As a youngster, I found a lot of the PT 1970 goings-on not only "WHAT?!!!!"-inducing, but queasily uncomfortable, confusing and definitely TV-M 14 moments. Examples:
[spoiler]The whole demise-of-Will Loomis sequence---- wherein PT Angelique reminds him of how she teased 'n' pleased the married-but-unhappy author, tormented him about Barnabas, and for all intents and purposes badgered him out the tower window. I wondered then why he didn't just shove her out of his way and scram out the door, but it seemed like the scene was written as though the character WANTED, for many reasons, to be made to feel guilty and worthy of punishment---- pretty complex concept for a 13-yr-old to grasp.
The implied rape and/or physical abuse of Buffy by Yaeger / Longworth, not to mention his mistreatment and murder of Maggie and Sabrina respectively. Even though many aspects of the sexually-threatening Yager were ripped from "Jekyl and Hyde" (and the previous film versions, one of which was pretty racy for 1930s) they knew young kids were still watching, so they couldn't show much--- therein lies the ambiguous "did he or didn't he?" But the aftermath (including Barnabas's own victimization of the victim) sure left a sour taste and more confusion for the innocent 1970 adolescent mind that was once mine. Though now I sometimes think, both Longworth AND his alter-ego were impotent and only capable of expressing themselves by sexually-tinged violence.
The whole sequence of horrible murders that left only 3 or 4 members of the PT Collins family standing. Geesh, no amount of grief counselling's going to help the survivors "move on" and find "closure" from all THAT trauma![/spoiler]
And guess what? Even after viewing those scenes for the first time as an adult, 20 years after the first time I saw them, I STILL felt creeped and corrupted because much of the nastiness was only thematically supernatural in nature--- it was more an intense reflection of the ugliness some experience in real life. Which, ironically, interpreting these unpleasant human aspects in terms of vampires, witches, ghosts, etc. is supposed to sublimate or explain or leaven in some way.[/b]