10 scariest kids in movies and TV

Despite his supposed innocence, children can create some surprisingly scary horror villains, popping up every now and then in movies and TV to scare audiences with chilling effectiveness. Some of the best horror films use children to enhance a larger threat as scary settings or to serve as antagonists. Whether they’re stealing the show with the protagonist being cast as a villain or simply existing to unnerve the protagonist (and by extension the audience), a child might be the best way to give the viewer goosebumps.

There are several reasons why children can work so well as scary characters. The innocent connotations that children have by default can become quite sinister when used in a distressing way, increasing the scares. The best child performances can also be shocking when taken to insidious ends, with viewers letting their guard down around a child actor only to be terrorized by them.

10

The Grady twins

The Shining

Few movie characters are famous enough to become a trope in their own right. Thanks to their ubiquity as a haunting image, the mysterious hand-in-hand twin ghosts produced by the Overlook Hotel in Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece The Shining have become an endlessly parodied and honored pop culture staple.

Interestingly, the twins do not appear in Stephen King’s original novelbeing one of the many changes The Shining makes to the book, much to King’s chagrin. Despite how much they stand out, the Grady twins don’t appear much in the film, being just one of the many frightening specters that the Overlook Hotel uses to torture its new caretakers.

An omnipresent portent of Jack’s psychosis, the twins are the last children to be murdered by their father thanks to mania induced by the evil location. From the way they move in uncanny coordination to their anachronistic outfits, the shocking sight of the Grady twins is one of the strangest events Danny has ever witnessed.

9

Damien Espinho

The omen

Much more than just a mere setting, Damien Thorn is the main antagonist of the original 1976 classic The omen and its 2006 remake. It quickly becomes clear that the orphaned boy is a special child, as his latest adoptive father discovers when death seems to grow in the boy’s wake.

When his true infernal parentage becomes clear, it is too late. Part of what makes Damien work as a central horror movie villain is his strong childlike performances.

Harvey Spencer Stephens is particularly scary in the original, conveying a kind of fiery malice that makes it terrifying in its own right, even before any supernatural implications come into play. His sinister smile at the end of the film is as chilling an image as any axe-wielding killer, driving home the lasting horror of the Antichrist made flesh.

8

Lonnie

Release

Returning to the subject of children who are more set pieces than central antagonists, Lonnie de Release fame is intimidating in a much more tangible and realistic way. The film follows a quartet of city-dwelling friends who embark on a canoe trip in the remote Georgia wilderness, only to be ambushed by depraved highlanders. While in town, the four meet a strange boy named Lonnie, whose intimidating look should have been the first clue that something was wrong.

Guaranteed, Lonnie’s famous musical duel with one of the vacationers is a wholesome moment that has become one of the most recognizable banjo pieces of all time, thanks to the film. However, Lonnie’s quick change of attitude, cold indifference and refusal to speak to the stranger beyond disturbed grunts of joy should have been the group’s cue to turn around. Lonnie’s child actor’s chilling performance is one of the many ways Release it remains today, even years later.

7

Isaac

Children of the Corn

Even though Isaac himself isn’t technically the driving force of evil Children of the Corn, his mischievous presence is easily one of the most memorable aspects of the film. Based on the novel by Stephen King, Children of the Corn centers on a couple traveling across the country who stumble upon the troubled town of Gatlin, Nebraska. They soon discover that the entire community has been taken over by a children-only cult, led by Isaac, who has murdered all of the town’s adults as sacrifices to the mysterious demon, “He Who Walks Behind the Ranks.”

Isaac’s wicked charisma as a cult leader is what makes him so intimidating, although his zealous cult of fanatics eventually turns against him. His blood-curdling screams of death amid the rows of corn are one of the film’s most memorable sequences, made all the more satisfying by his earlier intimidation. Isaac is representative of a very real evil use of the powers of persuasion – it’s unlikely we’ll ever encounter a pair of ghosts like the Grady twins, but an Isaac could haunt someone’s real life.

6

Toshio

Ju-On: The Grudge

Ju-On: The Grudge is full of intimidating ghosts, but Toshio’s twisted innocence has remained by far the most iconic image in the entire story. Grudge franchise. One of the original victims of the film’s generational curse, Toshio was cruelly murdered by his jealous father upon learning of his mother’s infidelity.

