If your life was a movie...

[fistor!@#]

I know it's not your kid.

Also, I probably would share your same stance if I were younger and didn't have kids. But the minds of children are extremely impressionable. They are sponges to everything around them. I feel it's important to try to fill their environments with as much positive stuff as possible. An R rated horror flick would not be on that list. In fact, I think that's pretty damn irresponsible, to expose a 5 year old to a movie like that.

And nightmares really can screw up a kid. Not permanently, of course, but they can really mess with a kid's mind. They're not equipped to handle the same stimuli an adult can. I can still remember some of the nightmares I had when I was that age, can't you? They profoundly affect children and really shouldn't be treated lightly.

to answer your question, yes i do remember some of those nightmares. that says something all by itself. i also remember feeling pretty stupid that it ever bothered me a couple years later. i always thought that was part of growing up.
i still think the only thing you can really say in general is that it depends on a bunch of factors if the kid can handle it.
in this particular case, i happen to have a lot of confidence in this mom, and i'm sure if it bothered her daughter at all to watch this movie, even though the little one really dug it, she would have gotten rid of it immediately. that's the last i'll say about it here. if you'd like to keep discussing, i'll send you a pm or something.

Fair enough. I think we've stated each other's positions on this satisfactorily.