Have no fear, little one: It’s only 14 of horror’s most miserable little children
Childhood can be a nightmare; just ask the poor young souls trapped in a horror movie
Film Features M. Night Shyamalan
Screenshot: YouTube
There’s nothing scarier than childhood. Look no further than the movies (or your very own memory palace) for proof. With the upcoming release of Abigail and the recent child-adjacent scares from The First Omen and Imaginary, horror movies aren’t taking a break from ruining a few childhoods. It’s easy to see why. By weaponizing society’s most vulnerable, movies like Night Of The Living Dead and The Brood can prey upon audiences’ expectations, challenge their sympathies, and make the dreary world on screen that much colder.
That worldview comes across in horror’s most miserable little children. Just like How Regan’s possession unlocked a Pandora’s Box of parental fears, these pint-sized terrors aren’t just perpetrators but victims too. Even if they survive the movie, their life is pretty much ruined. Well, except for Damien. Let’s have a look back at some of horror’s most miserable children, what makes their lives so horrible, and the pain they bring their poor parents.
23 Comments
The son of a powerful ambassador, Damien ascends, throughout the series, all the way to his father’s former post. Wow, Run the Series! Nice blast from the past.https://www.avclub.com/film/features/run-the-series
That’s just distracted me from work for quite some time. Gateways to Geekery was another brilliant segment from the good old days.
Any of the Poltergeist kids could be on this list, but obviously Carol Anne had it the worst so I’ll go with her (plus she’s the youngest).I understand not having more King kids on this list since you could build an entire inventory around him. Firestarter, Carrie, Christine (yes he’s a teen but clearly has been bullied much of his life), Stand by Me / The Body…
The hereditary girl was a sweetie.
The character that I liked in that movie was the telephone pole.
I mean what little girl doesn’t love dead birds, right?
This list needs more Sadako (or Samara if you’re partial to the American film)
Samuel from Babadook is the best example to show people who NOT to have kids. Holy fuck that kid.
That movie was so effective at portraying the bone-weariness of being a parent when your kid just won’t let you rest, then asks you to imagine stretching that experience out for years. No wonder the mom lost her mind.
yeah it was something to watch. You totally felt for the mom and understood her slowly losing it.
No love for Danny “isn’t here, Mrs. Torrance” Torrance?
That’s because it inhabited the soul of Charles Lee RayNope, try again.
The movie starts with him murdering his sister and her boyfriend while they’re having sexIf you think those two are having sex after he’s left the house, you’re doing it wrong pal.
Yea the boyfriend leaves and Mikey only kills the sister. I think he kills both in the ridiculous remake.
It’s funny, too, how quickly the two finish. There’s only about a minute and twenty seconds between the time when Michael is watching them through the downstairs window and they leave the sofa where they were making out and head upstairs (ostensibly to fuck) and when the boyfriend comes back downstairs and leaves.
I mean, they were high schoolers, right?
List needs more creepy British kids.
David Dorfman from the 2013 Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake was a shoo-in for this list!!
And also The Ring, obvs, but I loved him best in TCM. You should see where he is today!!
Along with the other obvious omissions others have mentioned, I’d add the creepy murderous moppets from David Cronenberg’s The Brood. Scared the hell out of me when I was a kid.
I’ll take all the rest over this kid. Jesus.
Spoiler alert for a film that is over 50 years old, but the “girl” in the red coat in “Don’t Look Now” is a freaky old dwarf woman… so not actually a “kid”
What about Devil Times Five? Those kids were *nuts*