Is my child ready for scary movie "The Woman in Black"?

I so wish at this moment that I could find the blog I wrote three or four years ago with tips from a local family counselor on determining when your child is ready for scary movies.

I remember part of it went something like, you know what they can handle. Yes, but I want don't want to accidentally push too much and find my child having nightmares, feeling anxiety or crawling into my bed. Don't want to scar them. I also like having room in my bed to toss and turn, and maybe elbow my husband a time or two.

So now I search for web articles, seeking help with my decision. Nothing I've come across has been much help. At least I found the original list of 10 kid friendly Halloween movies that a former colleague and I did for azcentral.com. Sadly, mine have graduated from these flicks.

Now my daughter, 11 going on 16, really WANTS to see "The Woman in Black." I know it's totally because Harry Potter himself - that is, Daniel Radcliffe - is in it. And this is one of the movies that I didn't get to pre-screen for this blog. Ugh!

The rating is PG-13 for thematic material and violence/disturbing images. But just how violent and disturbing? I thought she'd be disturbed by images in "Super 8" - another PG-13 movie. And she laughed when I thought she'd think it was too intense. Yet, she's really not seen anything that would be considered horror or a ghost story. About the most intense movie I recall her seeing is "Beetlejuice," and seriously, that's funnier than scary. Maybe it's a little creepy for the under 10 crowd. She didn't think anything of it when we first saw this a few years ago. She laughed.

Maybe I'm being too much of a Mama Bear. Maybe I should just let her watch and then talk about what we just saw. What makes a movie scary? Why do we sometimes like feeling scared? Do camera angles and music influence how you feel? My daughter is game, claiming she won't climb into my bed or have nightmares. Like anyone can really promise that. I still get a little scared when watching creepy movies.

Maybe I should first try out another scary movie at home, like "Poltergeist." I remember seeing that one around her age. And I was scared. If she does well, we go.

Or maybe I should just see it first to make myself feel better.