Theme: Evil Children

Evil Children is a self-explanatory topic. Horror cinema features a good number of these. The first evil child came with The Bad Seed (1956), a defining work featuring an eleven year-old Patty McCormack prepared to kill to get her way. The trope of the psychopathic and murderous child has regularly appeared on screen since.

The Exorcist (1973) gave us a possessed Linda Blair mouthing obscenities and taunting priests as they attempted to exorcise her. The Omen (1976) featured Gregory Peck who comes to the realisation that his son is the Devil’s son.

Elsewhere, Village of the Damned (1960) gave us coldly emotionless children with superior intellect and vast psychic powers as a result of alien impregnation. A less used trope was in Pet Semetary (1989) with the child who is raised from the dead and returns ‘changed’.