After dispatching his father, the spectral boy begins to haunt anyone who sets foot in his former residence, following them to their own graves. In any other context, Toshio’s adorable chubby cheeks and curious eyes would be absolutely cute.

Toshio is not a friendly boy, a fact he quickly proves to the curse’s next victims. Although he doesn’t kill himself, his appearance is a sign of certain death, as his vengeful mother Kayako is never far behind.

5

The boy

Nursery

Raising children is never an easy task, even more so when it is suddenly entrusted to someone who is not ready. All this and much more is compounded in Nursery, in which a young couple looking for a home becomes trapped in a small, never-ending suburb. Things are bad enough with the pair’s frayed relationship and sanity as they struggle to survive on the mysterious freeze-dried food left for them by their mysterious captors. Eventually, a seemingly human child is left on his doorstep, alongside a note – “Raise the child and be set free”.

The child, simply called “The Boy”, grows up to be anything but a normal child, demonstrating a strange indifference to his situation and growing to the size of a 10-year-old in less than 100 days.. If that wasn’t scary enough, The Boy also likes to unfailingly copy his “mother” and scream an unholy scream alongside inflating a disgusting neck sack. Even though he doesn’t remain a boy for long, The Boy is easily one of the most disturbing child villains in modern horror.

4

Anthony Fremont

The Twilight Zone

Movies by no means have a monopoly on the best takes on terrifying children. One of the best episodes of The Twilight Zone, The famous black and white horror series revolves around a powerful and horrible boy named Anthony Fremont. In Season 3, Episode 8, “It’s a good life“, viewers are taken to a small town where a petulant boy named Anthony has the entire community in a chokehold thanks to his special powers.

What makes Anthony so unnerving is the fact that he doesn’t behave all that differently from the spoiled, tantrum-prone child you might encounter at your average children’s birthday party. It’s easy to imagine that a powerful child would actually act like this if he were bestowed with Anthony’s god-like abilities, sold by the brilliant actor’s junior performance. Another horror element is the mystery behind the powers themselves, with the supposed “cornfield” that Anthony sends those who get on his bad side never actually shown.

3

Umbras

Us

Jordan Peele Us may be a little pale in comparison to his other two horror films, but at least he managed to get through some powerful scares. The film follows a family on vacation who is attacked by a horrific family of doppelgängers, with each of them having a twisted doppelganger.

Easily the scariest of them is Umbrae, teenage daughter Zora’s doppelganger. It says something that Lupita Nyong’o’s Addy lookalike Red calls Umbrae a “monster” when introducing her twisted family.

In the same way as its counterpart, Umbrae appears to have an affinity for racing, preferring to play with its food by chasing victims, giving them a generous advantage to keep things fair. From her inhuman flexibility and agility to her silent, haunting gaze, Umbrae makes a huge impression in the few scenes she takes part in, delivering one of the most enduring scares in history. Us.

2

Charlie

Hereditary

One of the scariest horror films of all time, it’s no surprise that Ari Aster’s masterpiece Hereditary features one of the scariest cinematic children of all time. Charlie at first appears to simply be a troubled child with an intellectual disability, struggling alongside the rest of the family after the death of his grandmother. However, something sinister appears to be lurking beneath the surface when Charlie severs a bird’s head with scissors, with ancient ancient secrets suggesting it may be something else entirely.

Charlie’s mannerisms and penchant for torturing animals are scary enough, not to mention his habit of making clicking sounds with his mouth. Whether she is actually present in a scene or not, Charlie has a domineering presence throughout the entire narrative for reasons that only become clear later. Rewatching the film armed with the knowledge of the horrific ending only makes Charlie’s behavior even scarier.

1

Regan

The Exorcist

Perhaps the original horror movie child, Regan de The Exorcist is one of the most mysterious horror movie characters of all time, let alone under a certain age. The classic possession story that influenced an entire subgenre revolves around Regan, a simple young woman who becomes the lodging of a ferocious demon. Possessing Regan’s body, the demon transforms her unassuming form into one of the most terrifying horror villains ever conceived.

Linda Blair’s performance in The Exorcist is nothing short of legendary, as she utters profanities from a hoarse, demonic voice, turning her decaying face like an owl. What really makes the character so scary are the hints of the trapped innocent girl fighting to be free, with the demon fighting off the exorcism efforts at the expense of Regan’s body. The wholesome content that Regan briefly saw at the beginning provides a sharp contrast to the chilling transformation, making it even scarier.