Nice to know I wasn't the only one...

You are definitely not alone on this one...

I was 10 when I saw this movie and essentially the same thing happened. They showed his face on the TV news and I literally spent a month or two not being able to sleep. Everytime I closed my eyes I saw his horribly disfigured face. Even now the thought of seeing his face chills me to the bone.

I had been wanting to see the movie when it first aired which was when I was 14. And I remember my parents as well as friends of mine telling me how sad and upsetting it was. But I still wanted to watch it.

I finally did see the movie on tv in 1991. I couldn't believe what I was seeing in that movie,esepically whan David's maniac of a father was pouring the gas over his sleeping child. All though I was 17 I went running up the stairs in fear of what happened to that dear little boy. All I could do during the movie was cry, I esepically found it heart breaking during the part in the movie where the doctor showed him his reflecting in the mirror, and he said he looked like a monster. All I could think was no honey your not the monster......your dad is the monster.


Why would anyone esepically a parent hurt a innocent little child like that only to serve 6 years for the most unforgiving crime ever. Charles should have been left in Jail to rot for what he did.


Ever sence that night I couldn't and still can't get what happened to David out of my mind. That shouldn't have happened to him,he didn't deserve it.

Gday
I was an Infantry Soldier of about 19 or 20 when I rented this on video.
Didnt "scare me" as such but if I remember correctly its the first movie that as an adult I ever bawled my eyes over.
Only thought of it the other day and decided to look it up this morning.
I couldnt even remember the name of the movie but knew it was a single boys name.
I'm teary now actually.
I am going to say something that will possibly cause some controversy and I must first put into peoples minds that there is NO doubt in my mind that an awful crime was committed against a totally innocent child.
Saying that, I also feel for the father.
I am the father of 4 wonderful kids, one of whom is from a previous marriage and at first lived with his mother although I have had custody since he was 5.
I was very lucky as I had a lot of contact with him and had fairly good relations with his mother. At times though it wasnt so good and I was in a great deal of despair.
A great deal of despair.
Once again, I was very lucky. I had a fantastic sense of self worth and I also had a very good network of friends who supported me.
I STILL had moments of great despair and depression.
Even though I had relatively good relations with his mother, even though I had a lot of self confidence, even though I had a good support network of friends I still felt depressed at times.
I really feel for people who got through something like that and have no sense of self worth and/or a support network of friends and family.
Once again, I must stress that there is no doubt in my mind that a terrible crime was committed against an innocent child. All the more terrible because it was against a loved one.

aaron

Yes this is exactly what happened to me also....I was around 9 when I first seen it, and it was sad, but it really really freaked me out more than anything. The nightmares, not being able to sleep, or seeing him come out of my closet....I mean it got REALLY bad. It also made me develop a REAL fear of fire, and even firefighters. It took a long time to get over it, and for the longest time that was my number one fear. The REALLY ironic thing about it now, is I'm older and working as a career firefighter ! I've had two experiences with REALLY bad burn patients, both at the time of injury and well after the fact. It still is an uneasy feeling when using sight alone...I mean just looking at them. But, once they start talking, it all goes away because then you realize they are only human, just like anybody else.

I remember watching the movie when I was about 5 or 6 on TV and it had the same affect on me! That movie scared the living daylights out of me and for a long time I was scared of the dark and of burned people in general. The scene where the doctor removes his bandages and shows him how he looks has been seared into my memory, whoever did the makeup was a real pro because to me the way David looks in the film is more disturbing than anything in any cheap horror film. When I was in the 4th grade a burn victim from Mexico was placed in our class, she was still wearing the pressure mask and it just brought back memories of the movie and I pretty much tried to avoid her all through the school year. And then in high school the Texas government began a new drunk driving campaign and posted posters all around of a girl named Jacqui Saburido who was horribly burned when her car was struck by a drunk driver, in fact, she was burned worst than David, the memories came back and for a while I was afraid of dark corners again, imagine that sneaking up on you! What happened to these people was sad and horrible, and we should support people who have suffered these kinds of injuries, but they are literally scary as hell! I couldn't watch "David" again, even to this day, it would probably chill me to the bone!

I've been trying to figure out the name of this movie for so long and finally found it searching "father burns son". I, too, remember watching when it aired on TV, I must have been 4 at the time, and the news came on to talk about the coming tv movie. I vaguely remember from the newsbreak, David sitting in the courtroom footage with a baseball hat and a plaid shirt (eh, if that's not, eh, I was four). I clearly remember when the mom was looking over him in the hospital when he asked for the mirror, oh jeepers, that was horrible. Any idea if this is available on tape?

OMG...I saw this movie when I was 8 years old and it scared the HELL out of me! For a couple of days I had the jitters and it didn't stop until I told my parents what was wrong. I guess any young child would think, "Well, this boy's daddy burned him. Maybe my parents would try to burn me too."

Another movie came out not long after that about a doctor who was treating AIDS patients and it made me REALLY afraid of contracting the disease.

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