What in th'name of all that's holy is a parent doing showing a young child something like the Exorcist (I guess?), anyway? I'm not saying shelter the children or stupid shit like that, but major horror/violence flicks probably isn't the best of things to inflict on a young'un.
Penguin wasn't talking about The Exorcist. Some Catholics (and a few Protestants) still practice real exorcism on children they think are possessed by demons. It's fucked up.
Nothing about real exorcisms. The movie in question was
The Exorcism of Emily Rose, at least for two of the three people I asked.
Note that these kids were 12-14 when this happened. Still having nightmares like eight-year-olds who watched something they shouldn't have. Except these were teenagers whose parents were fine with their children watching it, and encouraged their fear.
I believe the abuse in question was showing scary films and saying they were real. Which probably isn't child abuse, unless you can prove some serious mental trauma and not just nightmares. I mean, parents tell ghost stories and such all the time to young kids and say they were real.
I mean, this might just be me, but I feel like kids get a lot more scared by movies than they do by things like scary stories. At least I did. I think it's the visual factor. I mean, the scariest part of those scary story books was the super creepy art in them.
And a big part of getting over scary stories and stuff when you're younger is when your parents tell you that it's not real and everything is fine. I can't imagine what I'd have done if I was watching a scary movie and my parent told me that it was real. It's a tremendous abuse of the trust your children put in you.
It's different from something like saying a scary story is still real, because after your kid freaks out for a while you're probably going to tell them they were just kidding. But these kids were scared for weeks, and all the while their parents reassured them that yes, demons really possess people. Stuff like this really happens.
I guess there's not any permanent trauma besides them still being terrified of exorcism movies despite realizing that exorcisms are bull, but it's still just really fucked up and I really don't think any parent who would do crap like that deserves to raise children.