Today J. J. Abrams unleashes his long teased "Super 8" on the nation and the internet will be aflutter with praise, hate and general malaise towards the well meaning producer. From the commercials we know little more than the facts that there is a monster and a group of kids that are hell bent on dealing with it. That alone gives promises of classics such as "The Goonies" and "Explorers" and I say, that's not a bad thing at all!

For years filmmakers have based movies, especially horror and science fiction movies, around kids. This gives a movie some extra tension and when done right, adds an air of grand adventure to the festivities! When the stars of your movie are approaching a dire situation with child-like wonder, how can you help but go right along with that sense of excitement?

Join me today as we regain our child-like enthusiasm with a list of youth filled flicks...

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Monster Squad

When you're talking about a horror film based around kids, if "The Monster Squad" is not the first movie that comes to mind, I question your status as a horror fan! This movie is the epitome of 'kids adventure' second only to "The Goonies". In fact, this one may get a leg up since Wolf Man does in fact, got nards.

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The Gate

Stephen Dorff has kept his taste for b-grade horror and we can appreciate that. He wasn't this star of this flick though. Metal head Terry Chandler was the nerd hero we all identified with in this flick. Thank Satan for demon worshiping metal bands or this would have been an entirely different movie!

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Something Wicked This Way Comes

I say Disney and the first thing that comes to mind is saccharine kids flick that destroys key moments in world history! (I went too personal there, didn't I.) Back in the 80's, the house of mouse had a dark side to them which gave birth to the delightfully evil Jonathan Pryce and the nail biting adventure of Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade!

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Watcher in the Woods

You think "Something Wicked" may have been a fluke of Disney darkness? "Watcher in the Woods" and it's ghosts and cults scared the koolaid out of the six year old Casey! Mix in a ghostly Bette Davis and you could pretty much count on me standing over your bedside whispering "mom, I can't sleep, there's an old lady in my closet!"

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Troll 2

It's the movie so bad, it's cool to love twenty years later! With the advent of "Best Worst Movie" and the recent trend of worshiping this flick, what more is there to say?

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Child's Play

Looking back on this twenty three years later (Note: Holy crap, this is twenty three years old?!?!) the idea of Brad Douriff running around stabbing people as a plastic doll sounds pretty silly. Despite Andy being a bit of a whiney little snot, it still turned out to be an endearing aside to 80's slashers.

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Monster House

CGI animation is synonymous with kiddie fare and Pixar these days, so when "Monster House" turned out to be fun and creepy and very very dark, it was a great surprise! It being 3D before 3D was a marketing ploy to charge more money for tickets worked well in this haunted house flick too!

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Critters

Back in the day, there were two opposing factions; you either liked "Critters" or you liked "Ghoulies". Many a playground war was waged as nerds faced off to fight over which diminutive monster flick was the greatest! Not really. "Critters" took on the alien story line though and made their little guys one of the biggest threats in the universe. When the intergalactic bounty hunters showed up to fight off this terror with a some kids, it was just goofy enough to be enjoyable.

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The Lost Boys

Before somebody decided to capitalize on the franchise with a pile worthless sequels, "The Lost Boys" reigned for decades as a bastion of 80's cool. The Frog Brothers remained fondly in our memories as comic book fueled badasses and Corey Haim was a slick teen that we all secretly wished to be as cool as. Except for that Rob Lowe poster in his closet.

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Invaders From Mars

A remake of a 50's low budget scifi B-movie is easy to forget. This Tobe Hooper version honestly isn't that much better. The wonder and fear of Hunter Carson watching a space ship crash out his bedroom window is a great moment though.

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