Just what is it that makes children in horror movies so unsettling? Maybe it’s because our most basic protective instincts are subverted, but also how those innocent little faces can hide dark and sinister secrets…? Children represent purity and hope for the future (in most cultures) and, when that innocence is corrupted or we see it to be an illusion, it creates a dissonance in our minds that’s deeply upsetting. We’re hardwired to protect kids, so if they are the threat, our basic assumptions about morality and safety get challenged.
In horror movies, children occupy a very unique space. They can be completely powerless, and also hugely threatening. When they’re the victims, we see in them our most basic, vulnerable self. But if they are threats, that perceived weakness is what makes them so unpredictable, and so much more threatening.
When we see kids in horror movies, often they act normal but just a little off. When this happens, something that’s so familiar feels changed on a fundamental level, setting off a deep uneasiness in us, making the scares that much more effective. So, with that in mind, let’s check out who I consider to be ten of the most terrifying children to ever grace the silver screen. Oh yes, SPOILERS AHEAD.
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10. Gage Creed – Pet Sematary (1989)
Miko Hughes plays the unfortunate Gage Creed in an ultimate perversion of parental love and the innocence of childhood. Gage is killed by a speeding truck outside the family home, and his father buries him in an ancient plot with the power of resurrection. Gage comes back, looking like the innocent child he was but with something else living inside him.
Director Mary Lambert worked carefully with Miko Hughes in creating a performance that balances that childlike behaviour tinged with otherworldly menace. The most disturbing scenes are with Gage’s twisted attempts at behaving like a normal child.
The horror of Gage Creed lies in memory and love being totally corrupted. He looks like the child, even acts like him at times, but something basic has been lost. Or replaced. He becomes a reminder of the permanence of death, and how dangerous trying to cheat it can be. As kindly old Jud Crandall says: “Sometimes dead is better.”
Where to watch Pet Semetary (1989):
9. Anne & Nicholas Stewart – The Others (2001)
Alakina Mann and James Bentley playing Anne and Nicholas channel a different kind of fear in Alejandro Amenábar’s gothic ghost story, The Others. These kids aren’t evil or monstrous. Instead, they’re victims of circumstances totally beyond their control, making what happens with them tragically frightening.
The period setting of the movie, along with the atmospheric cinematography, create a sense of dread that runs through the film. Amenábar Mann uses natural lighting and the bare minimum of special effects, creating a truly frightening atmosphere that doesn’t rely on jump scares.
The terror of the children is an existential one. They’re stuck between worlds, neither fully alive or fully dead. We can feel the displacement and loss they’re suffering, and that’s more haunting than any monster roaming the halls.
Where to watch The Others (2001):
8. Esther Coleman – Orphan (2009)
Maybe not technically a child, but Isabelle Fuhrman playing Esther Coleman really shocked audiences with this Orphan’s twist ending. Even before the revelation that 9-year-old Esther is really a 33-year-old woman masquerading as a child, her performance is an uncomfortable one to watch. This movie plays on anxieties around adoption, and the fear of bringing something unknown into your family.
Director Jaume Collet-Serra worked closely with Isabelle Fuhrman, and her performance walks that line between childlike innocence and subtle menace brilliantly. What makes the movie work so well is how it makes the audience think hard about their own judgements and perceptions about children.
The horror of Esther Coleman comes from her deception, and the revelation that appearances are not all they seem to be. Evil can, in fact, hide behind the most innocent masks. Watching this, we’re all forced to go up against our assumptions about childhood itself.
Where to watch Orphan (2009):
7. Samara Morgan – The Ring (2002)
Samara Morgan, played by Daveigh Chase in the Gore Verbinski remake of Ringu created a new terror icon. The image of a small girl, long black hair covering her pale face, crawling from a television screen to kill you became recognizable the world over.
Extensive prosthetic and contortionist work were used in order to create the unnatural movements of Samara. Daveigh Chase spent many hours in the makeup chair, along with practicing those creepy otherworldly movements that made her appear just so wrong.
