children’s horror trend with special emphasis on its influential film cycle, the thesis explores the dissonances between definitions of horror in the children’s sphere and the adult’s sphere, and highlights the parallels between the children’s horror trend and Millennial childhood both in period (early 1980s-late 1990s) and progression (initial controversy over the boundaries of childhood, focus on transition and pre-adolescence, and decline), suggesting the children’s horror trend as a hub for period-specific struggles over childhood that were strongly associated with the emergence of the pre-teen as a new Millennial demographic. The thesis therefore brings to light an unjustly forgotten trend and contextualizes it to reveal a tremendous shift in American attitudes toward childhood, the horror genre and the film industry itself.
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