The 10 Creepiest Kids in Horror Movies

The horror movie genre really took off in the ‘30s, when monsters, vampires, and undead ghouls were putting a fright into audiences everywhere. After a while, though, seeing a dude in a werewolf suit or Frankenstein makeup just didn’t pack the same punch as it used to, so horror movie writers and directors turned to a surprising alternative for their villains: children.

The trend of making children the main villain in horror movies has been going on for decades now, even before color films became the norm. This direction allows movies to bring in evil from a very unlikely source, and it nearly always works. Where some movies depend on gaudy CGI and advanced makeup effects to create scares, more talented filmmakers know that creepy little kids are much more effective.

With Halloween right around the corner, we think you should take a closer look at those little ghouls and goblins who come to your house looking for candy. You never know which one could be schizophrenic, homicidal, or even the son of Satan himself. To prepare you for the onslaught of adolescent terror, we’re looking back at The 10 Creepiest Kids in Horror Movies.

Actor: John Franklin
Creepiest moment: Breaking Malachi’s neck while possessed by He Who Walks Behind The Rows

Over the years, Stephen King has ruined dogs, hotels, clowns, and proms for us, but it’s his portrayal of kids in Children of the Corn that is perhaps his most unsettling. The movie adaptation, much like the short story, deals with a demonic entity known as He Who Walks Behind The Rows that convinces the children of the small Nebraska village of Gatlin to ritually sacrifice any adults who come to the town to ensure the success of the corn harvest. The entity channels itself through the town’s leader, a young boy named Isaac Chroner.

With the soul of a slick Southern preacher, Isaac manipulates the children of the town to murder any adult unlucky enough to find themselves in Gatlin. Think of him as a pre-pubescent Billy Graham, but with a much goofier looking hat. Still, like most false prophets, Isaac has an entire community eating out of the palms of his hand, worshiping him and killing for him. Sometimes nothing is as frightening as religious ideology.

Actors: Various
Creepiest moment: Bludgeoning Candice’s grandmother to death with a hammer

If you think David Cronenberg puts out some twisted movies now, one of his first flicks, The Brood, makes his current filmography look like PBS fodder. The movie revolves around the clash between a man and his mentally ill wife, Nola, and a series of murders committed by a mysterious group of children.

As the movie progresses, we learn that these children are psychically linked to the Nola, who is their mother, and they set out to kill anyone who ticks her off. Throughout the film, the children kill indiscriminately like a pack of wolves. They don’t have personalities of their own; instead, they are a murderous hive mind bent to their twisted mother’s will.

Actress: Isabelle Fuhrman
Creepiest moment: Killing a nun with a hammer

We know that Esther isn’t technically a child — she’s actually an extremely violent 33-year-old woman who enjoys posing as a little girl and killing people — but for all intents and purposes, she’s basically a kid in Orphan. And right away we know something isn’t quite right with her. She displays knowledge that no kid should have and bad things always seem to follow her. But whenever anyone begins to suspect anything, Esther makes sure to take care of them in gruesome fashion.

Isabelle Fuhrman’s performance here is one of pure brutality. Her intense stare gets more of her character across than any dialogue ever could, and her actions are just as vicious as they are shocking. Though many of the kids on this list are terrifying, we wind up rooting for most of them in a way. That’s not true for Esther. She’s pure evil and her icy demise at the end of the movie is a welcome sight.

Actor: Daveigh Chase
Creepiest moment: Slithering out of a television set

You can't watch static on television without being reminded of a girl crawling out of it. You're still tempted to prank call your friends in a scratchy voice saying, "Seven days." And you still put your hair in front of your face and SnapChat your friends a photo. Why? Because Samara, the little girl in The Ring, about a cursed videotape that leads to the death of anyone who watches it, was that creepy. To this day, all you have to do to spooke someone is imitate the skinny raven-haired girl who looks like she hadn't gotten a dose of Vitamin D in months.

Actress: Heather O’Rourke
Creepiest moment: “They’re heeeeeeere.”

As the ghostly infestation that has taken over her house reaches its boiling point, Carol Anne is drawn to a flickering TV in her parents’ bedroom. She stares blankly at the set until the entire room begins to shake. The ghosts begin to escape from the TV and into the empty rooms and hallways of the house. As her parents look at her in disbelief, she simply turns to them, and with a blank expression says, “They’re here.”

