The Earthling traumatized me as a kid. I don't know how this can be called a "family film". My friend Ryan and I have talked about this movie's effects, he having been just as disturbed by it as I was. Little Ricky Schroeder is vacationing with his folks in the Australian outback, when out of nowhere they are killed!! I'm not giving anything away here, I've read other reviews mentioning this Plot Point. They both go flying over a cliff in the family camper, crashing hundreds of feet below to their death as little Schroeder watches helplessly!! How messed up is that? I don't think I ever saw a horror film when I was little that upset me as much as this "family film" did!! Couldn't he just have been separated from his parents, and learned to survive on his own until he reunited with them at the end? That would have been a truly uplifting movie with a happy ending. But no. We get little Ricky meeting dying old William Holden, whose idea of compassion is, "Your parents are dead, kid, and that's the hard truth!!" My God, are you kidding me? This is hands down the most morbid, downbeat film I have ever seen in my life. I had to watch Willy Wonka about ten times afterwards just to quell this film's negative effects!! Trust me, avoid The Earthling at all costs.