Why do so many people, especially teenagers, like the scariest horror movies? What happened to wholesome family movies? What happened to actors and characters like Fred MacMurray, Mary Poppins, Lassie, and the good guy being cool? When did Fred become Freddy (from the “Nightmare on Elm Street” movies)? Or for that matter, what happened to Fred Flintstone and Wilma?

Yes, times have changed, but this is one of those areas that I resist and don’t understand.  A good scary movie is one thing, but movies that exist simply to portray the most creative, vile, and gut-wrenching torture of another human being is beyond the pale to me. Even “Psycho,” the classic Alfred Hitchcock film, was able to scare without showing anything!  And, in black and white. All you saw in the infamous shower scene was a knife, blood in the bathtub, and you heard screams, all done to that incredible Bernard Herrmann musical score.