Samara’s relentless and inescapable nature is what makes her so terrifying. There’s no negotiation or mercy with her. She just is. A force of nature, with a pursuit that is absolute and inevitable.
Where to watch The Ring (2002):
6. Carol Anne Freeling – Poltergeist (1982)
“They’re heeeere!” With these two words, Carol Anne Freeling, played by Heather O’Rourke, entered horror cinema Hall of Fame. She’s innocently connected to the supernatural forces that are tormenting her family, putting her in the unique position of being the main target, but also the key to the film’s resolution.
Director Tobe Hooper and producer Stephen Spielberg (although even now their actual roles are in dispute) created a movie that has family-friendly scares along with moments that remain genuinely horrifying. And setting the movie in a quiet suburban location makes the supernatural invasion just much more personal. We can see ourselves in the Freelings.
The terror of Carol Anne is an involuntary one. She’s a bridge between the two worlds. She’s not evil, but she’s a conduit for unknown forces that want to destroy her family, becoming a vulnerable victim and also unwitting accomplice.
Where to watch Poltergeist (1982):
5. Isaac, Malacahi, and the other title Children – Children of the Corn (1984)
Based on the short story by Stephen King, here we find not one, but an entire community of children who have risen up and slaughtered all the adults. Worshiping a strange being named “He Who Walks Behind the Rows,” the kids in Children of the Corn dig into the fears we have about mob mentality and religious extremism.
Set in rural Nebraska, there’s an isolated atmosphere where we realize that the normal rules no longer apply. Director Fritz Kiersch uses the enormous cornfields as a place to hide and as a maze, creating an inescapable and endless threat.
What makes these kids so terrifying is their total devotion to their cause. There are no demons possessing them, no forces controlling them. They’ve chosen the evil they’re engaged in. They’re fanatically dangerous and unpredictable. Ask for directions in their town at your peril.
Where to watch Children of the Corn (1984):
4. Danny Torrence – The Shining (1980)
Stephen King again, creating Danny Torrence, who isn’t evil himself, but played by Danny Lloyd in Stanley Kubrick’s psychological masterpiece, becomes trapped in supernatural horror. His psychic powers, his ‘shining,’ lets him see the darkness of the Overlook Hotel’s past and future, becoming the victim and the unwitting (yet still creepy) prophet of doom.
Danny Lloyd was famously protected by Stanley Kubrick from the more disturbing elements of The Shining, not realizing he was starring in a horror movie until years later. The famous “REDRUM” scene was shot with Lloyd just yelling it and unaware of the meaning. But the image of him standing over his sleeping mother, huge knife in hand has become seared into our brains.
We’re afraid of Danny’s power but also afraid for him. He’s helpless in his situation. He can see the horror coming but has neither the power nor the voice to stop it. Him trying to cope with the malevolence of the Overlook creates some of the most heartbreaking moments in the film.
Where to watch The Shining (1980):
3. ALL of the Midwich Children – Village of the Damned (1960)
Based on the novel The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham, this British sci-fi horror gives us maybe the most collectively frightening group of children ever put on screen. The glowing-eyed, platinum-haired children of the sleepy village of Midwich are telepathically powerful, and also totally devoid of empathy and human emotion.
Director Wolf Rilla creates an atmosphere of fear through the children’s strange uniformity, along with their cold and calculating nature. He used minimal special effects, but they were effective. The glowing eyes were made using a simple lighting trick but even after all this time, they remain unsettling.
The children are our fear of the “other” personified. They may look human, but they lack the essential qualities that make up humanity. Their shared consciousness, together with a superior intellect, means they aren’t just frightening, but also chilling on an evolutionary scale. Are they what comes next…?
Where to watch Village of the Damned (1960):
2. Damien Thorne – The Omen (1976)
Harvey Stephens is simply bone-chilling in his performance as Damien Thorne, the Antichrist masquerading as an innocent 6-year-old. He’s one of the most iconic evil children in cinema. Director Richard Donner said he cast Stephens after he attacked him in an audition, showing the necessary aggression needed for the role.
