Re-Living the Scare Films of the 60's

Some of our readers may be old enough to remember the "scare" documentary movies from the 1950's and 1960's. Black and white short films about drug use or sexually-transmitted disease, such as "Reefer Madness" and "SexMadness" were the archetypal exploitation films of the era, which were intended to scare the public (in particular, children, as they were shown in school classrooms).

This generation has our own exploitation "scare" tactics in the name of online sex offender registries and the apparent threats parents are made to believe that on every street there is a "predator" who wants to have sex with their child.

But perhaps it is useful for us to learn from our history. As such, we can understand that the social pendulum swings back-and-forth on social panic topics. In the 1990's it was drunk driving. Today it is sex offenders. But back in the 1950's and 60's they had their own social panic about sex offenders and child molesting. We strongly urge you to watch the two films below "Boys Beware (1961)" and "The Child Molester (1964)". There is much to learn from watching them.