She may have a smile that will melt your heart and supremely pinchable cheeks, but make no mistake about it, Carol Anne Freeling is as unsettling as they come. While she's not completely evil like many of the pre-pubescent terrors on this list, her creepiness shines through, thanks to just this one scene. It’s a performance that transcends Poltergeist itself and has become a classic moment of horror cinema.

Actor: Martin Stephens
Creepiest moment: Anything with those glowing white eyes

The creepy kids with the glowing eyes from Village of the Damned are yet another example of English children being inherently frightening, but it’s their leader, David, who stands out amongst his albino counterparts. Not only does he have the ability to read the minds of adults, he can also force them to act against their will, including commit bizarre acts of violence and suicide.

David’s brood is the stuff nightmares are made of. They’re cold, emotionless, and British, and they certainly don’t give a second thought to indiscriminately killing anyone who they think could pose a threat to them.

Actress: Patty McCormick
Creepiest moment: Murdering a classmate who beat her in a penmanship competition

Rhoda Penmark defined the creepy little white girl character that nearly every horror movie has been trying to replicate for decades. With her tightly-wound blonde pigtails and innocent smile, Rhoda is introduced to us in The Bad Seed as a typical little kid that bad ‘50s movies and sitcoms were built around. But after a classmate turns up dead, we slowly come to realize that underneath that Cindy Brady-esque veneer lies a stone cold sociopath with a trail of dead bodies to her credit.

In the end, Rhoda gets a good spanking and a bolt of lightning for all of the trouble she caused, but that’s not before she forever convinced a generation of moviegoers that wholesome white girls have nothing on their mind but jump-rope, hopscotch, and murder.

Actor: Danny Lloyd
Creepiest moment: “Redrum”

It’s a tall order to be the scariest actor in a movie that also stars Jack Nicholson, but Danny Lloyd’s schizophrenic performance as the young Danny Torrance in The Shining is just so unsettling that even big Jack is left in the dust. Ironically, Danny is pretty quiet throughout the entire movie; it’s only in quick flashes of madness do we see the depths of how disturbed he is.

Whether he’s speaking in tongues or having visions of the brutal murders that have taken place at the Overlook Hotel from years past, Danny’s psychological trauma is front and center for all of us to see. Kubrick, being the master that he was, utilized quick cuts and extreme close-ups to make Lloyd’s performance one that will be hard to purge from your memory.

Actor: Henry Spencer Stephens
Creepiest moment: Knocking his mother down a flight of stairs, causing her a miscarriage

Think the kids on this list have been evil so far? They’re nothing but von Trapp children compared to the son of Satan, Damien Thorn. Death follows this little scamp around like a puppy at all times, driving the people around him completely mad. In The Omen, Damien is protected by his devilish black dog and nanny, who is actually a demon in disguise, as he secretly uses his influence to get rid of anyone who can pose a threat to him.

The most amazing thing about Damien’s character is that Henry Spencer Stephens never needed to flex his acting muscles in order to get under our skin. With a simple smirk or dead state, Stephens brought terrifying life to Damien in a subtle, yet startling way. This unholy menace is the blueprint by which all creepy kids have been measured since. Sure we’ve seen some murderers and maladjusted troublemakers on this list, but not many kids can stand toe-to-toe with the antichrist himself.

Actress: Linda Blair
Creepiest moment: Fornicating with a crucifix

Forget the Trojan Man, we think the real mascot for contraceptives should just be the image of Linda Blair’s backwards head from The Exorcist spewing vile green liquids all over your hopes and dreams. Director William Friedkin’s unsettling masterpiece gives us plenty to fear, but chief among the horror is a sweet little girl named Regan McNeil, who is possessed and transformed in a pint-sized demon from hell.

Conventional horror troupes may be overly-reliant on creepy kids who are unnaturally pale and monotone, but MacNeil’s cackling brand of horror is more reminiscent of an over-the-top cartoon villain. Between the projectile vomiting, head twisting, and some good-old-fashioned crucifix masturbation, McNeil has become seared into the pop culture landscape as the most traumatizing movie character still eligible to order off the kid’s menu at IHOP.