The production of the movie was plagued by strange incidents — planes hit by lightning, dogs attacking their trainers — which many attributed to supernatural influence. Which, of course, only added to The Omen’s mystique. The power of the movie lies in how restrained it is. Damien appears to act like a normal child most of the time, even though the audience knows the truth. So, when his moments of evil are revealed, it becomes all the more shocking.
Damien’s intelligence and calculating nature make him totally unnerving. He isn’t a possessed child, forced to act against his will. He’s the literal embodiment of evil in its purist form, wearing the face of an innocent 6-year-old boy as its disguise.
Where to watch The Omen (1976):
1. Regan MacNeil – The Exorcist (1973)
A masterpiece from William Friedkin, The Exorcist remains the gold standard for possessed children. Linda Blair plays Regan MacNeil, a 12-year-old possessed by the demon Pazuzu, and this film deeply shocked audiences, then and now, with its clear-eyed depiction of innocence being corrupted by supernatural influence.
The Exorcist’s production was notoriously hard, with Linda Blair putting up with torturous makeup sessions and performing many of her own stunts in a refrigerated bedroom set. The still-creepy head spinning scene used a mixture of a mechanical body double and the flexibility training of Blair. Mercedes Ruehl, strapped into a chair for added effect, gave us Pazuzu’s voice and an extreme contrast to the youthful voice of Blair.
What makes Regan, and The Exorcist, so terrifying isn’t just shocking imagery or jump scares. We watch a happy and loving child being slowly consumed by something ancient and cruel. Director Friedkin picks out every parent’s worst fear, and starts hammering on it: being unable to protect their child from forces beyond their understanding.
Where to watch The Exorcist (1973):
Who do YOU consider the most frightening children in horror films…?
I’ve shared ten very different “frightening children” horror movies, each of them drilling down into our deepest fears and to our protective instincts. The power in these films doesn’t just come from their ability to scare us, but also in how they explore our basic human fears about corruption, how fragile innocence really is, and the loss of control. Watching them, we remember that evil can wear any face, even an innocent child’s one, and that what we assume about morality and safety can be dangerously naïve.
These movies have secured their place in the history of horror by understanding that sometimes the scariest monsters are the ones we’re programmed to protect and love. When our protective instincts are corrupted, a primal and lasting fear is created. And it will haunt our nightmares for generations to come.
Which horror film children have scared YOU…?
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Editor’s Note: Surprised Adam Page didn’t include Rhoda Penmark, arguably horror cinema’s FIRST “scary child” on his list? Don’t worry. That evil sprout will be getting her day in the sun when Robert Tharp reviews The Bad Seed later this year, in his upcoming 70th anniversary tribute to 1956 horror films! Adam’s list showcases who he considers the 10 most frightening children (a subjective metric), not a complete list of every scary child-focused horror movie. (Leave us a comment if you want another list of creepy horror film kiddos!) -Lauren*
Images for this article were purchased via MovieStillsDB.
Regarding the “disputed roles” on POLTERGEIST, Hooper was most definitely the director according to essentially any cast member you can ask. The way in which this rumor was stretched out for four decades (and it did emerge almost immediately, *suspiciously* immediately, as soon as cameras started rolling) really goes to show the prejudices placed against Hooper, despite the fact even the most disparaging person you can find to talk about it never could deny that Hooper was directing at every moment. Spielberg’s presence being mentioned by these individuals is really just bad faith rendering of Hooper’s abilities, as anything Hooper could do and did was automatically dismissed by them – all while at least two principal actors have admitted that Spielberg was actually absent and an unseen presence in their eyes, not intruding in Hooper’s work.
So yes, the dispute exists even now, but the fact that it has been clung to for decades despite good evidence that Hooper was clearly directing at all points should tell us only that it is disputed for increasingly strained reasons alone.