When I was a kid, Batman was a TV show and one of his villains, The Joker, was played by actor Cesar Romero. He was a clown who loved to play jokes on people and who got into a little bit of mischief.

The Joker never really hurt anyone physically and he was always thwarted by Batman (Adam West) and Robin (Burt Ward).

The same was true for The Penquin (Burgess Meredith), The Riddler (played by impressionist Frank Gorshin and later by John Astin), The Catwoman (played by Julie Newmar, Lee Meriweather and Eartha Kitt), Professor William McElroy (Victor Buono), King Tut (Victor Buono), Dr. Art Schive/Mr. Freeze (played by George Sanders, Otto Preminger and Eli Wallach), The Mad Hatter (David Wayne), Egghead (voiced by Vincent Price), Marsha – Queen of Diamonds (Carolyn Jones), Shame (Cliff Robertson), Olga – Queen of the Cossacks, and Louie the Lilac (Milton Berle).

So, two years ago, they make a movie called Joker. It is the supposed back story of how Batman’s arch enemy turned to a life of crime.

But in this movie, Joker, played by Joaquin Phoenix, is an insane criminal who kills his own mother and goes on TV and assassinates a late-night talk show host (Robert De Niro) on live TV.

The movie has laughter – but it is always painful. Batman is not even mentioned (but young Bruce Wayne makes a brief appearance).

This is a purely evil story that has no redeeming message. In fact, at the end, the murderous Joker is uplifted by rampaging mobs in the streets of Gotham City as a liberating hero and enemy of law and order.

Don’t go see this movie.

I only mention it because every year in October, TV networks and cable channels feel compelled to play the most evil and sinister movies they can find. So Joker is on TV this month for impressionable children to watch and emulate.

These is nothing good that comes from watching these kinds of movies.

Most are violent. There’s an old saying, “Garbage in, garbage out.” If children and impressionable adults see violence gratuitously depicted on TV, that is just one more step toward them accepting it in real life.

Halloween films like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, the Halloween series, A Nightmare on Elm Street and the Saw series portray torture, horror and death in a way that should be disturbing to any normal person.

Why fill your head with these images of violence?

Modern movie making, including computer generated imaging, makes these movies extremely graphic. In the good old days, John Wayne might shoot someone in a western but you didn’t see much or any blood. Now, horror movies show graphic images of people being blown apart.

It is really difficult to erase those images from your mind once you’re exposed. Movies shown in theaters are really bad about this and it’s even worse on some cable channels. Broadcast channels are showing much more violence, too.

Just as bad are movies that expound on and glorify the occult. The nation was stunned by The Exorcist and its depiction of an evil spirit in 1973. But that movie is tame in comparison to The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity, The Shining, Hellraiser, Ouija: Origen of Evil, The Conjuring, Poltergeist, The Devil’s Candy, Demon and Shaun of the Dead.

Even the titles of these horror films show that they are not edifying and not fit for viewing, especially for children.

Comedic horror films may provide the greatest traps because you laugh nervously. Films like Zombieland, Ghostbusters, Scream, You’re Next, Tremors, Fright Night, Mars Attacks and others can be funny but watching them takes you to a level of acceptance for bizarre behavior.

The result is that American culture is inundated with violent, occult and anti-Christian media. And that is accelerating. It is really bad around Halloween and it is targeted toward children and young people. It is pervasive in TV, movies, video games and elsewhere.

Movie makers understand that you can make a cheap horror movie and if it scares people, it will make money. They really don’t care about the damage it does to people.

Democrats want to register and then confiscate guns in America. They blame guns for the violence that is erupting in our cities and throughout our culture. The problem is not the guns – it’s the cavalier attitude toward violence and the occult in the media.  Had Joker been released 50 years ago, it would have been banned in theaters and especially on television. The only copies would have been in adult book stores.

There is hope. There has been a rise in the number of well-made films with distinctive Christian themes. Hollywood is discovering that feel-good movies with decent themes also sell tickets.

And that’s what we should go see and show our children.