My Plug for SCREEN-IT.COM

When I was about 15 years old I went to the movies on a Sunday afternoon with my best friend Robin. There we sat, feet up on the chairs in front of us, shoveling popcorn in our mouths, whispering to each other and laughing as girlfriends do, when suddenly upon the screen came images of a woman being raped. It was violent, and graphic, and I was frozen to my seat, my brain assaulted by the vision of several men taking their turn with a helpless, crying, naked woman. I was pretty naïve in those days, and could never have imagined such a thing. I left that theater changed.

A couple of years later, my friend Gary took me to see The Exorcist. I know a little more these days about spiritual matters then I did back then. I was a young Catholic girl, no relationship with Jesus, no knowledge of the fact that there really is a devil but we are victorious by way of the cross. I knew NOTHING. I became so utterly freaked out watching that movie, I spent the majority of it hiding under Gary’s coat, shivering and crying at even the sounds I was hearing. For weeks I could not get the images out of my head. I couldn’t sleep, and I was walking in fear.

I know that rape and demonic influences are real. There are a lot of things in this world that are real and ugly, but I may not want the visual images of them lingering in my brain, popping up to have their effect on me at will. I also do not want to be on a movie date with my husband, and be forced to sit through giant screen images of naked women parading across the screen. Not really my idea of a good time. And how about my kids going to the movies? I can’t go see everything that comes out in order to screen it for them.

But I do like to go to the movies. And some movies are good and not wrought with troublesome images. So what’s a girl to do?

Enter SCREEN-IT.COM This is my plug for a FREE online service that gives you the option of deciding before you go to the movie if this is something you want to subject yourself to. This site doesn’t just decide for you what is okay and what isn’t. It actually describes the movie to you, categorizing the potentially offensive scenes and language, and lets you decide, which I like because what is objectionable to me may not be to you, and vice versa. I can figure it out for myself instead of relying on someone else’s opinion.

Here is an example of a review for The Village in the ‘Frightening Scenes’ category:

· We hear that there are creatures in the woods that the villagers refer to as "those of who we don't speak."

· We see a teen standing on a stump at the edge of the woods to which his back is turned (at night). It's a test of his bravery (other boys watch him), but when eerie sounds come from the woods, all of them run back into the village.

· We hear more creepy sounds coming from the woods.

· Lucius cautiously enters the woods in the daylight, but then retreats back to the clearing when he hears sounds (including beastly ones) and sees a fleeting image of something moving in the woods.

Other categories include: Profanity, Drug/Alcohol Abuse, Sex/Nudity, and Imitative Behavior.

The last time my daughter Emily went to the movies with her friends she checked out SCREEN-IT on her own before giving the okay to her friends. I like that.

So there’s my plug. Have a great weekend…maybe take in a movie. But don’t take in more than you bargained for.

J.

P.S. To access this site FREE go to the 'No Thanks' button. You are declining membership which gives you more features...you can see the movie reviews without being a member.